If you’re looking for an exotic seasonal celebration, Cherry Blossom Festival Fort Wayne takes place this Sunday at Purdue Fort Wayne.
A program of the nearly-50-year-old Japanese American Association of Indiana, this was one of 3 projects the group undertook after reworking its mission in 2004, along with establishing a Saturday School and a quarterly newsletter.
Here WBOI’s Julia Meek and one of JAAI’s founders, Michele Yamanaka discuss the scope and evolution of the event, its staying power and the importance of cultural exchange to the entire community.
Event Information:
Cherry Blossom Festival 2026
at Purdue Fort Wayne
Sunday, May 17
Noon to 6:00 p.m.
All ages ~ Admission is free
Find more information and a complete schedule of events at the Cherry Blossom Festival website.
This is a transcript of our conversation:
Julia Meek: Michele Yamanaka, welcome.
Michele Yamanaka: Thank you.
Julia Meek: Now it's time to celebrate the season and our special ties to Japanese culture. Just what does this very beautiful tradition mean to you?
Michele Yamanaka: It is an opportunity to take all the beautiful things of Japan, their culture, their art, and be able to celebrate it and pass it on to my children and to the community.
Julia Meek: What a wonderful gift to give and to receive. Thank you for all of that. Now, a real quick look back. How did you get involved in all of this?
Michele Yamanaka: Well, it's pretty hard to avoid if you marry somebody from Japan, [both chuckle] and when we first moved here to the city of Fort Wayne, there was already a small group of Japanese Americans meeting together once a year to celebrate the New Year.
Julia Meek: And when was this?
Michele Yamanaka: This was in 1978 and through that getting together, my children, who were very young, learned a lot about Japan, foods they eat, games they play, how to do a certain kind of dance.
And as they grew older, this group continued to meet, and then after a while, the children grew up and they stopped coming.
And our group sort of didn't do very well, and we decided we needed to find so me way to make our association more meaningful to the community and to our people, to our children.
At that time, I looked around to see who in our city might have some help for us, some ideas that would make us more meaningful to the community.
And I found a lady by the name of Dorothy Kittaka, and I contacted her, and she told us, oh, I like what you want to do. I'll help.
And then she also got a fellow by the name of Daniel Quinn to come help. He was a musician, and the two of them helped us to renovate what we were doing as a Japanese American Association.
And after one year of helping us, we had a brainstorming session. And of that brainstorming session, we had three goals. One was to start a Saturday school.
Daniel suggested that we have a Japanese cultural festival, and then we wanted to have a quarterly newsletter.
So, from that point, which was about 2004 we started working towards the festival. And the first festival came about in 2007.
Julia Meek: So, you have been busy.
Michele Yamanaka: Yes.
Julia Meek: Did you ever look back? Or did you ever quit running?
Michele Yamanaka: Well, we weren't sure if the first one was even going to go very well, and it did. And after that, people wanted to have it again.
But no, we never would have imagined that it would be like this year, over 11,000 people.
Julia Meek: So, fast forward to this year's celebration, which is the third location for this festival, due to its ever-increasing popularity.
So, what kind of a fit is it there at PFW? And what does it allow you to add to the festival?
Michele Yamanaka: Because we grew so large, we were no longer able to be at our last location, which is the downtown public library.
So, it gives us more space to do, to offer more. We are able to have two full ballrooms of entertainment. We're able to offer more food vendors.
We're able to offer more variety of events and activities.
Julia Meek: Okay, we are looking at six hours in and around Purdue Fort Wayne's Walb Student Union, from the Sky Bridge to the Science Mall to the Friends Pavilion and Alumni Plaza.
That is a lot of room, you are correct. So, what can festival goers expect to welcome them at this year's celebration?
Michele Yamanaka: Well, if they happen to be hungry, they'll be able to have a great variety of Japanese or Japanese related foods outside in the plaza.
If they are artistic, they'll have opportunities to draw in the anime contest or write a haiku. If they like traditional Japanese music, they can enjoy Koto playing and Japanese dancing.
If they like more modern Japanese music, we have the Spirit Bomb playing. We'll have contests for cosplay.
If they want demonstrations, they want to learn educational, we'll have the bonsai demonstrations, the tea ceremony. We'll have paper cutting workshop. You can learn about calligraphy.
If you have small ones, we'll have the children's crafts, where they can make things like a paper samurai helmet. They can make origami cherry blossoms and put them onto a drop-down designed cherry tree that needs flowers to be put on it. [Julia chuckles]
There'll be opportunities for almost everything that from young to old might be interested in.
Julia Meek: Is it safe to suggest folks should come early and, of course, hungry, as you mentioned, and stay all day to sample it all, then?
Michele Yamanaka: Absolutely, there is so much to go on. We always hear that people want it to last longer because they couldn't do everything.
Julia Meek: That's a good sign.
Michele Yamanaka: Yes, it is.
Julia Meek: So, I'm not going to ask if you have a favorite tradition, because you must have a lot of them.
Is there something that's particularly near and dear to your own heart that you can't live without?
Michele Yamanaka: Just within the festival?
Julia Meek: Mmhmmm.
Michele Yamanaka: I really enjoy the Japanese dancing, whether it is folk dancing or the traditional, more stylized dancing.
Julia Meek: And then, of course, like you say, that is counterbalanced by all the new forms of everything.
Michele Yamanaka: That's right, that's right.
Julia Meek: And do you have a favorite food that you just can't wait to try?
Michele Yamanaka: I wish! I never have time to get any of the food.
Julia Meek: Oh, I'm sorry. [both laugh]
Michele Yamanaka: I'm too busy trying to solve problems here and there.
Julia Meek: Well, somebody's got to be the head of this. And thank you for that, to be sure, Michele. Now, just who do you expect to see at this year's celebration?
Michele Yamanaka: I expect to see a wide range of people, from little kids who want to draw and make things to adults who appreciate the sound of Japanese music and enjoy the dancing and want to learn more about the culture.
It is a pretty fun place, because it's wall to wall with people, often dressed in cosplay costumes, and they have people walking around who will teach you how to do the Kendama game.
It's going to be a very busy time.
Julia Meek: And a very interactive time, it sounds like as well.
Michele Yamanaka: Yes, very interactive.
Julia Meek: It's a wonderfully curated event list, a mighty ambitious one that you have, as a matter of fact, all ages, all mediums included. Put it all together. Michele, what picture does it paint to you?
Michele Yamanaka: It is a beautiful kaleidoscope of everything, beautiful Japanese art and culture.
Julia Meek: Twirled into one thing, it seems effortlessly, thanks to you, that folks get to sample all of this. Now, just out of curiosity, how long is the planning time for such an event? [both chuckle]
Michele Yamanaka: Well, we have started a little bit already to plan for next year, but basically about six months for a festival.
Julia Meek: So, you'll take a tiny bit of time off, and then we get back going?
Michele Yamanaka: Yes, we will be busy, hard at work by the end of this year for next year.
Julia Meek: Okay, is that a promise? [both chuckle]
Michele Yamanaka: Oh, yes, it's a requirement.
Julia Meek: Now, a big purpose of this festival, of course, is to preserve and energize these traditions, introduce the new ones to the community.
Do you and yours find it easier to be gathering it with your connections. And do you find more local sources and resources for these activities?
Michele Yamanaka: Well, the longer we have our festival, the more people come up to us and give us hints about other things they would like. We do a survey. We ask for things like that, and we look at those and we try to do whatever seems...reasonable. [both chuckle]
Julia Meek: Yes, so your festival goers actually can help you determine the future of the event.
Michele Yamanaka: Working...if it's possible. We can't...there are some things we cannot do at PFW, but generally they're trying to be very helpful. And if we want to try to add an extra something, they will try to help us find a spot, if possible.
Julia Meek: It seems your dedication, as well as your willingness to work really hard, is endless, Michele, but we know you couldn't have done this all by yourself. So, who do we need to thank, major players, besides yourself?
Michele Yamanaka: This festival would not happen without many volunteers, and we have chairs. So this year we had Callie Smith, who was in charge of the merchandise vendors.
We have Ariana Ferula, who was a food vendor chair. We have, we have about 13 different people, all doing different things, each one of them very important.
, it's nothing that one person can do. If one person had to do it. It wouldn't happen. I mean, we have three co-chairs because there's too much for one person to do.
Julia Meek: It has evolved into quite a festival that we all look forward to. And as they do say, if you don't document it in pictures, it didn't happen. [Michele chuckles]
You have very good photo documentation. Who do we have to thank for that?
Michele Yamanaka: It was Gabe Deloebbe to start with, and now it is Jerry Ediner.
Julia Meek: Well, Gabe's footsteps are hard ones to fill, but Jerry's work is just wonderful, and that is a very important part of the whole festival. And to all of them, how would we say thank you in Japanese?
Michele Yamanaka: Domo arigatou gozaimasu.
Julia Meek: Thank you. Is there a way for you and your committee to find out where these folks are coming from?
Michele Yamanaka: We take a survey, and it asks some questions about what they think about the festival. We also need some demographics, because we, if we apply for a grant, they always want that.
So, we hope to have a lot of surveys returned. We don't get nearly as many back as we would like. But we look at them very carefully to figure out what they show us about who has come.
Julia Meek: What kind of coverage are you seeing? What kind of a range of states or cities by now?
Michele Yamanaka: We have people who come from out of state. We have a good number from Indianapolis.
And all the cities around Fort Wayne show up. We're satisfied. We think we're getting a good representation.
Julia Meek: And getting your word out.
Michele Yamanaka: And the word out, yes.
Julia Meek: As regards cherry blossom festivals, such a seasonal and beautiful and creative and old tradition as well as you're keeping it fresh, do you see an increase in people wanting to celebrate the season, that kind of a connection, that kind of an activity?
Michele Yamanaka: Based on the numbers that are coming, 11,000 for the last year or two, I would say that indicates an interest in celebrating this season.
Julia Meek: And you're being there for them with such a lovely, lovely celebration.
Michele Yamanaka: Yes, correct.
Julia Meek: And what about the hunger to learn both the old and the new ways. You keep adding which is great for the generational participation and interest, but you keep the old ones going fresh.
Do old folks like us enjoy learning new things like cosplay?
Michele Yamanaka: Based on our surveys, I would say yes. They may say something like, I didn't know what that was, and I think I like it. [chuckles]
Julia Meek: You can't ask for any more than that.
Michele Yamanaka: That's correct.
Julia Meek: And as our own community continues forming international connections and global cultural bonds, what more can you as a group, are you planning to add to your own strong links? How can you make a better, stronger connection?
Michele Yamanaka: We have found that volunteers are a great way to make connections, and we have volunteers, and we encourage volunteers.
They have to be 18 to work there, but we encourage volunteers from other organizations and Fort Wayne Sister Cities.
They have five sister cities, or almost sister cities, and we have volunteers from there to help us, and we try to reciprocate when we can.
It's important to know that you're more than just an isolated piece of the world, that there's more to the world. And through the festival, we have a chance to share with Fort Wayne more of the world.
Julia Meek: No doubt about that. And using your own experience, back a ways. Of course, your kids were young, as you mentioned, you were here in Fort Wayne.
You were learning our ways, everybody's ways, and I hope we welcomed you. But how did it make you feel to be able to have a chance to form an organization that would be there for incoming people?
Michele Yamanaka: I was very happy to have a part in getting this Japanese American Association up and running, because it was important to me that my children learn about their heritage and be able to share with those who had similar heritage, and opportunities to be involved and to appreciate and to feel like they made a difference and they were important.
Julia Meek: And so, as many people do attest to the fact that Fort Wayne is welcoming and embracing culturally as well as just the heart and Heartland that we project as an image.
Did you find it there? And how have you enriched it?
Michele Yamanaka: I think Fort Wayne has been a very welcoming community trying to help each group of people feel like what they have, their abilities count.
And that they make our whole regular life more meaningful as we learn from each other.
Julia Meek: What's the biggest thing you have learned from all of this?
Michele Yamanaka: That the more you know about other people and other languages, other cultures, the more you're going to know and grow yourself.
Julia Meek: That's a great attitude, and you have proved it by your actions as well as your philosophy and attitude, Michelle. So we thank you for that, of course.
And I do wonder, with all that work and energy in years that you have put into this labor of love or these labors of love, did you ever dream what we would be reflecting on its success over the microphone, right here, right now, these many years later?
Michele Yamanaka: Of course, no way, no way. [both laugh] We were just happy to have one year, another year or another year, year after year. It was...it's been a journey.
Julia Meek: A good one, and a nonstop learning and loving and caring experience.
Michele Yamanaka: That's right and meeting new people and new people who share the same vision and desire to help all of Fort Wayne grow in its understanding of the world and international relationships.
Julia Meek: Beautiful, beautiful mission and well enacted. Thank you for all of that. And as regards the festival that you had in mind, or would have in mind once you took it to the next step, who was your power player in that one?
Michele Yamanaka: Dorothy Kittaka, from the moment she started to work with us for the JAAI, she stuck with us.
She has been such an inspiration, such a help all these years. We honor her because she has been such a blessing to us.
Julia Meek: And you echo the sentiment of the entire city, I think, with the "FAME" of all of the arts, that's another one of Dorothy's babies. So thank you for that very much.
And since we are here, and this is so successful, and we're looking at the best Cherry Blossom Festival Fort Wayne has ever seen coming up very, very soon, what would you like to say to everyone listening in honor of this ancient and glorious celebration that we embrace right here in our own community?
Michele Yamanaka: Happy Cherry Blossom Festival and sayonara, sayonara.
Julia Meek: Michelle Yamanaka is one of the founders of the Japanese American Association of Indiana, as well as Fort Wayne's Cherry Blossom Festival.
Thank you for sharing your story of this most special celebration, Michelle, many blessings, and do carry the gift.
Michele Yamanaka: Sayonara.
