In May, in the Hakata area of the city of Fukuoka, there is a festival called Dontaku. The name means “holiday”, and throughout its long history, it has always been a festival for the people – a true “citizen’s” festival. Indeed, Dontaku tends to be the most popular festival in Japan during the so-called “Golden Week” which contains a closely-packed series of national holidays, and its history tells us why.

Having begun as a New Year festival, celebrating the time of year which is most special to the Japanese, it evolved into a series of performances symbolising auspicious gods paying visits upon the lords at Fukuoka castle. Children traditionally also took part, amongst literally thousands of singers, dancers, and other performers. As an occasion for everyone taking part to meet and greet each other on an equal footing, everything positive is celebrated in an atmosphere of unrestrained joy and mutual appreciation. Small wonder, then, that this is the festival of festivals, during festival week!

The grand nature of the Dontaku festival is an excellent example of co-operation and appreciation amongst people – it is no small feat to organise 16,000 musicians and dancers, and 12,000 participants in the more formal veneration celebrations, yet it is done with zeal, and the attendance of over 2 million shows how much it is all appreciated by those visiting – who are, or course, encouraged to join in! However, with a history of around 800 years, the Dontaku festival now reflects currents which run very deep in Japanese society.

Kendo would point out that perhaps the clearest energy in evidence here is that of pro-social structure; the Dontaku shows that Japanese people certainly know how to enjoy themselves and appreciate each other, which they do unresevedly at festival time, but at other times, with their strict manners and dedication to work ethic and social harmony, they all contribute to a society which gives them much to be grateful for and to celebrate.

As can be seen in the tenets of Kendo’s “Empowering Wisdom”, he expects those who would follow his teachings to learn and apply more subtle rules and observations than generally apply in the West – the enlightenment he promotes is what will lead to empowerment, for example, understanding that growing as a soul is a duty, in contrast to believing in some capitalist right to have the most toys. Thus, living responsibly and watching for clues about one’s destiny will greatly help a life unfold as well as it possibly can, and awareness of one’s obligations to the harmony of the world around one is also important.

From a healing perspective, Kendo points out that all these positive, pro-social attitudes add up to a functioning spiritual interaction with the myriad other spiritual forces around us; such humility shows respect for the deities in every conceivable aspect of life, particularly the other souls around us on their own challenging journeys, and such harmonious relationships can only feed back positive, healing energy.

Your exemplary attitudes will be perceived and echoed by other enlightened souls, and together you will weave an atmosphere of positivity and healing, and you will have every right to celebrate such enlightened living with all your might!

Happy Dontaku!