This is part of an ongoing series about the Shinto manner of handling funerals and death. Though Buddhist funerals remain the norm, special Shinto funerals do take place and their ritual procedure is a little different. In this adapted piece … Read the rest
Category: Death (Page 4 of 7)
This is part of an ongoing series drawn from an academic article by Elizabeth Kenney. For a link to the original article, see Part One. The extracts below concern the time leading up to the funeral ceremony when the … Read the rest
This is the fourth in a series of articles about the Shinto funereal practices, adapted from an academic article by Elizabeth Kenney. (For a link to the original article, see Part I.)
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Encoffining
The chief mourner and other … Read the rest
3. Announcement of the death (to the ancestral altar, and shrines connected to the deceased.)
The Shinto death is reported to the kami (either in the family kamidana [house altar] or at a shrine). If the deceased or relatives had … Read the rest
The extracts below from Elizabeth Kenney’s article will bring to mind the 2008 Oscar-winning film called Okuribito (The Departed), which begins with the mesmerising scene detailing the extraordinary care and deference with which the corpse is ritually cleansed. There is … Read the rest
This series consists of adapted extracts from Elizabeth Kenney’s groundbreaking work on Shinto funerals, with her permission. Her remarkable research shows in graphic detail how the traditional Shinto arrangements differ from the more prevalent forms of Buddhist funeral and mourning. … Read the rest
Today being Halloween is a timely moment to think of the connections between the western tradition and that of Obon in Japan, which takes place in midsummer. Both centre around the spirits of the dead, but whereas Obon is … Read the rest