Cemeteries

A typical cemetery on a busy street in Shimodate. Most cemeteries have no green space and are crammed into small lots anywhere and everywhere; on a main street, on the side of a rail yard, around the next corner.

Saturday June 25, 2005

Most Japanese funeral services are held in a Buddhist style. On the day of the funeral the body is cremated. The guests take a meal during that time in the crematorium. Afterwards, the relatives pick the bones out of the ash and pass them from person to person by chopsticks.

The actual funeral ceremony is then held by Buddhist monks according to Buddhist rituals. Many guests are present at this ceremony. Each of them will pay about 20 000 yen ($200) to the relatives and receive a small gift in return. After the ceremony, another meal is held.

The urn is put on an altar at the family's house and kept there for 35 days. Incense sticks are burned there around the clock. Many visitors will come to the house, burn a stick, and talk to the family. After 35 days, the urn is buried in a Buddhist cemetery.

Very Buddhist.

A gorgeous hilltop cemetery near my apartment, renowned for its beauty and as the burial spot of a famous Japanese pop singer.

The graves are built all over the hill and continue throughout the hills in the background.

Taken in April during cherry blossom season.

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