For 27 years, members and clergy from several of Hawaii’s Buddhist denominations and Shinto sects have gathered for an interdenominational ceremony at Makiki Cemetery to ensure that the lives of some of the first 19th-century Japanese settlers to arrive here are not forgotten.

"It is because of their sacrifices that later generations of Japanese-Americans could enjoy the quality of life they now do," Japanese Consul General Toyoei Shigeeda said during the ceremony Saturday morning.

According to the United Japanese Society of Hawaii, many Japanese pioneers dreamed of returning rich, but instead were buried in the cemetery on the slopes of Punchbowl with no family to tend to their graves.

In 1985, 100 years after the first Japanese arrived here as part of a treaty between Japan’s Emperor Meiji and King Kalakaua, the Oahu Kanyaku Imin Centennial Celebration Committee received permission to transfer remains from 289 deteriorated gravesites into a common grave, called a yosebaka. A 12-foot pink granite memorial was unveiled a year later.

The annual remembrance ceremony is part of the Buddhist obon season, which is observed to honor one’s ancestors. Attendees also pay tribute to the 141 Japanese immigrants, or gannen mono, who initially arrived here and are honored by a separate memorial at the cemetery, as well as 16 Japanese Imperial Navy sailors buried in a space next to the common grave between 1876 and 1899.

This year’s celebration included hula for the first time, performed by Masago Asai and her daughter, Mika.

Hawaii Buddhist Council Bishop Eric Matsumoto of Honpa Hongwanji Mission and Bishop Kenjun Kawawata of Higashi Hongwanji Mission co-officiated at Saturday’s ceremony.

Matsumoto said obon is about much more than the past and remembering the dead; it’s also a time to reflect and rejoice.

"Today I would like to emphasize that when we deeply reflect, we come to realize that actually obon spans the past, present and future," Matsumoto said. "For as we of the present take the time to honor those of the past and remember them, we also take the obon season as a time to reflect upon our present lives and realize how we live to be will also affect the future, just as the thoughts, words and actions of our predecessors including those we honor today, (did)."

He said later, "The obon season encourages us to reflect and become aware of the innumerable relationships we have with each other. There are so many factors, various causes and conditions, that interplay and intertwine for any life or being to exist, including you and me. And to think — if even one thing was different, you and I would not be here to be in this moment."