Japanese funeral
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A Japanese funeral includes a wake, the cremation of the deceased, a burial in a family grave, and a periodic memorial service. 99% of all deceased Japanese are cremated. Most of these are then buried in a family grave, but scattering of the ashes has become more popular in recent years, including a burial at sea and even on rare occasions a burial in space. The average cost for a Japanese funeral is USD 40,000, the most expensive in the world. One main reason for the high cost is the scarcity of funeral plots (it is almost impossible to buy a grave in Tokyo).
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Modern funerals
After death
While Japan has a mixture of Shinto and Buddhist beliefs, funerals are almost always Buddhist ceremonies, and 90% of the funerals are Buddhist style. After death, the deceased's lips are moisted with water, in a ceremony called "Water of the last moment" Matsugo-no-mizu. The household shrine is closed and covered with a white paper, to keep out the impure spirits of the dead. This is called Kamidana-fuji. A small table decorated with flowers, incense, and a candle are placed next to the deceased's bed. A knife may be put on the chest of the deceased to drive away evil spirits.
The relatives and the authorities are informed and a death certificate is issued. Organization of the funeral is usually the responsibility of the eldest son. A temple is contacted to schedule a funeral. Superstition believes certain days better for a funeral than others. For example, some days are known as tomobiki, literally "Friend pulling", which is great for weddings, but to be avoided for funerals, as nobody wants to follow a dead person into the grave. The body is washed and the orifices are blocked with cotton or gauze. The last clothes are usually a suit for males and a kimono for females. A kimono for men is also sometimes used, but is less common. Make-up may also be applied to improve the appearance of the body. The body is put on dry ice in a casket, and a white kimono, sandals, 6 coins for the crossing of the River of three hells, and burnable items the deceased was fond of (for example, cigarettes and candy) are placed in the casket. The casket is then put on an altar for the wake. The body is placed with the head towards the north or, as a second choice, towards the west.
Wake
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While in former times white clothes were worn for funerals, nowadays all guests for the funeral wear black. Men wear a black suit with a white shirt and a black tie, and women wear either a black dress or a black kimono. The black is of a special pitch-black shade. A Buddhist prayer bead called Juzu may be carried by the guests. A guest will bring condolence money in a special black and silver decorated envelope. Depending on the relation to the deceased and the wealth of the guest, this may be of a value equivalent to between USD 30 and USD 300. The guests are seated, with the next of kin closest to the front. The Buddhist priest will read a sutra. The family members will each in turn offer incense three times to the incense urn in front of the deceased. The wake ends once the priest has completed the sutra. Each departing guest is given a gift, which has a value of about half or one quarter of the condolence money received from this guest. The closest relatives may stay with the deceased overnight in the same room.
Funeral
The funeral is usually on the day after the wake. The procedure is similar to the wake, and incense is offered while a priest chants a sutra. The ceremony differs slightly as the deceased receives a new Buddhist name (kaimyo). This name supposedly prevents the return of the deceased if his name is called. The length and prestige of the name depend also on the size of the donation of the relatives to the temple, which may range from a cheap and free name to the most elaborate names for USD 10,000 or more. The high prices charged by the temples are a controversial issue in Japan, especially since some temples put pressure on families to buy a more expensive name. The kanjis for these kaimyo are usually very old and rarely used ones, and few people nowadays can read them. At the end of the funeral ceremony, flowers may be placed in the casket before it 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.
Cremation
The coffin is placed on a tray in the crematorium. The family witnesses the sliding of the body into the cremation chamber. 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 chopsticks, two relatives always holding the same bone at the same time with their chopsticks (or, according to some sources, passing the bones from chopsticks to chopsticks). This is the only time in Japan when it is proper for two people to hold the same item at the same time with chopsticks. At all other times, holding anything with chopsticks by two people at the same time, or passing an item from chopsticks to chopsticks will remind all bystanders of the funeral of a close relative and is considered to be a major social faux pas. The bones of the feet are picked up first, and the bones of the head last. This is to ensure that the deceased is not upside down in the urn. The Adam's apple is the most significant bone to be put in the urn.
In some cases, the ashes may be divided between more than one urn, for example if part of the ashes are to go to a family grave, and another part to the temple, or even to a company grave or a burial in space. Many companies, for example, have company graves for their employees in the largest Japanese graveyard on Mount Koya.
Depending on the local custom the urn may stay at the family home for a number of days, or be taken directly to the graveyard.
Graves
A typical Japanese grave is usually a family grave (Japanese: haka) consisting of a stone monument, with a place for flowers, incense, and water in front of the monument and a chamber or crypt underneath for the ashes.
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 a widow is waiting to follow her husband 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 sotoba, a separate wooden board on a stand behind or next to the grave. These sotoba 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.
Memorial services
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. 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.
History
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In Japanese history, famous leaders were often buried in tombs. The oldest known burial chamber was that built between 230 BC and 220 BC 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 usage of burial mounds for important leaders became more freqent. Japan developed its unique keyhole shaped burial mounds. These burial mounds called Kofun (古墳 - the word is used for burial mounds of all shapes), and the period from 250 to 538 is called the Kofun period. Although it was believed around 50 years ago that these mounds had initially been influenced by burial mounds in Korea, Yayoi period mounds are generally regarded as their predecessors. There is a large number of these burial mounds all over Japan, most of which have a keyhole shaped outline with a length of up to 400 m. The largest is the tomb of Emperor Nintoku in Sakai near Osaka, with a length of 486 m, covering an area of 300,000 square metres. They are usually surrounded by a moat, unless they are constructed on a hill. The round half of the burial mound contains a burial chamber. In the 6th century, round and square burial mounds came into use. The usage of burial mounds is believed to have gradually stopped either with the introduction of Buddhism in Japan in 552 or 538, or with the establishment of the capital in Nara by the Empress Gemmei of Japan in 710. Instead, family tombs were constructed with an access passage to add relatives to the tomb after their death.
During much of the history of Japan, a special ritual suicide called seppuku (切腹, literally "cutting the stomach") or hara-kiri (written with the same kanji in reverse order 腹切). Seppuku was a key part of bushido, the code of the samurai warriors; it was used by warriors to avoid falling into enemy hands, and to rid oneself of shame. Samurai could also be ordered by their daimyo (feudal lord) to commit seppuku. In later years, disgraced warriors were sometimes allowed to commit seppuku rather than be executed in the normal manner.
Seppuku was officially abolished during the Meiji Restoration in 1868, but did not completely die out. Dozens of people are known to have committed seppuku since then, including a large group of military men who committed suicide in 1895 as a protest against the return of a conquered territory to China; by General Nogi and his wife on the death of Emperor Meiji in 1912; and by numerous soldiers and civilians who chose to die rather than surrender at the end of World War II. As of 2004 the last persons to have committed seppuku are Yukio Mishima and one follower in 1970.
Death-related words in Japanese
Japanese has a large number of different words related to death. Not all of these are still commonly used in Japan.
- jisatsu for suicide
- Seppuku and hara-kiri for ritual suicide
- inseki jisatsu, suicide due to feeling guilty - this is still common in Japan
- junshi, following one's Lord into death
- jumonji giri, a version of seppuku with a second and more painful vertical cut across the belly
- shinju for double suicide, and also more recently also for murder suicides
- joshi for a double suicide of lovers - this is still common in Japan
- oyako shinju for a double suicide of parent and child
- bohsi shinju for a double suicide of mother and child
- fushi shinju for a double suicide of father and child
- ikka shinju for a family suicide
- muri shinju for murder suicide
- goi shinju for voluntary suicide (as opposed to murder suicide)
- funshi for suicide to express indignation - for example, that of Yukio Mishima)
- tonshi for unexpected, sudden death
The following terms are archaic expressions from the Hagakure, a practical and spiritual guide for a warrior, written between 1709 and 1716:
- oibara, to follow one's Lord into death by seppuku
- maebara, to precede one's Lord into death by seppuku
- sakibara, to follow one's Lord into death by seppuku after the death of the lord
- kobara, suicide to protect one's children
- rokubara, suicide to protect one's family
Trivia
The town of Shingo in Aomori prefecture claims to be the last resting-place of Jesus, buried in the Tomb of Jesus.
Many companies have company graves in the largest graveyard in Japan, Okuno-In on Mount Koya, burial place of Kukai (774 - 835). These graves are for former company employees and their relatives, and often have a gravestone related to the company business. For example, the coffee company UCC has a gravestone in the shape of a coffee cup, and a metal rocket sits on top of the gravesite of an aeronautics company.
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.
The high prices of funeral plots, costing on average USD 25,000, has lead to a new service of Grave Apartments (Ohaka no manshon), where a locker sized grave can be purchased for USD 4,000. Some of these may even include a touch screen showing a picture of the deceased, messages, a family tree, and other information.
People who kill themselves by jumping in front of a train in Japan are often charged by the railway company for the cost of the delays and clean-up. Of course, with the person being dead, the money is deducted from the relatives' inheritance, often giving the impression that the relatives are being charged for the person's having died. This is also an attempt by the railway companies to reduce the number of suicides by train. The most popular railway line for suicides in Tokyo is the Chuo Main Line between Tokyo and Shinjuku, owing to the high speed and frequency of the trains. Since 1995 1,210 people have committed suicide on the lines of Japanese railways, 156 of them on the Chuo line.
See also
External links
- Japanese Buddhist Funeral Customs (http://tanutech.com/japan/jfunerals.html)
- Japanese funeral checklist (http://www.osoushiki-plaza.com/eng/eng1.html)
- The Japanese way of death (http://www3.tky.3web.ne.jp/~edjacob/deathintro.htm)