Adrienne Reiko Iwanaga

Adrienne Reiko Iwanaga is a teacher, performer, preserver, and cultural ambassador of Bon Odori, a centuries old Japanese folk dance rooted in the Buddhist tradition of communal gathering to honor and celebrate the memory of ancestors. Iwanaga’s dedication to community outreach, education and inclusivity, as well as her innovative, accessible, and joyous choreography have helped to revitalize and increase participation in this spirited communal art form both within and outside the Japanese American community.

Iwanaga was born in San Jose, California, in 1938. At age four, while incarcerated with her family at the Granada Relocation Center (Amache) in Colorado, Iwanaga was introduced to odori, classical Japanese dance. After WWII ended, she continued her studies and, in 1965, underwent a rigorous testing process in Japan to be certified as a natori dance master, earning the professional dance name Hanayagi Reimichi.

While continuing her training in classical odori, Iwanaga became involved with Bon Odori folk dancing through the San Jose Buddhist Church Betsuin. By coincidence, Iwanaga’s future father-in-law, Reverend Yoshio Iwanaga, a first-generation Japanese immigrant, had been responsible for introducing Bon Odori dancing to West coast Japanese American communities in the early 1930s.

In 1998, Iwanaga became the San Jose Buddhist Church’s head Bon Odori teacher. Driven to further her father-in-law’s legacy and inspired by the universal appeal of joyous dancing, Iwanaga began choreographing new dances that, though still historically relevant, were fun, simple to learn, and appealed to all ages. Remembering her experience of incarceration and excited by a changing multicultural population, Iwanaga envisioned using Bon Odori as an inclusive art and began making efforts to reach new communities, cultures, and people outside of the Japanese American population. Today, more than 2,500 dancers of all demographics annually participate in the San Jose Buddhist Church’s Obon Festival, considered the largest such celebration in the United States.

Iwanaga’s work perpetuating Bon Odori expands beyond Obon festivals. She lectures, runs workshops, and leads demonstrations through partnerships with educational, community, and cultural organizations including the University of California, Rotary Club, elementary and Japanese cultural schools, and the Buddhist Churches of America. Additionally, Iwanaga co-founded the American Bon Consortium to ensure that the history of Bon Odori is documented and perpetuated, while moving forward into new expressions.

In 2016, Iwanaga was inducted into the Hokka Nichi Bei Kai (Japanese American Association of Northern California) Cultural Hall of Fame, which honors those who have strengthened the Japanese American community by preserving and sharing Japanese cultural practices. Other honors include Saratoga Citizen of the Year, San Jose Japanese American Citizens League Award, and congressional commendations. In addition, Iwanaga has created commemorative choreography to celebrate the San Jose Buddhist Church Betsuin’s 100th anniversary and San Jose Taiko’s 50th anniversary.

Iwanaga remains committed to furthering her family’s legacy while continuing to evolve American Obon Odori, ensuring that it remains relevant, approachable, and fun for a contemporary audience.

Podcasts

Adrienne Reiko Iwanaga

Bon Odori dancer, teacher, and choreographer Adrienne Reiko Iwanaga talks with host John Floridis about the Japanese folk dance tradition that brings communities together to remember and honor their ancestors.

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Transcript

John Floridis: Welcome.

This podcast is part of a series highlighting the 2025 National Endowment for the Arts Heritage
Fellows, recipients of the nation's highest honor in folk and traditional arts.

I'm John Floridis.

For this podcast, we're going to visit with teacher, performer, preserver, and cultural ambassador
of Obon Odori, Adrienne Reiko Iwanaga.

Obon Odori is a centuries old Japanese folk dance rooted in the Buddhist traditions of communal
gathering to honor and celebrate the memory of ancestors. Perhaps the best summation of the spirit
and the intent of the dance is “Because of y ou I am.”

Reiko was born in San Jose, California in 1938. When she was 4 y ears old, Reiko and her family were incarcerated in a relocation center in Colorado. It was there that she began her lessons in Odori Dance, which is derived from perhaps the more well-known dance form of Kabuki.

Several y ears later, the family made the transition away from the center and back into mainstream American society, and Reiko continued her studies in dance, culminating with intense training and certification, in Notori dance, a more formal art form.

In the subsequent y ears, Reiko has continued to be an influential performer and educator of Odori in America, earning many honors, including induction in the Japanese American Association of Northern California Cultural Hall of Fame, which honors those who have strengthened the Japanese American community by preserving and sharing Japanese cultural practices.

Here's my conversation with Reiko Iwanaga.

Reiko, welcome. Let's just dive in and talk about Obon Odori.

Adrienne Reiko Iwanaga: Yes.

John Floridis: I know just a little bit about the background, but I know that listeners want to hear that from you directly.

Adrienne Reiko Iwanaga: Okay, well, Obon is a very important holiday in Japan.

Everyone goes home to their families, uh, to, uh, take care of the, uh, I'm going back to what Japan does, take care of the, um, grave sites and such and gather together and remembrance.

Along with that, there's a dance component that is, uh, again, um, it's related to a Buddhist tale, but at the same time, it's kind of dancing in joy and gratitude and in memory of those that passed on.

My, as it turns out, my late father-in-law came to Hawaii from Japan, and was a charismatic leader and dancer, and so they invited him to come to the United States, at that time, you know, Hawaii wasn't, uh, to teach Obon and dancing.

Japanese communities were isolated. Many times, and so he would travel all up and down, all the way up to Canada, apparently, and and teach dancing, children's dances, obon dances. And so he is credited with being the 1st to bring the tradition of Obon dancing to the United States.

And so, at the, I mean, I was independently, afterwards, certainly taking Japanese classical dance lessons, but how nice that it became a family connection when I married uh, my husband. Um, and so that was, I'm not explaining it fully, but it is an American tradition now where many temples and even communities will have, uh, a series of simple dances with the community coming out in dancing with
the main structure always still being dancing in gratitude and joy for those who passed on.

John Floridis: One quick question is, yes, what time is there a specific time of year…?

Adrienne Reiko Iwanaga: July, August

John Floridis: Okay.

Adrienne Reiko Iwanaga: August is the month, but, um, the festival kind of runs through July and August. And especially in California and in the United States. There are so many temples that every weekend, there's animal festival going on.

Uh, San Jose, where I'm from, my hometown, is unique in that we may have, and we probably have the largest of one dance festival. Uh, we have 1600 dancers and so clearly it is a community event, not danced just by Buddhists or Japanese Americans.

John Floridis: Reiko, you mentioned uh, classical Japanese dance.

Adrienne Reiko Iwanaga: Yes.

John Floridis: I wondered if you could make the distinction between that and and Obon Odori?

Adrienne Reiko Iwanaga: Right. Um, Certainly, you don't need classical dance, training to be in a bone dancer or, definitely, in Obon dancer. Everyone, it's, Everyone should dance and not necessarily have to be for a teacher too. It helps in that having the classical training when you, when you're choreographing a dance and such, you kind of knew the, you know, the basic arm movements that you should use, and then possibly, even the steps or the transitions, how best to do the transitions.

These are all folk dances in that they're very simple steps and they're repeated, so, uh, but at the same time, it probably helps to have some kind of dance training, maybe not necessarily Japanese. Uh, although that helps so that you can choreograph properly so that it's easy for everyone to dance.

John Floridis: Does that make sense?

Adrienne Reiko Iwanaga: Yes, yes, yes, it does.

John Floridis: Now, the derivation of all this goes back over 600 years. I'm a bit unclear on just how this all
started to begin with, though. Can y ou can y ou help me with that?

Adrienne Reiko Iwanaga: The tradition is that a disciple of the Buddha noticed that his mother was in some sort of hell, and by giving service, she was released from that hell and he danced in joy as a fable or whatever. I'm not sure.

Um, and in Japan, I noticed, depending upon the community, um, we were once in a small town, and they danced one number all night, you know, and then in the larger cities, then it's more of a production with a lot of dancing going on.

Here in the United States it's the same thing in that we, Most places dance quite a number of dances, and we formalize it to the point where we have practices for those who wish to come. It's not necessary to practice, but for those who wish to come.

We have practices maybe 2 or 3 weeks before the events, but clearly, especially as in San Jose, where it's so crowded many just step in that day.

John Floridis: Now, I wanted to get to how this came into your life. I know you started this journey with Bon Odori at a very y oung age in a way that was very much a part of that time in the United States. I want to make sure I'm respectful and honor the difficulty, y ou know, of what Japanese Americans went through during that time. So I say, I ask the question with, with, um, interest and intrigue, but also with respect to the dignity of, of what Japanese Americans had to go through at that time. But I know that y ou have talked about this before and being a part and being y our family being in a relocation center. All the more powerful, making your story all the more powerful, if I may say so.

Adrienne Reiko Iwanaga: Oh, thank you. No, I appreciate that very much. Yes, we were incarcerated. I was 4 years old. The strange thing is that they allowed us to practice traditional arts of many kinds. Um, my mother had always taken dance lessons, appreciated it, uh, started me when I was 4 years old. And just by the strange methods of where people were sent, we were in Colorado, where there were people from Los Angeles. And there was a very well known teacher there, very strict one, and I started with her.

And the one thing I remember and realized after I started to help teach later, is that we danced regular adult dances, even when I was four and five. We weren't talking cute little cherry blossom dances and things that are often done. I, the few things I remember is that uh, we used um, army trucks, the open-ended trucks, and they would take us to various blocks to entertain in the different areas in our camp.

Uh, the other thing is that, Although I was four, I could walk by myself to the lessons because it was perfectly safe.

And the 3rd thing is that we did have costumes and wigs, but then they had to be improvised so that as a child, I remember having paper stuffed into these adult wigs so that we could wear them.

And then also, there was a time when my mother ordered fabric that looked Japanese so that she could make a kimono for me.

So people learned to improvise, um, the first generation Isse, who are artists, would draw the backdrops on these rudimentary stages.

John Floridis: Wow, there's so many questions I could delve into.

Adrienne Reiko Iwanaga: Right, right, you know. But then, yes, and that is where I started my dance lessons. And actually, I even performed in a few plays.

And, and, you know, I love theater, and even after camp, they would, in San Jose, they would put on Kabuki plays, and I would play children's roles, primarily because I could memorize, um, not necessarily speak, but I could memorize the dialogue.

John Floridis: Can I ask about what that transition was like for y ou and y our family to acclimate, if you will, into mainstream America after that period at the relocation center? And then taking what you had learned as a child and then bringing that art into y our world outside of that space? Is that a fair question?

Adrienne Reiko Iwanaga: Yes, it is. Definitely, each family had hardships in some way of adapting again, finding employment, housing, um, everyone was given $25 to leave. Uh, in our case, uh, my father had a job at the Broadmoor Hotel. And so we stayed in Denver, where I continued my dance lessons.

So our transition was to stay there for a few years, and then eventually moved back to California, and then certainly harder for my parents, but then by then we were, um, everyone was settled, and so I could start taking lessons again with other teachers.

So, and then, At that time, the dance teacher in my town came from Sacramento, but was the head dance teacher for the Obon Odori Festival. And so because we were students, we were on the stage as assistant teachers from a very young age. And then gradually, at one point, then I, as I became an adult and such, then I, Eventually became the head teacher.

John Floridis: And then am I correct…It was in 1965 that you, you went through a rigorous testing process in Japan to be certified as a, is a Natori dancer?

Adrienne Reiko Iwanaga: Yes, yeah.

John Floridis: Talk about that a little bit.

Adrienne Reiko Iwanaga: To get a teacher's name, yes.

John Floridis: Yes, and I would ask you about that as well. Yeah.

Adrienne Reiko Iwanaga: Uh, and it is, yeah, you're in Japan and you follow these requirements of learning particular dances and performing and following through on various things and then to get your, um, name from the school that you're uh, with.

John Floridis: Now, when you say get y our name, is that a performance name?

Adrienne Reiko Iwanaga: Yes, yes, it’s a professional dance name.

John Floridis: Okay.

Adrienne Reiko Iwanaga: And the first name is the name of the school, which was for me, Hanayagi.
And then oftentimes the second name incorporates your own name. And so mine is Ray Michi. Yes.

John Floridis: And so that was the name that you would use when you were performing in that in that….

Adrienne Reiko Iwanaga: Capacity…

John Floridis: Okay. So then when y ou go back to the Obon Odori, then y ou would be able to use your...

Adrienne Reiko Iwanaga: I could use that name and it often is. Yeah, it doesn't matter. It's a title that I have, and I could use it or not use it.

John Floridis: Yeah. Okay.

Adrienne Reiko Iwanaga: But you don't need that to be Obon dance teacher. I mean, certainly, they have Obon dances in New York and near Washington, DC, et cetera,various places, and sometimes it's just something that, uh, someone who's been dancing for a long time can do, you know, so, it is for the
community.

John Floridis: Reiko, through the y ears in what ways were you able to spread this tradition and to what age groups?

Adrienne Reiko Iwanaga: Oh, a lot of age groups. Um, I used to go to the schools with a unit on Japan. You know, crafts, storytelling. Uh, one of my treasures coming back from Japan was a little portable stage. Um, The tradition is that storytellers would go around on bicycles with these little portable stages and
would insert slides and tell stories. So I have that. And um, so I would do that.

I would do some storytelling, probably some crafts, and then we would end with dancing. And oftentimes, you know, we've been asked to dance at senior centers, um, the local college here, has a Japanese garden, so I did

a unit on, um, on, um, Japanese dance, um, Japanese traditions, that kind of thing. And organizations are always asking us to perform or to explain. And it's always a nice way to incorporate interest in having everyone dance at the end.

John Floridis: One of the things that I understand that you're most, proud of is the right word, but you kind of spoke to this earlier in our conversation, though y our work and y our art is based in very distinct Japanese culture and the Buddhist tradition, that, A, it's open to all different types of interpretations. And it's very much now an American tradition.

Adrienne Reiko Iwanaga: Right. In addition to it being, the American part of it is now a part of the story. Right, very much so. It's transitioning, has already transitioned. San Jose, I mean, I don't mean San Jose, but Taiko, which is Japanese drumming, has spread all over the United States. Thanks, in large part, to San Jose Taiko, who travel a lot, but many universities have Taiko groups.

And in the same way, dance has spread throughout, and um, we call it American Obon in a way, and I'm part of a coalition that we call American Obon consortium because we recognize that it's an American form of traditional arts now, and um, lyrics and songs can be in English or in other languages.

Movements can incorporate other forms, Isuppose. But basic, the basic tenants are there, but at the same time, it can be, you can see
innovation in many different ways. And it's being accepted by so many other, uh, people, I think so, definitely we call it American born.

Some places even dance to Lady Gaga.

John Floridis: Really ?

Adrienne Reiko Iwanaga: Yes, definitely.

John Floridis: You know, I have in my mind what the music would sound like, that Lady Gaga, though I think she's very talented woman. That would not have that would not have jumped out at me...

Adrienne Reiko Iwanaga: Right?

John Floridis: I wonder if she knows. I think she, y ou know, it's funny. We think that, oh, well, you know, she's a big star. I think she's a, she's at her roots she's a musician. She's an artist. I think that she would be over the moon to know something like that.

Adrienne Reiko Iwanaga: Yeah, it's it's interesting.

John Floridis: Yes.

Adrienne Reiko Iwanaga: Right? Yeah.

John Floridis: I want to ask you, Reiko, uh, what y our feelings were like at the Library of Congress when you received that Arts Endowment Fellowship Award?

Adrienne Reiko Iwanaga: Um, Well, first of all, very humbled and very honored. Um, and to meet the other honorees. And their diverse talents and um, the different
journeys that they've taken. It was very inspiring.

In fact, the Ukrainian group approached me because during World War I in Canada, they had the same experience of being incarcerated.

John Floridis: Hmm.

Adrienne Reiko Iwanaga: Who knew that there would be?

John Floridis: During World War I… I didn’t know that.

Adrienne Reiko Iwanaga: Yes. Learning something like that. And then, um, the Native American man, when he spoke in his native language and said that it had been forbidden. And my family was sitting next to his wife, and when I spoke about being incarcerated, My daughter said there was such a, um, an intermingling of understanding.

Um, but more than that, it was such a celebration of really diverse talents and everyone was charming. And certainly, the host organizations were wonderful. I mean, they created all of all of us so wonderfully. And the setting was wonderful. Absolutely.

And then, I don't know, but in my acceptance speech. I mean, for me, it was a full circle moment because I started my lessons in um, an incarceration… Uh, camp and uh, determined by those in Washington and here I was in Washington receiving this. So, Um, I was subtle about it, but it was
very meaningful.

John Floridis: At this point, in your life. What is that keeps you going and continuing to do this?

Adrienne Reiko Iwanaga: Um, I, Let's see.

John Floridis: I mean, it's a legitimate question for any of us who are in the arts. Why do you know, what keeps it going?

Adrienne Reiko Iwanaga: And I'm old too. So I'm glad to be able to transition and transfer teaching to others who have been on the journey with me. I still enjoy dancing and spreading the idea of it. It's an extension of a tradition that has become Americanized and enjoyed. And I like fact that we can continue to progress and perpetuate the dancing.

So my interest is certainly there, and I'm happy to pass it on to others who are doing it, and they do it in every community. Uh, and so, um, if and when physically I can't, it will still go on. I'm there already.

John Floridis: Yeah, what a legacy, though, you've created.

Adrienne Reiko Iwanaga: Well, it's not mine. It is not my legacy at all. It is, uh, well, I, I, I am honored that it, uh, there's a family linked to it with my father-in-law, at the same time, it isn't my legacy.

It is really a number of teachers dancing in all these different temples and communities that have really maintained it to the point of being a very, um, wonderful festival that people look forward to. Well, for me, I mean, it was really a surprise to receive the award. Um, I mean, there are so many different traditional arts and such, and, uh, and this and this is a folk art, for sure, you know, which is fine too, but, uh, but it's nice that a Obon Odori is being recognized as, as an art form here.

John Floridis: Reiko, thanks so much for the conversation. It's been really great talking to you.

Adrienne Reiko Iwanaga: Oh, yeah, no, no, thank you. I appreciate it.

John Floridis: That was teacher, performer, preserver, cultural ambassador of a Obon Odori, and 2025 National Endowment for the Arts Heritage Fellow Adrienne Reiko Iwanaga.

There's a tribute video featuring Reiko on the National Endowment for the Arts YouTube channel. You can find a link in our show notes or visit
arts.gov/heritage for more on all of the NEA national heritage fellows.

I'm John Floridis.

Thanks so much for listening.

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