Obon Dancing in America: Reverend Yoshio Iwanaga Photo Album
Los Angeles, 1931-33
Between 1931 and 1933, Iwanaga was assigned to the Nishi Hongwanji (Los Angeles Hompa Hongwanji Betsuin), where he organized elaborate doyo buyo recitals and taught bon odori. In the summer of 1932, he traveled back to Japan where he enrolled in the Hanayagi School of Dance and was elevated to the kyoshi level (ministerial certification) in the Nishi Hongwanji in Kyoto.
Doyo buyo students at the Nishi Hongwanji in Los Angeles, 4 September 1931
Doyo buyo students at the Nishi Hongwanji in Los Angeles, sponsored by the Young Women’s Association, 21 February 1932.
Iwanaga (top row, fourth from right) and doyo buyo students at the Nishi Hongwanji, sponsored by the Young Women’s Association, 21 February 1932. Girls in the second row from top dressed in “Middle Eastern” costumes for the dance Tsuki no Sabaku (“Moon Over the Desert”).
