Japan, the ancestors and grave matters. Part One

Some of you may be familiar with my stories on matters regarding death in Japan and the role of temples in guiding the departed soul to the afterlife. Certainly being dead in Japan is not as easy as it is in the UK. In Britain you die, people cry (maybe), they bury you and then all go down the pub. If you are in a very, very close sexual relationship then you stand a chance of being actually missed on a regular basis for a good period of time. As a general relative the deceased will start to loose a place in memory very quickly. As a colleague and friend, often a chance whimsical thought will resurrect a dead person for a moment or two in a year but over time you are forgotten.

In the UK you are most certainly of very little value as a dead person. If you are cremated you are but dust but if you are in the earth at least you still own a small plot of land until such time as no-one knows who you were and a new supermarket needs to be built where you are "resting". In our western consumer society we are only any good whilst we are buying things or selling things, if you are a king or a queen and your face will sell on a commemorative mug then you have some value after death but for most of us we are simply dispensed with.

In Japan things are very, very different, in Japan even after death you are still an intrinsic part of both life and the economy. The bodies get burnt but that is no reason why the memory of that person should loose any economic value, indeed, if a real cost/benefit relationship analysis was performed, the average japanese person is at their most productive when they are dead!

As an economy Japan is a vibrant thriving hub of trade and commerce. True, they have had what are called ten lost years, have huge national debt and are stuck between declining American power and rising Chinese power. However, compare Japan to the UK and what do you find, one country living in the 21st Century with a dynamic population who know how to work hard, make money and, most importantly, save it (Japan has found its savings rate decline but "In short, Japan’s national savings still exceed its domestic investment, allowing Japan to be a net capital exporter."), the other country, the UK, is in terminal sociological decline, a policy mess from top to bottom and still waiting to get a railway system like Japan had thirty years ago.

Just go shopping in the local arcade in Mushashi-Koyama, one of these every kilometre or so across Tokyo, and you will see rampant commerce in action. Within this consumer hive you will most likely find a shop which sells "family shrines" and all of the paraphernalia of the spiritual needs of a family home.

The family shrines are the most important spiritual feature of Japanese domesticity. Families will have something to a greater or lessor extent but it is very unlikely to find a home without any spiritual furniture at all.

The shop in the Mushashi-Koyama arcade is a veritable treasure trove of statues, cabinets, incense burners and all manner devices which will help provide the family fortunes with divine benevolence.  In the image here we can even see a statue of Daikokusen, one of the most important of the seven lucky gods of Japan.

The cabinets are the receptacles for a shrine, be it Buddhist or Shinto (and both is really the only option therefore two cabinets need to be bought), and they do not come cheap. In fact I found all of the prices to be somewhat on the mountainous side however, when it comes to the favour of the gods skimping is only an option for the foolish.

These family shrines require regular daily attendance. Gifts to the gods need to be provided in the form of wines, beers, fruit and even packets of cigarettes. On specific holidays traditionbal rice cakes and family meals need to be shared in the family shrine so when meals are served there will be trays to take to the gods. The Buddhist Temples and the Shinto Shrines will provide certain artefacts absolutely necessary for spiritual harmony of the family. At all important holidays people will queue, sometimes for hours, to obtain these offerings from a religious institution they favour or is related in some way to their family history. The cost of all of these materials of ritual are variable; the more you want to pay the more the institution will sell you. Once again, skimping is seen to be very bad form and of course as much of this spirituality is publicly visible both inside and outside of the home, being seen as spiritually mean can affect the esteem in which a family may be held, or so the priests and monks will advise.

But the priest and monks are not the real power in this family spirituality. In the home it is the ancestors who watch over all proceedings and they are ever present. One of my jobs this visit has been to set two of the ancestors in new frames as the earthquake of March 2011 caused them to fall and break. As this was the biggest earthquake in the recorded history of earthquakes I escaped blame for any perceived shoddiness of my work to secure them previously. But this time I had to ensure that all were fixed to the wall in such a way that even if there was a direct hit by a meteorite on the house, the ancestors would remain staring down on us stony faced.