50+ Years in the Dance Circle: Miyeko Kubota of LA, Fresno Betsuins

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 Miyeko “Mickey” Kubota of Los Angeles and Fresno.

Miyeko “Mickey” Kubota (1922 – 2021) studied Japanese classical dance with Kansuma Fujima in Los Angeles, and taught Bon Odori at the Heart Mountain concentration camp, the Los Angeles Hompa Hongwanji Buddhist Temple, and the Fresno Betsuin Buddhist Temple. 

In 1922, Miyeko “Mickey” Azeka was born in Los Angeles, California, to Taketaro and Tokiwa Azeka. The youngest of three daughters, Mickey studied shamisen and singing, attended Japanese language school for 12 years, and excelled in oratorical contests. 

She graduated from Lincoln High School in Boyle Heights and started taking Japanese classical dance lessons with Kansuma Fujima. At the same time, she attended business school and eventually became a secretary for the Los Angeles City Hall. 

During World War II, Mickey and her family were incarcerated at the Heart Mountain concentration camp in Wyoming. She worked as a secretary in the Community Enterprises department, which ran the general store and organized movie screenings. In addition, she participated in kabuki productions directed by Tomofuku Nakamura and taught Bon Odori for the Heart Mountain Buddhist Church’s Obon. 

After the war, Mickey briefly moved to Chicago before returning to Los Angeles, where she helped to teach Bon Odori at the Los Angeles Hompa Hongwanji Buddhist Temple. Mickey met James Kubota at a Buddhist conference and the two were married in 1947. The young couple soon moved to Fresno and had four children — Russell, Debbie, Marshall, and Barton. James worked as an attorney and served as City Attorney for Fowler and Parlier, and Mickey worked as a legal secretary, sometimes with her husband. 

Mickey Kubota led Bon Odori at the Fresno Betsuin Buddhist Temple for over 50 years beginning in the late 1950s, teaching dances such as “Bon Odori Uta,” “Fresno Ondo,” “Shinran Ondo,” “Tanko Bushi,” and “Yosakoi Naruko Odori” from Fresno’s sister city of Kochi. 

She choreographed two instrumental works as Bon Odori: Tak Shindo’s “Brass and Bamboo” in the 1960s and Mamoru Maseba’s “Gumyo” in the 2000s. As a dancer, she was known for her precision, purposeful movements, joyful demeanor, and grace.

Kubota retired in the late 2000s and was featured in the documentary “Hidden Legacy: Japanese Traditional Performing Arts in the World War II Internment Camps” (2014). 

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.