Food for Obon and the harvest moon (tsukimi)

Shojin ryori at Obon

Obon is a period said to be for welcoming and honoring ancestors' spirits, and reflecting the Buddhist principle of avoiding the taking of life, there's a custom of offering shojin ryori — dishes made without meat or fish. These are said to center on vegetables, beans, and seaweed, letting the ingredients' own flavor come through, and some regions tie the offering to local food culture, such as red rice in Hokkaido, obanzai home cooking in Kyoto, or bitter melon dishes in Okinawa. Some areas are also said to offer or eat somen around this time, with one account linking the noodles to a rope thought to guide ancestors' spirits. A custom of shaping cucumbers and eggplants into a horse and an ox, called shoryo-uma, is also often introduced around Obon.

Jugoya and tsukimi dango

Around the 15th night of the eighth lunar month — jugoya, the harvest moon — there's a custom of displaying pampas grass and offering moon-viewing dumplings, tsukimi dango. Stacking small white dumplings made from rice flour is the common way to offer them, and because the timing overlaps with the taro harvest, the night is also called imo-meigetsu ("taro moon"). The number of dumplings, how they're stacked, and where they're offered are all said to vary by region. About a month after jugoya comes a second moon-viewing night called jusanya, which some regions mark as well.

Related foods

If home-style dishes like shojin ryori interest you, see "Homestyle"; and for more foods tied to seasonal events, check the related tag.