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28 | Fall 2011 • Vol. 35 .No. 3

G E N E R AT IO N S – Journal of the American Society on Aging

Copyright © 2011 American Society on Aging; all rights reserved. This article may not be duplicated, reprinted or distributed in any form without written permission from the publisher: American Society on Aging, 71 Stevenson St., Suite 1450, San Francisco,CA 94105-2938; e-mail: [email protected].

More than two decades ago, Barbara Myerhoff noted the sparse cultural demarcations of old age in America, where “the stark beginning” of senescence is crudely marked by retirement and its end with a funeral. Although some events, such as moving to senior housing, using a hearing aid, or giving up driving, might denote the phases of aging, these happen- ings are normally regarded as “failures and signposts indicat- ing that the end is ever nearer” (Myerhoff, 1984).

Since then, the impending mass retirement of 77 million baby boomers has changed the culture of aging, “reinventing” old age and altering the life course. Yet the fact remains that the continuing ceremonial under-service—lack of rites of passage—to retirement (Sav- ishinsky, 2002) and the absence of life-marking events in later

years require older Americans to negotiate and maneuver through aging processes with little cultural guidance.

The situation is quite different in my native Japan, where culture prescribes the rites of passage from ages 60 to 111. One of my vivid childhood memories is of an elderly man, clad in a red vest and a red cap like a newborn baby, sitting on a red cushion, and surrounded by

many people. He was celebrat- ing his kanreki or sixtieth birthday. Kanreki warranted a big celebration because in earlier times not many Japanese lived to reach that age, and also because it was an auspicious occasion when two zodiac signs of his birth year—one in the

ten-year cycle and the other in the twelve-year cycle—con- verged again. He had completed a full circle to attain “rebirth,” which was symbolized by his baby attire.

Today, with the average life expectancy of nearly eighty years for Japanese men and eighty-six for women, kanreki has become most meaningful as the age of mandatory retire- ment. Nonetheless, many high

schools, including mine, hold a reunion in the year when the graduates of each class have reached kanreki.

Kanreki is the first of a series of auspicious birthdays acknowledged by Japanese culture. It is followed by koki (seventieth), kiju (seventy-

By Yohko Tsuji

Rites of Passage to Death and Afterlife in Japan

A series of auspicious birthdays and mortuary rituals offers Japanese elders a smoother path to death and afterlife—but social change has impacts on these intricate rituals and those who practice them.

A series of auspicious birthdays provides occasions for rejoicing and reflecting on the elders’ long lives and ‘initiates’ them to different stages of old age.

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seventh), sanju (eightieth), beiju (eighty-eighth), sotsuju (nineti- eth), hakuju (ninety-ninth), jôju (one hundredth), chaju (one- hundred-eighth), and kôju (one-hundred-eleventh). Except for the last few, which are rare, these milestone birth- days are widely recognized in Japan. They provide occa- sions for rejoicing and reflect- ing on the elders’ long lives and “initiate” them to different stages of old age. Hence, these special birthdays may be regarded as culturally guided rites of passage to death.

Japanese culture also prescribes rites of passage even after one’s death in a tradition of ancestor worship. This article focuses on these rituals for the dead and considers their significance for elderly Japanese, and the impacts of recent social changes on mortuary rituals and those who practice them.

The Japanese Mortuary Tradition I did not realize how closely the dead are integrated into Japanese daily experience until I moved to America, where death is secluded. In my family, like many other Japanese families, every morning my grandmother would offer tea, flowers, and freshly cooked rice at the family altar to honor the spirits of our ancestors. It was customary to offer sweets, snacks, and fruit before our consumption. We children

also reported our grades to our forebears.

The priest from our family temple came four times a month to chant a sutra on the monthly death anniversaries of my grandfather and three uncles. Though all of them had died long before I was born, they remained an important part of our family. Occasional visits to the family grave, especially during the religious weeks marked by equinoxes

and mid-summer, also served to keep the dead “alive” in the world of the living.

The Japanese mortuary tradition also offers well- defined guidance before and after death. The nearness of death is signified by matsugo no mizu, the rite of the last water, in which next of kin wet the lips of the dying person. After some- one dies, a wake, a funeral, a cremation, and a bone-picking ceremony occur (cremation in

A traditional family grave in Japan.

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Japan produces bones, not ashes, because the remains are cremated at a lower tempera- ture), and a feast follows. More rituals continue every seven days until the forty-ninth day after death, and again on the one-hundredth day. Then a series of periodic rituals succeeds at the first, third, seventh, thirteenth, seven- teenth, twenty-third, twenty- seventh, thirty-third, and fiftieth death anniversaries.

These rituals serve as rites of passage to ancestorhood. The ritual on the forty-ninth day after death is “a turning point” (Smith, 1974) when the spirit of the newly deceased, which is believed to have been in limbo between this world and the other world, enters the realm of the dead and becomes a new Buddha (nii-botoke). Hence, the forty-ninth–day ceremony is more elaborate and has more attendees than other weekly post-funeral services. It is also accompanied by a feast. Similarly, the ritual during the first mid-summer after death (niibon) transforms the new Buddha (nii-botoke) to Buddha (hotoke) and indicates “the deceased is clearly on his or her way to ancestorhood” (Hamabata, 1990).

In this manner, Japanese mortuary rituals guide the deceased in their journey through the different post- mortem stages, first from the spirit of the newly dead to new Buddha, then to Buddha, and

finally to ancestor. With the passage of time, those who personally knew the deceased may also pass away. Yet memo- rial rituals continue for each departed individual and collectively for ancestors.

The Japanese household plays a crucial role in caring for the dead. This role of the family in ancestor worship has a political origin in the Meiji period (1868–1912) and is closely tied to the ie, the family system (Tsuji, 2002). The Meiji Civil Code (1898) established the ie as a legal entity to which every subject must belong. By granting its head an authority over other family members and imposing on him the responsi- bility for a family’s mainte- nance and behavior, the law transformed each household into an effective state agent to control every citizen.

The continuity of the ie became an important national concern. The Meiji Civil Code specified the rule of male primogeniture, or succession by the eldest son. This son and his family stayed with his parents to form a three-generation family. The law also provided alternative rules in case this ideal was not achieved.

To legitimize the ie as a perpetual entity, ancestor

worship was demanded as an important ie duty. A variety of burial practices that had existed previously were banned and replaced by a family grave in which generations of household ancestors were

buried together. The Civil Code also stipulated that the family grave and altar, as well as other items for ancestral rites, be a part of the family estate and that they be passed down from one generation to the next.

Though the Meiji Civil Code was relinquished and the ie system was abolished after World War II, the ie-based ideology of death survived in the new Civil Code promul- gated in 1948 (Tsuji, 2002). In contemporary Japan, the family remains the primary caretaker of the dead. The unit of burial continues to be the family, and most Japanese tombstones are inscribed “The X Family’s Ancestral Tomb.”

Significance of Mortuary Rituals for Elders Japanese mortuary rituals provide elders with a role in their family. In most Japanese households, elderly women are the primary caretakers of the ancestors. Older men may not be involved in daily ancestral rituals, but normally they

‘I did not realize how closely the dead are integrated into Japanese daily experience until I moved to America, where death is secluded.’

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assume the post of chief mourn- er at the funeral and of sponsor at major memorial rituals.

These rituals also contribute to identifying who one is and where one comes from. Most families may not have a formal pedigree document, but Japa- nese generally have good knowledge of their forebears beyond their immediate family. Elderly family members who knew the deceased of several ascending generations relate stories of them. To the younger descendants who never met the deceased, these stories, and the mortuary rituals, serve to transform long-dead ancestors into familiar figures. Even distant ancestors, whom no living members of the family remember, can be traced in “the book of the past,” kept at the family temple, and which records all the deaths in the family over the past hundred years. By showing genealogical continuity, Japanese mortuary rituals reveal one’s origin—a vital component of identity.

Culturally prescribed remembrances of the dead also serve as a remedy for coping with the loss of a loved one. For example, the weekly memorial services after the funeral not only offer opportunities to mourn together and share memories, but also mark the passage of time and help structure the survivors’ lives. Because American culture does not prescribe such a well-de- fined post-mortem path, I had to

make many decisions on my own after my husband’s death. This experience opened my eyes to the collective wisdom of the Japanese mortuary traditions; until then I had regarded them as tedious and demanding.

Daily, monthly, seasonal, and periodical rituals for the dead also link the world of the living to the world of the dead, which meet at the Buddhist altar and the family grave. These rituals have positive effects on elders because the knowledge of joining the ancestral group and being cared for after death by the descendants helps to “mitigate the pain of aging” (Lebra, 1984). It also comforts elders to know that death is not “complete obliteration” (Myer- hoff and Tufte, 1975), because they will be remembered for many years after their passing. Since death and the afterlife occupy an important part in the Japanese experience of growing old, many old-age homes have a community room with a Buddhist altar for their resi- dents to remember their deceased relatives (Bethel, 1992; Thang, 2001).

The close connection between the living and the dead also eases the passage to death. Susan Orpett Long reports the case of a woman with terminal cancer who wished to live until the mid-summer bon religious holiday, when the spirits of the dead return to visit the living. She said that if she survived until bon, her de-

ceased father would take her to the other world and become the teacher for her new experience (Long, 2005).

Impacts of Social Change on Mortuary Rituals As the Japanese family has gone through many transfor- mations, the assurance of posthumous care is now in jeopardy. Traditional three- generation families, which played a pivotal role in ances- tor worship (and the care of elders), have drastically diminished in number. Nuclear families are also in decline, with a steady increase of couple-only and single-person households. Moreover, the birthrate is alarmingly low, while divorce and remarriage are on the rise (Thang, 2001; Raymo and Kaneda, 2003).

These changes have under- mined the family as a perpetual entity and produced a growing number of people without patrilineal (traced through male line) descendants who traditionally take care of the family grave and the ancestors. A shortage of grave sites and their exorbitant cost aggravate this problem. Consequently, non-traditional ways of caring for the dead have emerged.

Eitai kuyô bo, eternally worshipped graves, are built by temples and other religious or nonreligious organizations. Individuals may be buried separately in their own graves, but at most of these sites, bones

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are consolidated in one grave, not with family ancestors, but with nonrelatives. Burial under a tree, or jumokusô, is gaining popularity. In a clearing in the woods, a deep hole is dug to bury an individual’s bones. Instead of a tombstone, a flowering shrub is planted with a tag bearing the deceased’s name.

Both eternally worshipped graves and burials under trees make posthumous care possible without “proper” descendants. The family is not responsible for maintaining the grave and memorializing the dead, because cemetery operators, who are paid for their services, assume these tasks. Furthermore, these types of graves need not be passed down to their buyers’ descendants. These features indicate the diminishing importance of the ie principle in posthumous care and the transformation of the grave from an important family asset to an individual’s eternal resting place.

Denial of the ie concept is more apparent in the third type of non-conventional burial, which involves scattering bones in the sea or mountains. This practice, called shizensô, removes the need of a grave altogether. Although shizensô involves neither graves nor ancestor worship, it does not sever the link between the dead and the living. Some survivors regularly visit the place where their loved one’s bones were scattered. Others keep a very small amount of bone fragments

at home to remember the deceased. Moreover, the idea underlying shizensô—unity of nature and humans, humans and nonhumans, and the living and the dead—renders the boundaries between them permeable, keeping this world and the other world close, and providing survivors with the feeling that the dead person has returned to nature. This view, together with its low cost (about $1,200), accounts for shizensô’s steadily growing popularity.

These new rituals for the dead not only provide pragmatic solutions to the problem of posthumous care, but also enable contemporary Japanese to make choices not possible in traditional rituals. While the absence of descendants may compel childless couples and single women to buy eternally worshipped graves, some married women who have both a family grave and a son pur- chase them to avoid posthu- mous co-residence with their mother-in-law or husband, with whom they did not get along.

Some tombs reflect indi- vidual choices. Instead of a traditional grave with the inscription of “The X Family’s Ancestral Tomb,” some choose a monument of natural stone inscribed with a Chinese character of their choice—love, dream, or serenity, for example. Another choice is a more novel form of grave, such as a tailor’s tombstone shaped like a man’s suit or a skier’s marker that

resembles a mountain slope. Some people even host a living funeral, marking the passage to death before death, to celebrate their life with family and friends while they can still witness the event.

Despite these recent examples of individuality, many Japanese manage to continue traditional mortuary rituals with the help of their family and professionals from the fast-growing funeral industry and other commercial services.

Conclusion An eminent anthropologist described death as “the sup- reme and final crisis of life” (Malinowski, 1948). While American culture treats this crisis with a sense of finality and provides little guidance for it, Japanese culture handles it differently. A sequence of culturally prescribed milestone birthdays offers a map for the progression of old age that eventually terminates in death. Traditional mortuary rituals link the world of the living to the world of the dead and, as a

‘Japanese bookstores sell many how-to books on mortuary rituals, and nationally circulated newspapers place half- page advertisements for graves.’

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result, not only smooth the journey to death, but also mark other important rites of passage in the afterlife. In short, Japa- nese mortuary rituals are rituals of continuity. They proclaim where one came from and where one will go, as well as that death is not the ultimate end of a human life and the deceased continue on in survivors’ lives.

The world of the dead remains an important part of Japanese life, and serious considerations are given to assuring posthumous security and comfort, whether people are adopting new rituals or adhering to traditional ones. Though many Japanese may feel that honoring the mortuary tradition is difficult (as I did before my husband’s death), the prospect of not having an abode

and a caretaker for their posthumous life generates a great deal of anxiety, epito- mized by a phenomenon called muen-shi or “unconnected death.” Annually, more than 32,000 Japanese die alone, with their remains left unnoticed and decaying in their residences for weeks and even months. The large number of such deaths generates real concern among elders as well as younger people prone to social isolation.

Japanese preoccupation with the afterlife contributes not only to the perpetuation of traditional mortuary rituals, but also to the invention of new types of rituals that relieve this anxiety. Japanese book- stores sell many how-to books on mortuary rituals, and nationally circulated newspa-

pers place half-page adver- tisements for graves. Many Japanese also pay an unrealis- tically high price for a small cemetery plot and a tomb- stone. Others sign contracts for eternally worshipped graves or burials under trees, whereas some decide to have their bones scattered in nature.

What persists amid myriad changes and diversifications of mortuary practices is the continuing significance of mortuary rituals in Japanese culture. Professionalization and commercialization of these rituals help the Japanese to keep practicing them in a rapidly changing social milieu.

Yohko Tsuji, Ph.D., is adjunct associate professor of anthropology at Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y.

References Bethel, D. L. 1992. “Life on Oba- suteyama, or, Inside a Japanese Institution for the Elderly.” In Lebra, T. K., ed., Japanese Social Organization. Honolulu, Hawaii: University of Hawaii Press.

Hamabata, M. M. 1990. Crested Kimono: Power and Love in the Japanese Business Family. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.

Lebra, T. K. 1984. Japanese Women: Constraint and Fulfillment. Honolulu, Hawaii: University of Hawaii Press.

Long, S. O. 2005. Final Days: Japanese Culture and Choice at the End of Life. Honolulu, Hawaii: University of Hawaii Press.

Malinowski, B. 1948. Magic, Science and Religion and Other Essays. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday.

Myerhoff, B. 1984. “Rites and Signs of Ripening: The Intertwining of Ritual, Time, and Growing Older.” In Kertzer, D. I., and Keith, J., eds., Age and Anthropological Theory. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.

Myerhoff, B., and Tufte, V. 1975. “Life History as Integration: An Essay on an Experiential Model.” The Gerontologist 15(6): 541–3.

Raymo, J. K., and Kaneda, T. 2003. “Changes in the Living Arrange- ments of Japanese Elderly: The Role of Demographic Factors.” In Traphagan, J. W., and Knight, J., eds., Demographic Change and the Family in Japan’s Aging Society. Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York Press.

Savishinsky, J. 2002. “Creating the Right Rite of Passage for Retire- ment.” Generations 26(2): 80–2.

Smith, R. J. 1974. Ancestor Worship in Contemporary Japan. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press.

Thang, L. L. 2001. Generations in Touch: Linking the Old and Young in a Tokyo Neighborhood. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.

Tsuji, Y. 2002. “Death Policies in Japan: The State, the Family, and the Individual.” In Goodman, R., ed., Family and Social Policy in Japan: Anthropological Perspectives. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

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