50+ Years in the Dance Circle: Aiko Hamada of Ogden

Editor’s note: “50+ Years in the Dance Circle” will pay tribute to the extraordinary dance instructors who taught Bon Odori at BCA temples for 50 or more years. This series continues with a tribute to the late Aiko Hamada.

Aiko Inouye Hamada (1925–2022) grew up in California and Japan, taught Japanese classical dance from her home in Utah, and led Bon Odori at the Buddhist Church of Ogden for over 50 years.

Aiko Inouye was born in 1925 to Kantaro and Tome Inouye in the Venice neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. She grew up on the family farm with her adopted brother, Toshiyuki Tom Omaye. Two older half-siblings lived in Japan, and one of them, Yukitoshi Inouye, moved to the United States as a young adult. Throughout her childhood, Aiko studied the koto, singing and Japanese classical dance.

Upon the death of Kantaro’s father in the late 1930s, the Inouyes moved back to Japan, living in Chiba during Aiko’s high school years and then in the paternal family’s hometown of Kuchiba in Shimane prefecture. She continued studying music and Japanese classical dance during this time. In the final days of World War II, the family witnessed the harrowing sight of a mushroom cloud over the decimated city of Hiroshima. 

Rev. Ryuei Masuoka, who knew the Inouyes from Venice, arranged for a marriage between Aiko and Shigaru Hamada from Ogden, Utah. After the war, Aiko moved back to the United States by herself and met the young man and his family. The couple married in 1950 and settled in Ogden, where they owned a farm and raised their son, Raymond Takashi Hamada, born in 1951. Aiko taught Japanese classical dance at her home and was an active member of the Buddhist Church of Ogden, where she was known for her culinary skills with sushi, mochi and manju. 

Beginning in the early 1960s, Hamada led Bon Odori at the temple, teaching countless dances such as “Bon Odori Uta,” “Ichi Tasu Ichi no Ondo,” “Soran Bushi,” “Tanko Bushi,” “Ueomuuite Arukou,” and “Yakyuken Odori.” 

She coordinated dances with Noriko Maxine Furubayashi, Bon Odori instructor at the Salt Lake Buddhist Temple. As children, Aiko and Noriko had studied Japanese classical dance in the same studio in Los Angeles. The two rekindled their friendship in Utah and worked together for decades, learning and teaching dances at their respective temples.

At the Buddhist Church of Ogden’s Obon, Hamada would cook, work in the food booths and dress the dancers with her famously tight koshihimo (thin cotton bands). She led Bon Odori with passion and joy for over 50 years, gradually retiring in the 2010s. Though wheelchair bound, she choreographed “Hokkai Bon Uta” with the help of granddaughter Allyson Hamada. The dance debuted at the temple’s Obon in 2022, the same year of her passing. 

The Hamada family — son, granddaughters, great grandchildren and extended relatives — continues to attend Obon in Ogden and especially enjoys dancing “Hokkai Bon Uta” in her memory. 

To view  a full list of 50+ teachers, follow the link: www.bit.ly/fiftyplusyears. If you have an additional dance instructor for the BCA Music Committee to consider, please email Wynn at wynnkiyama@gmail.com.

Wynn Kiyama lives in Honolulu, Hawai‘i with his family and is a member of the BCA and the Honpa Hongwanji Mission of Hawaii. He is currently working on a history of Bon Odori in the continental United States.