Culture Note: the "Banzai" Toast at Weddings

Photo by Mike Pham Photography

Ask a local in Hawai'i if they know about "banzai" and two things might readily come to his or her mind:  the Banzai Pipeline surf spot on O'ahu's fabled North Shore, and the banzai toast at weddings.  Particularly popular with those of Japanese descent, the banzai toast is often reserved a spot in many wedding reception programs in Hawai'i.

"banzai"

The literal translation of banzai is 10,000 years (of life), but a closer parallel to English would be "long live."  Traditionally, the banzai toast is actually comprised of two toasts, led by two separate people, the first being from the guests to the bride and groom, and the second one being from the family to the guests.  The first toast giver, on behalf of the guests, asks everyone to rise, and shouts, with gusto, "Shinro shimpu, banzai," imparting well wishes to bride and groom.  The guests then respond in resounding unison by shouting back, "banzai."  The toast giver repeats "banzai" two more times, each time followed by the guests responding with a loud, "banzai!"  The toast is concluded with with a sip of drink.

This process is repeated with the second toast in honor of the guests.  The second toast giver/leader, on behalf of the family, shouts, "raihin shokun, banzai" three times, each time followed by the audience shouting back, "banzai!"  As with the first toast, a sip of beverage concludes the toast.

A note about verbiage for the second toast:  the word shokun in Japanese, meaning "ladies/gentlemen," suggests that the people who are being addressed are of a junior status.  For this reason, a more modern or honorific version would be raihin no minasama, which would be loosely translated as "all of you, our esteemed guests."

Also worth noting:  the word banzai is often associated with World War II, as Japanese soldiers would shout tennouheika, banzai or "long live the emperor" as they were dying.  Because of this association, it is becoming increasingly popular to replace banzai with the word kampai, which is more like saying "cheers!"  (In fact, at one wedding we coordinated, an entire table of guests chose not to participate in the banzai toast, and I suspect that this is because their ancestors were subject to the rule of imperial Japan.)

Being Japanese-American, born and raised in Hawai'i, and finding the banzai toast quite commonplace at weddings and key birthday celebrations, I was surprised to learn that is a tradition unique to Hawaii.  You will never hear banzai shouted at weddings in Japan and guests from Japan who attend weddings in Hawaii always find the banzai toast a bit of an oddity.  I suppose this attests to how the culture of a immigrant group evolves over time.

To recap, if planning to incorporate the banzai toast into your own wedding reception, here are the verbiage options:

Toast #1:  from the guests to the bride and groom:

• shinro, shimpu, BANZAI
• shinro, shimpu, KAMPAI

Toast #2:  from the family to the guests

• raihin shokun, BANZAI
• raihin shokun, KAMPAI
• raihin no minasama, BANZAI
• raihin no minasama, KAMPAI

Happy planning!

Mona

neu events

(formerly known as "Weddings by Grace and Mona")