Bon Odori festival will honor a beloved farmers market vendor
Bon Odori is a Japanese Buddhist festival honoring one’s ancestors through music, dance and more.
The Olympia version of the festival is a secular event, yet for many who participate it’s still an opportunity to remember and honor loved ones who have died.
The 31st annual festival, set for Saturday, will honor the late Yukie Taylor, who was much loved both within and beyond Olympia’s Japanese-American community.
The centerpiece of Bon Odori is a series of dances in which all can participate. The dances, many of them traditional, celebrate the activities of daily life. The festival also features traditional taiko drumming, demonstrations and vendors selling food and crafts.
Taylor, who died March 24 at age 66, was a vendor at the Olympia Farmers Market and at the Bon Odori Festival. She was known for her friendliness and sense of humor.
“Her’s was one of the faces that everybody would look for at the market,” said Megumi Livingston, one of the lead dancers at the festival. “She was loved. She was like a mom or a friend or a sister to everybody.”
Taylor, who moved from Japan to the state in 1993, was so much a part of the market that she was featured in Olympia papercut artist Nikki McClure’s 2011 picture book “To Market, to Market.”
An illustration in the book shows Taylor, who is, of course, smiling. A copy of the illustration will be displayed at the festival.
“I was friends with Yukie,” McClure said in an email. As were many of the market’s regular customers, who stopped at Taylor’s both not only to shop for indigo-dyed textiles but also to chat.
“She was really fun to talk to, and she knew everything,” Livingston said. “She was a smart lady.”
She met Taylor at the market nine or 10 years ago, and the vendor quickly became a close friend of the Livingston family.
“Whenever she came to our house, we ended up talking till midnight,” Livingston said. “Then I’d make her coffee or green tea so she could have some caffeine before she drove home.
“My husband has 13 brothers and sisters,” she added. “We have huge gatherings, and she was always there for those.
“She became No. 15 of the family.”
Festival organizer Reiko Callner plans to speak about Taylor during the festival. “Yukie was just so cute,” Callner said. “She was really ready to laugh, very silly. Simple things would make her smile.”
After her father’s death, Callner found dancing at Bon Odori to be a comfort.
“It feels very natural and compelling to participate when you’ve experienced a loss,” she said. “Partaking in the ceremony is nourishing in a time of loss.
“Many of our participants who are Japanese-American have told me how important it is to have the opportunity to come dance at the event, particularly when they’re saying goodbye to someone.”
Bon Odori
What: Olympia’s 31st annual Bon Odori, sponsored by the Japanese American Citizens League, is a secular version of the traditional Japanese festival honoring the ancestors through participatory dances.
When: 5-9:15 p.m. Saturday.
Where: Water Street between Fifth Avenue and Legion Way, Olympia.
Admission: Free.
Information: 360-556-7562 or 360-791-3295.
Dance practice: All are welcome to join in the dances at the festival, and no experience or practice is needed. There’s an optional free practice from 7-9 p.m. Friday (Aug. 12) at the Olympia Center, 222 Columbia St. NW, Olympia.
Performance schedule
5 p.m.: Aikido of Olympia.
5:30 p.m.: River Ridge High School Taiko, performing traditional Japanese drumming.
6 p.m.: Pacific Northwest Ryuho Kan Karate.
6:30 p.m.: OKK Taiko.
7-9 p.m.: Dancing, plus a performance by NW Taiko.
9 p.m.: Illuminated-lantern procession honoring ancestors and peace.
This story was originally published August 11, 2016 at 4:25 AM with the headline "Bon Odori festival will honor a beloved farmers market vendor."