The Shinju Matsuri festival is held annually in Broome, in late August-early September, and attracts many local and visiting families. Shinju means pearl and Matsuri means festival in Japanese, reflecting the significance of Broome’s Japanese community in its pearling industry. It also celebrates Broome’s wider cultural and religious diversity, including the traditional Yawaru owners, Japanese, Chinese and Muslim communities, traditions and festivals.ⁱ  

Broome had a sizable Japanese population in the late 1880s. There was a Japanese quarter with a Japanese Club, hospital and school. The Japanese community held many cultural events, including sumo wrestling tournaments, and the annual Japanese O-Bon Matsuri (Festival for the Ancestors), still commemorated to this day. It began with rituals performed by a Buddhist priest at the Japanese Cemetery, and then a procession to Roebuck Bay, releasing lanterns to honour ancestors and diver’s lives lost at sea.ⁱⁱ 

The current Shinju Matsuri includes a Floating Lanterns event, inspired by the O-Bon festival, where the public is invited to make and release lanterns, remembering and celebrating their ‘loved ones past and present’, at sunset at Gantheaume Beach. This event typically includes Japanese musical performances and has been attended by the Japanese Ambassador to Australia or the Consul-General of Japan in Perth in recent years.ⁱⁱⁱ  

By Anna Halafoff and Sue Smith 

Keywords:  

Death and dying, Festivals, Japanese Cemeteries, Pearling