I went back to the big temple/shrine which is down the road from my flat last week. Ella wanted to take some pictures so I thought I’d tag along and go check the cemetary properly as I didn’t get a chance to do so the first time we went - I was too busy checking out the rest of the site.
I don’t know what it is about cemetaries in this country, but I find them to be deeply fascinating places. I guess the way people treat their dead is a certain indication as to how the society itself is - for example in Mexico the dead are treated like normal people, and their lives celebrated with music and festivities rather than silence and sombre. I’ve always felt that was a more fitting way to celebrate the lives of those who passed than the more traditional European celebrations, which are pretty sober affairs generally.
The Japanese do have a lot of respect for their dead - and the cemetaries display that with stones, statues, incense pots, drinks and plants which are neatly arranged and kept for the most part. I don’t think Japanese cemetaries are necessarily all that different to cemetaries everywhere else, but for some reason they just interest me. Maybe it’s the fact that Shinto and Buddhism co-habit in seeming peace in this country and so the cemetaries have features and displays which I’ve never seen anywhere else. What’s more they don’t have the same aura that cemetaries back home emanate. They feel a lot more peaceful and inviting.
Anyways I took a bunch of pictures of stones, markings, statues and interesting little bits whilst I was there. You can see them here:
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June 21st, 2007 at 11:00 pm
:cool: Interesting reading your views on Japanese cemetries. Being a frequent visitor of the cementry in Ostiglia (Italy) I must admit that the Italians do respect their deceased however its more in the tragedy (even worse if the person has died tragically) and the suffering of no longer being there, than in the spirituality of live goes on, we care for you and you’re close by watching over me from above.
bisou
Mum
June 22nd, 2007 at 1:29 pm
I recommend you read up on the Japanese cremation ceremony…it’s pretty grizzly stuff. Basically the body is not burn to ashes, but down to bones. Then family members pick out the bones with chopsticks and pass them round in a circle (hence why passing food from chopsticks to chopsticks is a faux pas), then the cerematorium workers bash the bones into little bits. Then part of the ashes/bones is buried (called 分骨).
Just a different way to treat the dead, but obviously not the “We don’t want to see the process” cremation ceremony of Europe (?).
June 22nd, 2007 at 1:32 pm
thanks for the tip on that… yeah I knew about the chopsticks thing but didn’t know why exactly that was the case, makes a lot of sense now. And definitely sounds quite interesting. I do like the fact that as you said the whole process isn’t so shunted from the people left behind.
nice one!