Funeral traditions in Japan: traditions, attitudes towards death. Funeral rite in Japan How the Japanese deal with the ashes

Japanese funeral is one of those things that reveal Japanese culture and show what a Man is in the Japanese representation. Today we will touch on this not entirely positive topic. From the article you will learn how and what ceremonies are performed at funerals in Japan, how the commemoration and the funeral itself take place.

Most often you can hear that funeral rituals combine Shinto and Buddhist traditions. In Shinto, national religion Japan, you can find many rituals, including funeral rites, which appeared in the development of a complex cultural history Japanese archipelago, for example: preparing the funeral of the eldest son or the eldest man in the family, or washing the body of the deceased. Buddhist funeral rites “came” to Japan from outside, and their meaning was to help the deceased go to the afterlife, and his soul to be reborn, if it does not break out of the cycle of life and death.

The strongest push for the merging of religions came in 1638, when the Japanese were required to officially adopt Buddhism in the temple.

The irony is that this was done to eradicate Christianity, not to ban Shinto. At the time, the law required Buddhist altars to be installed in Japanese homes, so many families had to move Shinto altars to other rooms.

Nowadays, almost all Japanese families hire a Buddhist priest to conduct funeral rituals. However, families and friends spend them in accordance with Shinto traditions.

Japanese funeral traditions

When a person dies, his body, if possible, should spend the last night at home in the futon in which the deceased used to sleep. Ice is placed around him, and his face is covered with a white cloth. Families, including children of all ages, and friends should immediately offer their condolences. It is not uncommon for people to sit next to the body of the deceased, touch it and talk to it as if it were still alive.

In the morning, a slow procession carries the body to the place where the funeral will take place. Depending on the possibilities of the family, this may be a temple or a more secular place.

Upon arrival, the body is dressed, placed in a coffin, which may be simple or beautifully decorated. Above the face of the deceased on the lid of the coffin is a small window. Then the coffin is transferred to a special place with candles, statues and flowers. The portrait of the deceased is placed in the middle of candles and incense, which should burn all the time next to the coffin.

Japanese commemoration

The wake begins, which in Japan are held before the funeral itself. Guests bring money in a special funeral envelope tied with a black and white rope. The amount of money is determined by how close the person was to the deceased.

The priest then sits down in front of the coffin and begins to recite the sutra. At this time, the family members of the deceased take turns approaching the coffin to pay respect to the deceased.

Usually everyone present should take granulated incense, hold it against their forehead and throw it into the burner, then pray and bow to the portrait of the deceased, and then to his family.

After everyone has finished this ritual and the priest has finished reciting the sutra, the guests leave, and the family and close relatives remain in the next room. The night vigil begins. It usually consists of long informal conversations, a light meal, which may include beer or sake among drinks, and a night's rest.

Funeral

The next morning, the family returns to the deceased, and the whole procedure is repeated again. Since this is a funeral itself, the clothes should be appropriate: a black suit with a tie and a white shirt for men, and a black dress or kimono for women.

It is believed that the funeral ends when the family, relatives and friends said goodbye to the deceased. The coffin is opened, flowers are distributed to guests and family to put them to the deceased. In some traditions, it is at this time that the lid of the coffin is nailed. Then everyone goes to the crematorium, where the coffin should be taken. If desired, the family can also light incense there. The closest relative of the deceased or the workers of the crematorium can kindle the stove. While the fire is burning, the relatives go to the funeral banquet.

Cremation

After everyone has eaten, the relatives gather in another room, where the crematorium staff brings inside the still hot stove with the remaining bones. Usually, workers also explain where the bone is, what disease the deceased could have had, and how the use of drugs affected the bones.

Everyone present with special sticks (one bamboo, the other willow, which symbolizes the bridge between the two worlds) passes the bones of the deceased to be placed in the urn. This the only case when two people touch the same object with chopsticks. In other cases, it will remind others of the funeral custom and be considered disrespectful.

Mothers may ask their children to use chopsticks to pick up and pass the bones of the head, which are believed to help develop mental faculties. Some may take certain bones to help with illness or injury.

Buddhist memorial traditions

The collected bones are returned to the house and placed on a Buddhist altar to be buried in the family cemetery some time later. The portrait of the deceased is placed nearby.

Buddhism involves a series of memorial ceremonies after death. They are the same as during the funeral (burning incense, recitation of sutras by the priest, prayers), but less formal. They are usually held at the home of the deceased's family.

Strict Buddhist traditions prescribe such ceremonies to be held every seven days after death until the 49th day. Often, when relatives do not have the opportunity to come or take time off from work, 2-3 such ceremonies are held until the 49th day. Thus begins the veneration of ancestors. From now on, according to Buddhism, another ceremony should be on the hundredth day and then every year until the fiftieth anniversary.

In Japan, there is very little room not only for life, but also for death. Burials and cemetery space are too expensive - up to $100,000 in downtown Tokyo. However, the Japanese found a way out in the form of small complexes with repositories of ashes. About the futuristic cemeteries of the Country rising sun tells the blog Cool Japan publications mother board.

Rurikoin building outside

The Rurikoin building resembles a multi-storey car park. In fact, this is a repository of urns with ashes. The technology of its work was created with the participation of Toyota Corporation, details are not disclosed, and photographing inside the building is limited. Internally, Rurikoin resembles a library. Each visitor has a personal card, through which he gets access to the "grave" of his loved ones and only to her.

The visitor applies a card, after which an ersatz plate with information about the deceased relative is pulled out. In addition, you can see photos from major events from his life

The columbarium Ruriden is located in Tokyo. It uses similar technology. Inside small room there are 2046 glass figures of the Buddha, each of which corresponds to the ashes of a particular person. When his relatives come to the columbarium, they activate the card, after which the desired “grave” is highlighted in a different color from the others.

The interior of the columbarium

The annual cost of maintaining one site in Ruriden is approximately $80, which is half that of ordinary Tokyo cemeteries. Human ashes are kept in Ruriden for 33 years, after which they are buried in the ground.

The Buddha in the upper left corner glows differently. So, the relatives of the one whose ashes lie behind him came

The Buddha lights up in a different color when relatives of the person the statue represents enter the columbarium. Urns with ashes are located directly behind the glass figurines.

Currently 600 mini-altars out of 2046 are in use, 300 more are reserved

Japanese society is rapidly aging: a quarter of the population are people over 65 years old. Caring for the graves of the dead is not only expensive, but there is no one. Places like Ruriden and Rurikoin partially solve this problem.

Ruriden visitor chooses her future burial site

The Rurikoin project has already attracted interest in Hong Kong, Singapore and China - these countries also have problems with burial places. But Rurikoin's developers don't want others to copy their futuristic graveyards, so they keep their technology secret.

The naughty children, screaming, ran into the memorial hall. They did not notice the framed portrait, or the flowers of mourning, or the saddened relatives who came in and out of the hall, preparing it for the evening ceremony. I almost knocked down the mistress of the cafeteria, I ran to catch up with my child. Catching him in my arms, I drew his attention to the center of the hall and to the portrait of a woman. And, briefly thinking about how to explain the situation to a two-year-old child, she said: “Do you see this woman? She died. There, on the street, are her relatives. They are very sad that she died. There is no need to run here. This is not good." Up to this point, my son and I have touched on the topic of the death of animals and plants, but he heard about the fact that man is also mortal for the first time. I didn't know how he would react to that. His reaction surprised me. He said, "I want to say 'I'm sorry'!" I thought again - this time about whether a two-year-old child should apologize for what he did out of ignorance. And she answered "If you want!". He wanted. He turned to the portrait and said, referring to the deceased woman, in Japanese: "Sorry!". Then he bowed to her and took my hand. I repeated my bow after him and turned around. The Japanese watched us with surprise.

This was the first time we encountered funeral rites and traditions in Japan. We didn't know the name of the woman, or even the name of the village where we stopped for lunch on the way, but decided to learn more about Japanese funeral traditions. About this - under the cut.

Many of our Japanese acquaintances adhere to both Buddhism and Shinto at the same time. According to them, joyful events - weddings - they celebrate according to Shinto rites, and sad ones - funerals - according to Buddhist ones.
Funeral rite in Japan, it includes preparing the deceased for burial, burial, burial, cremation, and burial.
After death, the lips of the deceased are smeared with water, a knife is placed on the chest to ward off evil spirits, flowers, incense and candles are placed at the head of the head. Relatives and superiors are notified, and the municipality issues a death notice. The body is washed and placed in a coffin. The next day, at the funeral service, a Buddhist priest reads passages from the sutra, and relatives and those invited to the funeral light incense three times in front of the deceased. Guests can bring money to relatives in specially designed envelopes tied with black and white ribbons.
As far as I understood, the hall we entered was prepared specifically for the funeral. He was in the village "community hall", reminiscent of our Russian "palaces of culture" in the villages. As it turned out, in Japan, such places are often rented to say goodbye to the dead.

The next day after the funeral, a person is buried. The priest is invited again, who this time not only reads the sutra and burns incense, but also assigns the deceased “kaimyo” - a new Buddhist name, in order not to disturb the soul of the deceased by mentioning his real name. The coffin is then placed in a decorated hearse and taken to the cremation site. The cremation procedure for an adult takes about two hours, after which the relatives place the bones of the deceased in an urn with large sticks. Relatives can keep the urn at home for several days, and then bury the ashes in the cemetery in the family grave.

Next case when we encountered funeral Japanese traditions came about unexpectedly. A scientist who worked in our scientific center I rode a bike at the weekend. Someone called him mobile phone. He answered the call, drove into the wall and died. This tragedy shook the entire campus. Everything was so sad that even Japanese men cried. The deceased left a non-working wife and two young children who attended our kindergarten. Friends organized a fundraiser for the funeral and set up a trust fund for the education of children. Almost the entire campus went to say goodbye to the deceased: buses were organized for colleagues, for parents from kindergarten and even for former neighbors from the neighborhood where this family once lived. Wishing to show respect to the deceased and his family, even foreigners went to the funeral. Trying not to violate Japanese funeral customs, we turned to an elderly Japanese woman who knew all the traditions in detail. She told us about the special dress code for the funeral and helped us choose the right clothes. Men must wear black suits with white shirts and black ties, women must wear black dresses, suits or kimonos. It turned out that in no case should one come to a funeral with gold jewelry, but women can wear a string of pearls. To our question why she knows these funeral traditions so well, she replied that her father was the mayor and her parents bequeathed to her all her life to show respect to all his voters, in particular, seeing them off to last way…

This is probably all I can say about funeral traditions in Japan. If you know more about them, or have heard something else - please share in the comments to this post.

Finally, in order not to end on a sad note, I will share a curious incident that happened to me a couple of months after arriving in Japan:
Cheerfully chatting and laughing, we returned with our son from a walk. Suddenly I heard mournful sounds and saw what looked like a hearse. He drove past and turned to our houses. The cargo part of the "hearse" was glazed and on red velvet was what I took for an urn with ashes. Of course, I immediately stopped having fun and my face took on an expression corresponding to this sad event. I decided that someone had died in our homes and their ashes were being transported last time for goodbye. It looked like this (video):

When I got home, I wrote a message to my neighbor asking who had died. She was surprised and said that she had not heard anything like it. Then I asked her if she had just heard mournful sounds coming from the street ... She replied that, of course, she had heard - every Tuesday the seller of fried sweet potatoes comes to our neighborhood and thus attracts the attention of buyers ...

Japan is the country where funerals are carried out mainly according to Buddhist rites.

Preparing for a funeral in Japan

A certificate stating that a person has passed away is issued by the local municipality, and the death of a person is reported to his supervisor and relatives. As a rule, the eldest son of the deceased is in charge of organizing and conducting the funeral in Japan. It is he who agrees with the temple on what date the ceremony will be scheduled, since there are certain days when the funeral cannot be held. They are called tomobiks, and it is believed that if a funeral is held on this day, then another death will come.

Body preparation

First, a traditional ceremony is held, which has already become mandatory. The so-called "ceremony of water" is the moistening of the lips of the deceased with water. Next to the bed where the deceased is located, they put a small table in size, it is decorated with incense, flowers and candles. Some Japanese put a knife on the chest of their deceased relative, the purpose of which is to protect themselves from evil spirits.

The body of the deceased is washed, and in order to plug the natural openings on the body of the deceased, a cloth such as cotton or gauze is used.

The clothes in which a person from Japan is buried are traditional and can differ only depending on the gender of the deceased. Men are buried in a kimono or in a suit, and women - only in a kimono. Regardless of whether it is a man or a woman, traditional makeup is applied to the deceased.

Then, the body is placed in a coffin on dry ice, sandals, a white kimono and six coins are placed near this place. The Japanese believe that these moments will help the deceased person to inflame for crossing the Sanza River. Among other things, things that the deceased loved during his lifetime are often placed in the coffin of the deceased. It can be candy, tobacco products or jewelry. After that, the coffin is erected on the altar in such a way that the head of the dead must necessarily be directed to the west or north.

Farewell to the dead Japan

In order to see off a deceased family member, relative or friend, guests come to say goodbye in black clothes. Women have the option of wearing a black kimono or dress, while men tend to choose a black suit, which is complemented by a tie of the same color and a white shirt. In the Japanese tradition, it is customary to express condolences materially, namely in this way: in a special envelope, which was previously decorated with black and silver flowers, money is transferred to the family in which the misfortune happened.

Everyone who gathered at the farewell ceremony is located next to the body of the deceased, and the Buddhist priest begins to read a passage from the sutra. In front of the place where the body of the deceased is located, incense is smoked three times by each member of his family. Guests also take part in this ritual, but do it in their places. The end of the sutra reading marks the end of the funeral process. Everyone disperses and only the closest relatives remain in order to serve the vigil.

Usually, in Japan, a person is buried the next day after the funeral was carried out. During the ceremony, the priest begins to read the sutra, incense is burned. The deceased is also assigned a new Buddhist name, which is given to him so that at the mention of his earthly name, the soul of the deceased would not be disturbed.

The completion of the ceremony is carried out as follows: the guests lay flowers on the shoulders and head of the deceased. After that, the coffin is placed in a decorative hearse, and the body itself is delivered to the crematorium. The cremation process takes about an hour and a half, and the family of the deceased is allowed to be in this process only at the beginning or at the end of the procedure.

The urn with the ashes can be either immediately taken to the cemetery, or it can be left at home for a certain time.

In Japan, the family grave is also the most common form of burial.

You can find information about all organizations providing funeral services in the cities of Belarus on the website of the directory of Funeral Services.

Death and funeral in Japan

The majority of the Japanese profess Buddhism and believe in obligatory samsara, that is, the relocation of the souls of the dead to one of the 6 worlds. Buddhist views and traditions thus affected the Japanese funeral rite.

He was also influenced by the traditional Japanese religion of Shintoism, which deified nature and divided everything into pure and impure. From his point of view, death was perceived as something extremely unclean. Therefore, the deceased himself must be cleansed, as well as the participants in the funeral after the ceremony.

Death

loved ones in Japan is perceived as a grievous loss (despite the belief that the spirit of the deceased will be incarnated in a new life). Therefore, mourning, including in public, and even crying is considered a common thing. However, the Japanese still do not express very violent feelings in connection with the death of their loved ones because of the restraint called for by national cultural codes.

Immediately after someone in the family has died, the relatives invite a Buddhist priest and a representative of the funeral agency to the house. The first must take care of the soul, the second - of the body of the deceased. But even before that, it is necessary to conduct an ancient rite called the “posthumous sip of water” (matsugo no mizu).

To do this, all family members in turn (which is organized according to the greatest family proximity of each of those present) must wipe the mouth of the deceased with cotton wrapped around a chopstick and soaked in water. The next step is to cleanse the body. Previously, this was done by relatives, now they are most often helped by a representative of the agency, and sometimes relatives do not take part in the washing at all.

First, the body is washed with hot water, then wiped with alcohol or another disinfectant liquid. Cotton swabs soaked in alcohol or sake are placed in the mouth, nostrils and anus so that impurities do not leak out (embalming bodies in Japan is not customary).

clothe

deceased differently. Often, a traditional kimono - kekatabira - is chosen for this. Previously, it was always white (i.e. mourning color) with the sutras written on it. Now white is invariably used for women's and children's burial clothes, while a man can be buried in a black suit with a white shirt or in a colored kimono.

The deceased is dressed in mortal clothing according to the Sakigoto tradition - that is, in a different (namely, reverse) order than the living usually wear. For example, buttons are fastened from the bottom up, kimonos are wrapped from right to left, etc. All this is done to separate world of the dead from the world of the living. On the legs of the deceased, leggings are usually put on (only for a kimono, and socks for a suit) and straw slippers. In this form, the deceased is placed in a coffin on a pre-spread white linen. Women are covered with a headscarf and a white veil, and on male body a quilted blanket is thrown, which must be turned inside out. The face of the deceased is tinted and covered with a white cloth, a rosary is placed in the hands, and a cloth bag is put over the shoulder.

All these clothes and paraphernalia seem to indicate that a person is prepared for a pilgrimage in order to become a Buddha. By the way, in Japan, when they talk about someone's death, they use the allegory "became a Buddha." And to scare away evil spirits, a knife is placed in the coffin: at the head or on the chest.

Further, according to the unchanging Japanese custom, a place at the coffin is arranged in a special way, which is placed next to the family altar with the head to the north, and the face of the deceased should be turned towards the west. An inverted screen and a special table with incense and other incense in censers, flowers, water and rice in a cup with chopsticks stuck vertically are placed at the head of the coffin. Sometimes you can see rice buns on it. A painted portrait of the deceased is hung on the wall. At the same time, the Japanese never use photographic images at funerals.

funeral services

the Japanese pass in 2 days. On the evening of the 1st day, the so-called short funeral vigil is held (it lasts 3 hours), before which the deceased is given a posthumous name (border). This name is necessary because, according to faith, the deceased becomes a disciple of the Buddha, a monk, who should now be called differently than in life. Everyone who wants to express condolences to the family comes to the first service.

At the end of it, it is customary to read telegrams of condolences and speak about the deceased, and then a short commemoration is organized. There is no meat on the table during them, but they are always treated with sweets, tea and sake. At night in modern Japan near the body may not be present. On the 2nd day, a memorial service is held in the temple before the funeral.

Funeral

in Japan, it is usually prescribed on the second day after the death of a person. Counts a good sign if a lot of people come to them. The clothes of the mourners are necessarily black kimonos, dresses and suits. Those who come bring money in envelopes made of special paper with a silver pattern. They are tied with black thin ribbons.

The last farewell to the deceased takes place after the temple service at the altar, after which the coffin is boarded up (often by relatives), placed in a decorated hearse, and the funeral procession leaves for the crematorium.

Cremation

The most popular type of burial in Japan. When it is carried out, the mourners in the next room should tell each other funny and touching stories from the life of the deceased.

After the time allotted for cremation has elapsed (usually it takes two to two and a half hours), the crematorium employees take out the ashes on a tray, from which the relatives transfer it to the urn with chopsticks.

First, they try to select the bones of the legs, then the pelvis and spine, then the arms and head. Subsequently, the urn with the ashes is embedded in a monument in the cemetery, which stands on the grave with family graves.

Monuments to the Japanese

always made of stone and, if possible, massive and beautiful. There are no portraits on them - only names. But the forms of stones are very diverse, up to sculptural compositions and complex memorial structures.

commemorate

their deceased Japanese usually on the days of the spring and autumn equinoxes. This is usually March 20 or 21 and September 23 or 24.

These days, everyone who can is trying to visit and put in order family graves and light candles and lanterns on them in order to illuminate the path through the afterlife for the souls of their ancestors. In some provinces, a similar feast of the dead is celebrated in April.