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The majority of funerals (
Other practices in Japan include Shinto funerals and the Ryukyuan people’s indigenous sepultural culture.
Modern funerals edit
After death edit
Although Japan has become a more secular society (see Religion in Japan), as of 2007[update], 90% of funerals are conducted as Buddhist ceremonies.[2] Immediately after a death (or, in earlier days, just before the expected death), relatives moisten the dying or deceased person's lips with water, a practice known as water of the last moment (
The relatives and authorities are informed, and a death certificate is issued. Funeral arrangements typically are made by the eldest son and are begun by contacting a temple to schedule the event. Some days are more auspicious than others, based on an old Chinese six-day lunar cycle; in particular, the second day, called tomobiki (
The body is washed and the orifices are blocked with cotton or gauze. An "encoffining" ritual (called a nōkan) is sometimes performed, in which professional nōkansha (
During life, both men and women cross the front of a kimono or yukata with the left side over the right. On those occasions in which the corpse is clothed in a traditional kimono, the kimono is crossed right over left.
Wake edit
Held as soon as possible after death, a Japanese wake is called tsuya (
Funeral edit
The funeral proper, called kokubetsu-shiki (
At the end of the funeral ceremony, the guests and family may place flowers in the casket around the deceased's head and shoulders before the casket is sealed and carried to the elaborately decorated hearse and transported to the crematorium. In some regions of Japan, the coffin is nailed shut by the mourners using a stone.[5]: 353
Cremation edit
The coffin is placed on a tray in the crematorium. The family witnesses the sliding of the body into the cremation chamber.[6] A cremation usually takes about two hours, and the family returns at a scheduled time when the cremation has been completed.
The relatives pick the bones out of the ashes and transfer them to the urn using large chopsticks or metal chopsticks, two relatives holding the same bone at the same time with their chopsticks.[7] In other customs, they pass the bones from chopsticks to chopsticks.[5] Known as kotsuage (
In some cases, the ashes may be divided among more than one urn. For example, some ashes go to a family grave, and some go to the temple or even to a company grave or to a space burial. Depending upon the local custom, the urn may stay at the family home for a period or may be directly taken to the graveyard.
In the Ryukyu Islands, the traditional burial was somewhat different from that in the mainland Japan. Instead of cremation, the body would be temporarily interred in the family tomb (a large burial vault, often of the turtle-back variety); after a few years, once the flesh had decomposed, the bones would be washed and put into the funerary urn, to be permanently stored elsewhere in the tomb.[10]
Grave edit
A typical Japanese grave is usually a family grave (
The date of the erection of the grave and the name of the person who purchased it may be engraved on the side of the monument. The names of the deceased are often but not always engraved on the front of the monument. When a married person dies before his or her spouse, the name of the spouse may also be engraved on the stone, with the letters painted red. After the death and the burial of the spouse, the red ink is removed from the stone. This is usually done for financial reasons, as it is cheaper to engrave two names at the same time than to engrave the second name when the second spouse dies. It can also be seen as a sign that they are waiting to follow their spouse into the grave. However, this practice is less frequent nowadays. The names of the deceased may also be engraved on the left side, or on a separate stone in front of the grave. Often, the name is also written on a sotōba, a separate wooden board on a stand behind or next to the grave. These sotōba may be erected shortly after death, and new ones may be added at certain memorial services.
Some graves may also have a box for business cards, where friends and relatives visiting the grave can drop their business card, informing the caretakers of the grave of the respects the visitors have paid to the deceased.
The high prices of funeral plots, costing on average 2 million yen, have led to a new service of Grave Apartments (お
There are a number of cases where the ashes of deceased persons have been stolen from graves. The ashes of famous cartoonist Machiko Hasegawa and of the wife of real estate chairman Takichi Hayasaka were stolen for ransom. The ashes of famous novelist Yukio Mishima (1925–1970) were stolen in 1971 and the ashes of novelist Naoya Shiga were stolen in 1980. The ashes of the wife of the baseball player Sadaharu Oh went missing in December 2002.[11]
Mourning and memorial services edit
Memorial services depend on local customs. Usually, there are a number of memorial services following the death - for example, daily for the first seven days, or a number of services within the first 49 days, or on the 7th, 49th and 100th day, depending on the local custom. Most commonly observed are the Buddhist service on the seventh day after death, shonanoka (
After that, there is a memorial service on the Obon festival in honor of the dead. The festival may be held in the 1st year, sometimes in the 3rd and 5th, 7th and 13th years, and a number of times afterwards up to either the 39th or the 50th year. One popular sequence follows the days of the Thirteen Buddhas.
A picture of the deceased is also placed at or near the family altar in the household. Also, in the first year after death, no traditional New Year's Day Postcard is sent or received. The friends and relatives have to be informed of this beforehand so as not to send a card.
Japanese funeral industry edit
The average cost of a Japanese funeral is about 2.31 million yen (US$25,000) according to a 2008 study by the Japan Consumers Association. This cost includes services such as 401,000 yen for catering to attendants and 549,000 yen for services of the priest.[12] Overall, the industry has a revenue of about 1.5 trillion yen with about 45,000 funeral homes. In 2004, 1.1 million Japanese died (2003: 1.0 million), a number that is expected to rise in the future due to the increase of the average age in Japan; see demographics of Japan. Funeral Business Monthly estimates that there will be 1.7 million deaths by 2035, and revenue of 2 trillion yen in 2040.
Recently there have been some changes in the funeral industry, and some[citation needed] funeral homes offer more competitive and transparent pricing than a standard funeral provider. These offer funerals starting at about 200,000 yen, a fraction of the regular overpriced services, and lists the different options and prices to choose from a la carte. Many of these new funeral homes are started by non-Japanese nationals. Also, recently hotels with a decreasing income due to a decrease in weddings have started to offer funeral services. Overall, the level of competition is increasing. To stay competitive, the prices of regular funeral homes are also decreasing over time. Another recent introduction are services where a person can choose his or her funeral service before death and pays a monthly fee (e.g. 10,000 yen) to cover all costs of the funeral.
History edit
Throughout Japanese history, famous leaders have often been buried in tombs. The oldest known burial chamber was built between 220 and 230 CE[13] in Sakurai, Nara Prefecture, and called the Hokenoyama tomb. The tomb is 80 m long, and the chamber is 7 m long and 2.7 m wide, and contained a coffin 5 m long and 1 m wide. It is not known exactly who is buried there, but it is presumed to be a powerful local leader.
Around 300, the use of burial mounds for important leaders became more frequent. Japan developed its unique keyhole-shaped burial mounds, which are called Kofun (
There are numerous burial mounds within the geographical range of ancient Yamato-culture, most of which have keyhole-shaped outlines and which measure up to 400 m. The largest is the tomb of Emperor Nintoku in Sakai near Osaka, with a length of 486 m. and covering an area of 300,000 square meters. They are usually surrounded by moats, unless they are constructed on hills. The round halves of these burial mounds contain burial chambers. In the 6th century, round and square burial mounds came into use. The use of burial mounds is believed to have gradually stopped either with the introduction of Buddhism in Japan in the sixth century AD or with the establishment of the capital in Nara by Empress Genmei in 710. Instead, family tombs were constructed with passages that allow additional burials of relatives. Traditionally, the handling of deceased was considered unclean business and was usually done by Burakumin.[citation needed]
Medieval Sōtō Zen funerals edit
Japanese Buddhist funerals, which make up the vast majority of Japanese funerals today, are generally performed in what was historically the Sōtō Zen style, although today the Sōtō funerary rites have come to define the standard funeral format by most of the other Japanese Buddhist schools. Japanese Zen funeral rites came directly from Chinese Chan funeral rites, which were detailed in the Chanyuan Qinggui (
The progressive changes in Sōtō Zen funeral rites were not enacted by its founder, Dōgen, but came about years later when Zen master Keizan encouraged Zen monks to go out into the countryside and perform funeral services for the laity. Although Dōgen was the first to implement many aspects of Chinese Chan monastic codes in Japan, his gogoku doesn't contain any funeral sermons.[19] At this point in Japanese history, different schools of Zen were in competition for followers, and they were “more conscious than ever before of the necessity of making available to the laity such rites as funeral services and ancestor worship.”[20] Keizan's inclusive attitudes toward funerals resulted in the building of many temples in rural areas and the gradual expansion of the Sōtō order throughout Japan.[21]
The funeral service that became popular for the Japanese laity in the medieval period was essentially the Chinese Chan service specified for the ordinary monk. The most important phases of this type of Zen funeral were: posthumous ordination, the sermon at the side of the corpse, the circumambulation of the coffin around the cremation ground, and the lighting of the funeral pyre.[22] For a layperson, the posthumous ordination part of the ritual was the most vital, because without ordaining the deceased as a Zen monk, the other funeral rites could not be performed, since Zen funeral rites did not previously exist for laypeople, but only for monks. Once posthumous ordination of the laity was accepted by the Sōtō school, lay funeral practices became possible; today, death rituals mark the central practice at Sōtō Zen parish temples.[23] This practice was one of the first few elements of Sōtō Zen that was standardized by the early Tokugawa period.[24] Since the popularization of Sōtō Zen in medieval Japan, Sōtō Zen funeral practices have been a significant point of contact between the monks and laity, and continue to play an important role in lay religious life today.
Today edit
Until the early 20th century most bodies were buried and cremation was limited to the wealthy.[citation needed] Cremation became more common after World War II due to its efficiency and cleanliness; in fiscal 2009, 99.9% of Japanese bodies were cremated, and some local governments ban burials.[25]
In a break of tradition from the early Edo period to align with modernity, it has been decided that Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko will be cremated after their death instead of ritual burials.[26]
Films edit
- The Funeral, a film by Juzo Itami, depicts a Japanese family going through the traditional funeral rituals upon death of one of their relatives.
- Departures, a 2008 film by Yōjirō Takita, tells a story of an out of work cellist who answers an employment advertisement for a funeral home.
See also edit
References edit
- ^ "Cremation Society of G.B. - International Cremation Statistics 2007". Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2009-11-30.
- ^ Yu, Ming-Hwang (2010-02-15). "Investigation and Analysis of the Present Condition in Japanese Funeral Education"
日本 における葬祭 教育 の現状 と調査 分析 (pdf). Bulletin of Yamagata University. Humanities (in Japanese). 17 (1): 122.- p122: quotes statistics surveyed by Japan Consumers' Association
- ^ Gordenker, Alice (2011-06-21). "Kinpū". The Japan Times. Retrieved 2020-03-25.
- ^ Flynn, Finbarr; Kana, Nishizawa (22 October 2009). "Funerals a growth undertaking (article by Bloomberg)". The Japan Times (published 2009-10-22). Retrieved 2021-03-29.
- ^ a b c Rowe, Mark (2000). "Stickers for Nails: The Ongoing Transformation of Roles, Rites, and Symbols in Japanese Funerals" (pdf). Japanese Journal of Religious Studies (JJRS). 27 (3–4). Nagoya, Japan: Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture: 353–378. Retrieved 2021-03-29. (JJRS website)
- p368 footnote 27: Bone passing rite. A local custom of unpaired chopsticks.
- p369: nodo botoke in a 1997 funeral
- p370: nodo botoke in a post-1998 funeral
- ^ a b Aldwinckle, David (September 1997). "The Japanese Way of Death: A Funeral in Sapporo". JPRI Occasional Paper (9). Japan Policy Research Institute. Archived from the original on 2021-03-02. Retrieved 2021-03-29.
- ^ a b Kenney, Elizabeth (1996). "Shintō Mortuary Rites in Contemporary Japan" (pdf). Cahiers d'Extrême-Asie. 9. Kyoto: 423. doi:10.3406/asie.1996.1124. Archived from the original on 2020-11-30. Retrieved 2021-03-29.
- The subject is about Shintō rites, but content mentions also about Buddhist rites for comparison.
- ^ Sari Edelstein (2009). Food, Cuisine, and Cultural Competency for Culinary, Hospitality, and Nutrition Professionals. Jones & Bartlett Learning. p. 299. ISBN 9780763759650.
- ^ a b Kawada, Shiaki (2016-09-01).
耳寄 りな心臓 の話 (第 51話 )『喉仏 は心臓 よりも大事 か』 [is nodobotoke more important than the heart?]. Japan Heart Foundation (日本 心臓 財団 ) (in Japanese).喉仏 の変身 . Archived from the original on 2020-12-26. Retrieved 2021-03-29.- explains that the nodobotoke (Adam's apple), which is cartilage, is not the nodobotoke found in cremations. The latter is actually the second vertebra, a bone distant from the former.
- ^ Allan H. Smith (Apr 19, 1960), "The Culture of Kabira, Southern Ryūkyū Islands", Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, 104 (2): 134–171 JSTOR 985656 (pp. 170-171).
- ^ Wallace, Bruce (July 4, 2007). "Home run king and gentleman". The Los Angeles Times.
- ^ Nakata, Hiroko (July 28, 2009). "Japan's funerals deep-rooted mix of ritual, form". The Japan Times. Retrieved 2021-03-29.
- ^ "Burial chamber may be oldest in Japan". The Japan Times. 2000-03-28. Retrieved 2012-12-30.
- ^ The Hankyoreh 2001.9.6 [1](in Korean) "일본식 닮은 영산강가 5~6세기 고분" (Yeongsan River (영산강) kofuns were made in 5th and 6th centuries are similar to the Japanese style Kofun)
- ^ William M. Bodiford, "Zen in the Art of Funerals: Ritual Salvation in Japanese Buddhism," History of Religions 32, no. 2 (1992): 152.
- ^ Bodiford, "Zen in the Art of Funerals," 152.
- ^ Martin Collcutt, Five Mountains: The Rinzai Zen Monastic Institution in Medieval Japan (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1981), 73.
- ^ William M Bodiford, Sōtō Zen in Medieval Japan (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1993), 199.
- ^ Bodiford, Soto Zen in Medieval Japan, 191.
- ^ Nara, Yasuaki (1995). "May the Deceased Get Enlightenment! An Aspect of the Enculturation of Buddhism in Japan". Buddhist-Christian Studies. 15: 25. doi:10.2307/1390033. JSTOR 1390033.
- ^ Nara, "May the Deceased Get Enlightenment!", 25.
- ^ Bernard Faure, The Rhetoric of Immediacy: A Cultural Critique of Chan/Zen Buddhism (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1991), 193.
- ^ Duncan Ryuken Williams, The Other Side of Zen: A Social History of Soto Zen Buddhism in Tokugawa Japan (Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2005), 38.
- ^ Williams, The Other Side of Zen, 41.
- ^ Wakabayashi, Daisuke; Sekiguchi, Toko (2011-03-22). "After Flood, Deaths Overpower Ritual". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved March 27, 2011.
- ^ "Emperor, Empress plan to be cremated". The Japan Times. Archived from the original on November 18, 2013. Retrieved November 21, 2013.