Invisible population the place of the dead in east asian megacities

List of Illustrations Introduction Natacha Aveline-Dubach Chapter 1: Creative Destruction—The Shattering of the Family Grave System in Japan Natacha Aveline-Dubach Retrospect on the Ori

Invisible Population

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Invisible population : the place of the dead in East Asian megacities / [edited by] Natacha Aveline-Dubach

p cm

Includes bibliographical references

Summary: “Provides new information on funerary practices in East Asia's largest cities

in which spatial constraints and the secularization of lifestyles are driving innovation It reveals common trends in Japan, China and Korea, and addresses emerging challenges such as urban sustainability and growing social inequities.”—Publisher's description ISBN 978-0-7391-7144-8 (cloth : alk paper)—ISBN 978-0-7391-7145-5 (ebook)

1 Funeral rites and ceremonies—East Asia—History—20th century 2 Funeral rites and ceremonies—East Asia—History—21st century 3 Death care industry—Social aspects—East Asia—History—20th century 4 Death care industry—Social aspects— East Asia—History—21st century 5 City and town life—East Asia—History—20th century 6 City and town life—East Asia—History—21st century I Aveline-Dubach, Natacha

Printed in the United States of America

This book is the fruit of extensive fieldwork studies and data collected for the purpose of creating maps My thanks go to those who helped us with our work Although conducting research in Japan and Korea posed no difficulty, China proved to be much less accessible This obstacle was overcome with the precious help of our Chinese colleague Professor He Bin from Tokyo Metropolitan University, and the valuable support in China of Ivan Luvidich (Consulate General of France in Shanghai) and Jean-Claude Thivolle (CNRS office for China) Moreover, we have our translator, Karen Grimwade, and desktop publishing operator, Véronique Ponchon, to thank for the privilege of being able to reach an English-speaking readership Lastly, I would like to express my deepest gratitude

to the French National Research Agency, ANR, for their financial backing throughout the four-year research project

Note on language transcription systems

and monetary conversions

When transcribing the three languages, the Hepburn system was used for Japanese, pinyin for Chinese and the official Revised Romanization system for Korean Monetary conversions into euros were all based on September 2011 exchange rates

Acknowledgments

List of Illustrations

Introduction

Natacha Aveline-Dubach

Chapter 1: Creative Destruction—The Shattering of the Family

Grave System in Japan

Natacha Aveline-Dubach

Retrospect on the Origins of the Funeral Industry in Japan

Restructuring of the Stakeholder System

The Outlook for the Funeral Industry

Conclusion

Chapter 2: The Experience of Death in Japan’s Urban Societies

Katsumi Shimane

Introduction

The Main Stages of the Traditional Ceremony

The Evolution of Funerals in Urban Societies

Conclusion

Chapter 3: Emerging Burial Spaces and Rituals in Urban Japan

Fabienne Duteil-Ogata

New Religious Institutions Set Out to Conquer Funerary Affairs

Tailor-Made Grave Systems

Graveless Burial Systems

Conclusion

iiiviiviii

1

29

50

Contents

Chapter 4: The Revival of the Funeral Industry in Shanghai: A

Model for China

Natacha Aveline-Dubach

The Rise and Fall of Shanghai’s Funeral Industry

The Revival of the Funeral Industry Under Close Supervision

New Challenges for Deathspaces

Conclusion

Chapter 5: Dealing with the Dead: Funerary Rites in Contemporary

Shanghai

Maylis Bellocq

Funeral Reform in Shanghai

Funerary Sites: Restricted Spaces

Survival and Reorganising of Traditional Practices

The Evolution of Funerary Rites Since the Imperial Era

Funerary Rites in the Contemporary China, the Example of Panyu

Cremation and Burial: Successive Debates Throughout Korean History

Choosing Cremation and the Type of Grave

Conclusion

Chapter 8: Funerary Sites in Seoul: A History Marked by Colonial

Experience

Ryohei Takamura

Changes in Funerary Site and Grave Regulations

The Creation of Cemeteries and Construction of Crematoria in Seoul

Evolution in Mortuary Spaces and Facilities After Independence

Conclusion

Chapter 9: Overview of Korea’s Funeral Industry

Shi-Dug Kim

The Importance of Funeral Services

Changes in Burial Systems

Bright Future for South Korea’s Funeral Industry

Table 1.1 Graves prices in the main private cemeteries

in the Greater Tokyo Area

Table 1.2 Grave sites in the Greater Tokyo Area

Map 1.1 Public cemeteries in Tokyo Prefecture

Map 1.2 Public cemeteries in Tokyo’s urban area

Graph 1.1 Change in the number of deaths in Japan

between 1990 and 2055

Graph 1.2 The spread of embalming in Japan

Map 4.1 Map of the cemeteries in Shanghai

Graph 4.1 Estimated number of deaths in Shanghai

between 2002 and 2050

Table 8.1 Change in the number of deaths, cremations

and burials in Seoul from 1911 to 1931

Table 8.2 Number of deaths, cremations and burials

Table 9.1 Funeral parlours in Korea as of June 2006

Table 9.2 Cost of funerals by service level in the funeral

parlours of K Hospital (2009)

Table 9.3 South Korean cemeteries in 2007

Table 9.4 South Korean ossuaries (31 December 2007)

Graph 9.1 Demographic forecast for the number of deaths

18 81 89 174 175 180 182

196 197

198 199 201

Boosted by their dynamic economies, the megacities of East Asia and their colossal proportions continue to be a source of fascination Greater Tokyo

is the undisputed leader in the demographic stakes with a population of more than thirty-five million souls Occasionally classed second in world rankings is the Seoul National Capital Area, an urban entity with twen-ty-four million inhabitants As for mainland China, the unbridled growth

of its cities is set to continue apace, at least in the short term, leading to the emergence of agglomerations whose populations verge on the ten-mil-lion mark (Tianjin, Shenzhen, Chongqing) and further swelling those that already exceed twelve million (Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou)

The challenges posed by such gigantic proportions are well known: the saturation of space and resources, network congestion, environmen-tal damage and deepening social inequalities, among others Researchers and municipal officials are working to dissect, analyse and examine each aspect of the city in detail, backed by a strong communications campaign, with one notable exception: the funerary issue Indeed, we remain in the dark as to the fate of the dead in these decamillionaire agglomerations.Given that the dead population in this particular region of the world is set to see the strongest growth over the coming decades, the pertinence of the question is only too clear Japan’s ageing population has broken world records and is soon to be followed by South Korea And while China has

so far maintained a distance, the consequences of the one-child policy will see it rapidly catch up It has already the highest number of elderly people (aged 65 and over): 100.5 million in 2005, which is higher than the entire population of the Philippines In Shanghai, China’s largest city, the num-ber of deaths is predicted to double between 2000 and 2050 The question

is how to manage the growth of this invisible population in areas where the various human activities are bitterly competing for space

The place occupied by the dead depends on the specific funerary tices of each country and urban entity Here, the term “place” refers not

prac-Introduction

Natacha Aveline-Dubach

viii

only to the physical space occupied by graves, but more generally to the trace left by the dead on the land (geographies of graveyards, funeral pro-cessions, funerals, memorial ceremonies, etc.) China propagated a philo-sophical-religious blend of Taoism, Confucianism and Buddhism in Korea and Japan, one that supplemented existing native beliefs and rituals (Shin-toism for Japan; Shamanism for Korea) This syncretism has given rise to funerary practices, which despite their rich diversity are all based on the principle of an ancestral grave system designed to perpetuate patrilineal lineages.

The Chinese, Koreans and Japanese all view the grave as symbolising the family line Tending the grave is thus an integral part of the ancestor veneration rites, which, along with calendar rites and post-mortem rites, help to transform the deceased into ancestors Choosing the location of graves follows what can be a highly complex procedure due to the rules

of geomancy, particularly in China and Korea A favourable location is thought to bring good fortune to descendants and when necessary it is not rare for graves to be located in sites deemed to be more auspicious accor-

ding to fengshui criteria.

In order to guarantee the benevolence of their ancestors, all members

of the family are obliged to honour the family grave at least once a year: during the Qingming festival in China (around the fifth or sixth of April), Hangawi or Chuseok in Korea (September or October depending on the year), at O-bon (July or August depending on the region) and during the equinoxes in Japan On these occasions graves are cleared of any dust and impurities that have accumulated over the year Offerings are made to the deceased (flowers, alcohol and sweets, as well as pork meat in China) and incense is burned in their memory Such traditions are perpetuated regar-dless of the family’s religion and the Buddhist sect (Japan) or Christian denomination (South Korea) to which they belong

Research conducted by anthropologists attests to the vitality of rary rites and beliefs in the rural societies of the Far East, including Com-munist China However, literature on the subject is less forthcoming about the way in which these practices have evolved in the specific context of the megacities, where secularisation and spatial constraints are steadfastly chipping away at tradition

fune-It is only really in Japan that anthropologists and sociologists have begun to take an interest in the evolution of the funeral industry in an ur-ban context Masao Fujii (1983), Shinya Yamada (2004), Satsuki Kawano (2005) and Kokyo Murakami (2000), to mention just research available in English, have examined the changing perceptions of death and ritual prac-tices in urban societies Satsuki Kawano (2003) focused her analysis on the issue of gender, Kimiko Tanaka (2007) on the evolution of the family, while Hikaru Suzuki (2000) turned her eye to the undertaking industry

Other researchers have revealed new, as-yet marginal, phenomena such

as the return to Shinto funerary rites (Kenney, 1996) and the practice of ash scattering (Rowe, 2003, 2011; Kawano, 2010) At the same time an abundance of Japanese academic literature has developed, the references for which can be found in the chapters on Japan

The same cannot be said for Korea where, aside from an article by the geographer Elizabeth Teather (Teather, 2001a) on the landscaped dimension of cemeteries in Seoul, academic texts in English are lacking Korean-language research is, however, on the increase—mainly in the form of research reports and student dissertations Furthermore, while one can gain an idea of China’s rich urban funerary culture through publica-tions on funerary customs in Singapore (Tong, 2004; Lee, 2007), English-language literature dealing with mainland China remains virtually silent The only authoritative texts in the matter are those, now outdated, written

by Martin White (1988), on funeral reform in China’s cities, and by beth Teather, on funerary sites in Guangzhou (Teather, 2001b) and Hong Kong (Teather, 1999)

Eliza-Yet death is discreetly helping a multitude of industry players to per, from suppliers of mortuary accessories to undertakers, as well as a vast array of sub-contractors (floral tributes, catering, hotel business, etc.) In addition to companies offering undertaking services there are the private developers of funerary sites, whose influence is growing in all three coun-tries as the public authorities continue to disengage What is the contribu-tion of these diverse activities to each country’s national economy? Is a full assessment even possible given the lack of transparency surrounding these business sectors? Once again, these questions remain unanswered, despite the fact that the economic stakes are by no means insignificant.These shortcomings led me to envisage a research project that saw the funeral business as a genuine industry with its own financial imperatives, protagonists and spaces This entailed taking into account two major cate-gories of services that are generally studied separately: the production of funerary sites which, just like housing, comes within the sphere of urban planning—cemeteries and ossuaries being none other than residential spa-ces for the dead—and the undertaking business, composed of a vast chain

pros-of services, from funerals to corpse preparation The former category, highly territorial in nature, is linked to the management of land resources within the framework of urban policies, while the latter is part of the tangible goods and services market

Yet both of these funeral industry components are distinctive for taneously satisfying public interest objectives and private demand emana-ting from the family sphere Their intense symbolic power distinguishes them from other commercial services, which explains why defining their contours is such a complex task

simul-With the support of the French National Research Agency (ANR),1

I put together a network of skilled researchers able to explore the lution of the funeral industry in the biggest cities of north-east Asia: Tokyo, Seoul and Shanghai, with an incursion made into the rural frin-ges of Guangzhou.2 Known as “FunerAsie”, this network includes both French and Asian specialists in the field of Japanese, Korean and Chinese studies In the absence of a common language, Japanese serves in part as

evo-a linguevo-a frevo-ancevo-a Although the mevo-ajority of the network’s members evo-are evo-thropologists—as is the scientific tradition—each has endeavoured to take into account the economic and spatial dimensions of funerary practices This publication details the results of our research It is the fruit of in-depth fieldwork studies and data collection for the purpose of creating maps The book is organised into nine chapters in the form of three chapters per country (Japan, China and Korea) First, I look back at the history of graves and funerary services in Japan, revealing a twin process of indivi-dualisation and dematerialisation of graves caused by the erosion of the Buddhist monopoly on funeral affairs in the current context of demogra-phic change These transformations are leading to a restructuring of the funeral industry that is benefiting the largest companies as well as com-mercial groups from outside the sector, such as major retailers, private rail companies and hotel chains

an-Despite the dependency of Buddhist communities to the funeral dustry, they are proving themselves to be resilient and this in turn has enabled them to continue to oversee funerary rituals As Katsumi Shima-

in-ne demonstrates in chapter 2, fuin-neral ceremonies have retaiin-ned the basic traditional structure of a three-phase ritual organised around burial, the pivotal moment However, the increasingly medicalised nature of death and the proliferation of funeral parlours have created a discontinuity in the spatial mortuary chain, restricting funerals to a variety of spaces within the private domain

Among such spaces cemeteries are providing a breeding ground for novative initiatives In chapter 3 Fabienne Duteil-Ogata reveals the variety

in-of these marginal mortuary spaces: cemeteries belonging to Soka Gakkai

and Shinto shrines, eternal memorial grave systems, memorial gardens and cinerary objects She demonstrates that each of these innovations sha-res a common emphasis on the individual’s self-determination, calling into question fundamental notions of “pollution” and “ancestor”, and thus lea-ding to a change in the representation of the dead

Remarkable transformations within gravesites in China’s major cities have also been observed, notably in the form of cemeteries in which ce-remonial pomp can once again be freely exhibited In chapter 4, I present Shanghai’s efforts to revive its pioneering tradition in the funeral indus-try Following a long interlude during the Maoist era, China’s largest city

has developed prototypes of landscaped cemeteries, providing a model for urban China However, opening up the creation of cemeteries to the mar-ket economy has created new inequalities in death, something that muni-cipal authorities are striving to remedy as best they can.

On the other hand, ceremonies and corpse preparation remain under tight control by the government in an attempt to limit the resurgence of religious practices Despite the numerous journeys undertaken by both bo-dies and bones, death remains virtually invisible in the public space and contact with the corpse extremely limited Funerary ritual involving the presence of the corpse has disappeared from the domestic sphere in favour

of public funeral parlours (binyiguan) Nonetheless, as Maylis Bellocq

shows in chapter 5, despite death being heavily restricted in Shanghai, numerous cracks exist, providing urban households with the freedom to partially maintain their traditions

Such traditions have essentially been preserved in rural China, but they are under threat from the government’s vigorous policy against bu-rial and “superstitious practices.” In chapter 6 Yukihiro Kawaguchi pre-sents the example of a village on the outskirts of Guangzhou located at the crossroads of the rural and urban worlds The experience of this vil-lage, which is highly representative of the “culture shock” inflicted by the government’s policy, shows how the villagers-turned-suburbanites are able to resist the destruction of graves and to a certain extent maintain their funerary rituals

Korea has also recently been exposed to proactive government paigns to promote cremation, a practice that had previously been reser-ved for “bad deaths.” Cremation has achieved dazzling success over the last decade, without having been forcibly imposed as in China In chapter

cam-7, Élise Prébin examines the meaning of this development Are funerary practices moving towards standardisation, as claimed by the promoters of cremation? Observations made in the field show that the differentiation between “good” and “bad” deaths within families has not disappeared and that, on the contrary, new interment methods are emphasising the religious and social stratification of the dead

This is not the first time that Korea has seen a sudden surge in its cremation rate Ryohei Takamura reminds us in chapter 8 that a simi-lar phenomenon was seen in Seoul in the 1930s The Japanese colonial government introduced cremation and then proceeded to systematically relocate cemeteries and crematoria outside the capital as the urban area grew Although burial reasserted itself after independence, the virtual di-sappearance of deathspaces from the central city, a legacy from the colo-nial era, is today a source of conflict between local authorities in the Seoul National Capital Area

These sudden transformations in interment methods are accelerating

the changes taking place within South Korea’s funeral industry In chapter

9 Shi-Dug Kim details the upheaval experienced by the industry’s various business sectors Here, just as in Japan, professionalisation and diversi-fication are the watchwords The industry is establishing itself in funeral parlours in order to extend its activities to include new services, in par-ticular in the pre-paid funeral market and the field of corpse preparation (embalming and mortuary cosmetics)

Notes

1 Financed between 2006 and 2010, the ANR project FunerAsie took the title: “The growth of the Funeral Industry in North-east Asia: Economic, Spatial and Religious Chal- lenges.”

2 Research into the cemeteries market in Beijing was also carried out by He Bin and presented at a workshop organised by our network at the Maison Franco-Japonaise The text is available in Chinese and French in the document cited in the following document: www.mfj.gr.jp/web/wp/WP-R-06-IFRJC-Aveline-10-08.pdf.

Fujii, Masao “Maintenance and Change in Japanese Traditional Funerals and

Death-rela-ted Behaviour.” Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 10, no 1 (1983): 39–57.

Kawano, Satsuki “Finding Common Ground: Family, Gender, and Burial in Contemporary

Japan.” In Demographic Change and the Family in Japan’s Ageing Society, edited

by John W Traphagan and John Knight, 125–144 Albany: University of New York Press, 2003.

——— “Pre-funerals in Contemporary Japan: the Making of Later Life Among Ageing

Japanese.” Ethnology 43, no 2 (2004): 155–165.

——— Nature’s Embrace: Japan’s Ageing Urbanites and New Death Rites Honolulu:

Hawaii University Press, 2010.

Kenney, Elizabeth “Shinto Mortuary Rites in Contemporary Japan.” Cahiers

Lee, Scott J For Gods, Ghosts and Ancestors, the Chinese Tradition of Paper Offering

Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2007.

Murakami, Kokyo “Changes in Japanese Urban Funeral Customs during the Twentieth

Century.” Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 27, no 3–4 (2000): 334–352 Rowe, Marc “Grave Changes, Scattering Ashes in Contemporary Japan.” Japanese Jour-

nal of Religious Studies 30, no.1–2 (2003): 85–118.

——— Bonds of the Dead: Temples, Burial, and the Transformation of Contemporary

Japanese Buddhism Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2011.

Suzuki, Hikaru The Price of Death, the Funeral Industry in Contemporary Japan Stanford

California: Stanford University Press, 2000.

Tanaka, Kimiko “Graves and Families in Japan: Continuity and Change.” History of the

family 12, no 3, (2007): 178–188.

Teather, Elizabeth K “Seoul’s Deathscapes: Incorporating Tradition into Modern

Time-space.” Environment and Planning A 33 (2001): 1489–1506.

——— “The Case of the Disorderly Graves: Contemporary Deathscapes in Guangzhou.”

Journal of Social and Cultural Geography 2, no 2 (2001) 185–202.

Tong, Chee-Khlong Chinese Death Ritual in Singapore New-York: Routledge Curzon,

2004.

Whyte, Martin K “Death in the People’s Republic of China.” In Death Rituals in Late

Im-perial and Modern China edited by James L Watson and Evelyn S Rawsky, 289–316 Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988.

Yamada, Shinya “Funeral Rites and Changing Perceptions of Death in Contemporary

Japan.” Mortality 9, no 1 (2004): 27–41.

The most advanced country in the world where ageing is concerned, pan has placed demographic change ahead of its economic and societal issues on its list of priorities In this respect it represents a pioneering force in the experimentation of new avenues, a “think tank” for industria-lised countries whose elderly populations are also growing at an alarming rate The funeral industry is at the forefront of the restructuring process brought about by demographic change Further ahead than China or Ko-rea on the road to becoming commonplace, the industry is undergoing a more discreet but no less radical transformation as a result of the structural changes affecting social relationships and religious practices within urban households These transformations are affecting the range of services and graves available as much as the production channels that provide them This chapter will place these transformations in a historical perspective by examining the role of spatial constraints and industry player coordination

Ja-in the Ja-innovation process

Retrospect on the Origins of the Funeral Industry

in Japan

Over a period spanning four hundred years, from the third to the seventh tury, Japan showed a particular fondness for excessive proportions when it

cen-came to graves, as attested to by the proliferation of kofun, or “ancient burial

mounds,” which were erected for clan leaders and could cover several tares However, these distinctive characteristics disappeared during the Nara period (seventh century) as Chinese influence permeated Japan A centralised state modelled on the Tang Dynasty was established and Buddhism made its appearance, thus spreading the practice of cremation throughout the country (Fujii and Yagisawa, 2007, p.147) This practice had existed in Japan for over

hec-1

Chapter 1

Creative Destruction—The Shattering of the

Family Grave System in Japan

Natacha Aveline-Dubach

a thousand years1 but became increasingly popular in Buddhist and aristocratic society after it was adopted by the monk Dosho, then Empress Jito, at the be-ginning of the eighth century.2 Costly in both wood and manpower, its use was limited to high-ranking persons Other corpses were abandoned in mountains and riverbeds far from residential areas It was only at the end of the fifteenth century that the first cemeteries for commoners began to appear in towns De-veloped by Buddhist communities, these cemeteries were to cement the role of this religious establishment in the death trade.

The Funerary Income of Buddhist Temples During the Edo Period

During the first half of the seventeenth century Buddhist involvement in mortuary affairs was transformed into a veritable monopoly The catalyst for this change was the fear inspired by the rise of Christianity, threatening peace in Japan and presaging a colonial conquest In 1640, in an effort to tighten its grip on religious practices, the Tokugawa shogunate introduced

a mechanism for controlling the populace via the Buddhist temples From

then on, each family line (ie)3 was obliged to register within a Buddhist

pa-rish, the danka, from which it was forbidden to leave All deaths within the

ie were to be buried in a “family grave” in the temple’s cemetery, where tributes would be paid through post-mortem memorial ceremonies perfor-med according to a highly codified calendar (cf chapter 2) At the end of a ritual cycle lasting thirty-three or fifty years deceased family members at-tained the rank of ancestor and as such were revered by their descendants The task of organising these rites and tending the grave fell to the family’s eldest son.4 As for daughters, they joined the family of their husband and when the time came were required to be buried in that family’s grave.Throughout the Edo period,5 until the second half of the nineteenth century, Buddhist monks gained power and prosperity through their fu-nerary income At this point the Meiji era introduced a double break with tradition: Buddhism was supplanted by Shintoism, which was established

as the state religion, and the temples lost their monopoly on graves with the appearance of pubic cemeteries Yet these changes were far from era-dicating the mortuary activity of Buddhist communities, which nobody thought to challenge The focus of the authorities was on industrialising the country, and creating funerary sites was not considered a priority For its part, the Shinto clergy had developed specific funeral rites in order

to end the dependency on Buddhist temples but its aversion to impurity

(kegare) prevented it from engaging in the burial trade Moreover, the

Meiji reform had not touched the ancestral grave system The requirement

to register at temples had been replaced by the obligation, for the eldest son of each family, to take responsibility for the grave and funerary tablets

of the family ancestors In this way, the temples were able to continue king a regular profit from memorial ceremonies even after their parishio-ners had been released from the obligation of ancestor worship in 1945.

ma-The Impact of Japan’s Modernisation

Even more than the Buddhist communities’ loss of their funeral monopoly, the modernisation process undertaken by Japan at the turn of the twentieth century set in motion a series of radical changes in the approach to funeral affairs

The re-opening of the country’s borders following two and a half turies of seclusion brought about a powerful move towards industrialisa-tion Towns were reorganised in order to cope with population migration and conform to the requirements of a western-inspired modernity The im-portation of European urban models saw public space extended in the form

cen-of parks and large squares Mortuary sites were no exception: in 1872 four large public cemeteries were developed on the outskirts of Tokyo in Aoya-

ma, Yanaka, Zoshigaya and Somei These sites welcomed the remains of non-Buddhist individuals, in particular members of the Shinto communi-ties6 and foreign residents who were moving to Japan in increasing num-bers in order to be part of the country’s industrial development

In 1873 a ban on cremation was passed under pressure from the Confucian elite which deemed it impious and unsanitary.7 This measure was subsequently followed in 1874 by a ban on all graves within the To-kyo metropolitan area,8 leading to a serious shortage of mortuary sites Cremation was thus rapidly re-established within the entire urban area This short crisis raised awareness of the spatial challenges linked to the disposal of bodies and by the end of the nineteenth century cremation had established itself as the best way of minimising the footprint of death in Japan’s cities A curious turnaround of events meant that this technique went on to experience unprecedented vigour, galvanised by the growing influence of the hygiene movements underway in Europe and the United States While cremation accounted for only 29 percent of deaths in Japan

in 1897, it spread quickly throughout urban areas In 1905, nine out of ten corpses in Osaka were being cremated and in Tokyo the rate was six out

of ten In the countryside, however, inhumation remained the rule, with

up to 99 percent of bodies being buried in Japan’s most rural prefectures (Yokota, 2007, p.62)

The modernisation process also gave undertakers the opportunity to

take their first steps The sogisha, or “funeral company,” appeared as early

as 1887 Having started out as simple suppliers of coffins, altars and funeral accessories, these entrepreneurs began to establish themselves as service

providers by organising the recruitment of workers needed for cremation and funerals Their activities developed above all thanks to the abolition of the social stratification system dating from the Edo period, which strictly regulated the lifestyle of each social class and in particular merchants, the wealthiest of all.9 Funeral ostentation began to flourish in the form of

extravagant funeral processions to which the sogisha provided invaluable

assistance (Murakami, 2000)

At the beginning of the 1910s the growth in overground rail and torised transportation traffic made funeral processions difficult and they went into decline before disappearing altogether following the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923 Meanwhile, public expression of mourning,

mo-of which the funeral procession was one part, shifted onto another funeral

event: the farewell ceremony (kokubetsu-shiki), which took place on the

second day of the funeral after the wake This ceremony, which signals the departure of the corpse to the crematorium, was usually held in the local Buddhist temple or at the home of the deceased The central feature was the funeral altar, a piece of furniture upon which a picture of the deceased would be placed alongside various ornaments (flowers, candles, etc.) Over the years funerary pomp would see the funeral altar become increasingly sumptuous (Yamada, 2004) A further development was that the corpse was no longer carried to the crematorium on a palanquin but transported

by hearse.10 Here, too, ceremonial pomp ran unchecked, as evidenced by

the appearance of the “imperial hearse” (miyagata reikyusha), a black

li-mousine topped with a heavy shrine-like roof decorated with ornate ments borrowed from Sino-Japanese folklore.11

ele-The pre-war period also saw government involvement in funeral fairs reach its peak Quantitative objectives for the creation of public bu-rial plots within the capital over a fifty-year period were established at the beginning of the 1920s In order to meet the need for an estimated

af-1.8 million tsubo of land (595 hectares), a plan was devised to construct public cemeteries measuring a minimum of 33,000 tsubo (109 hectares)

in the suburbs, on land adjoining roads and railway lines which had been purchased by mutual consent.12 The design of these mortuary sites was to take its inspiration from the landscaped cemeteries that were all the rage

in Europe Tama cemetery, the first “modern park-cemetery”13 based on a German model, was unveiled at Fuchu, in the western suburbs of Tokyo It was followed by Yahashira cemetery in 1935, then Kodaira in 1948 These

new landscaped cemeteries were referred to as rei’en (“gardens of souls”) instead of the usual term bochi14 (graveyard)

In addition to the creation of gravesites, municipal authorities ted to improve cremation conditions within the capital In 1937 Japan’s first funeral parlour was inaugurated in the Mizue area of Tokyo Inspi-red by the funeral parlours in Anglo-Saxon countries, this modern facility

attemp-combined with a crematorium enabled funerals to be organised outside the home of the deceased for the first time Its intimate and cosy tearoom atmosphere was such a hit that this model was adopted throughout the country, thus encouraging the growth in cremation In 1942 Japan’s cre-mation rate reached an average of 57 percent across the country (Yokota,

Up until this time responsibility for creating cemeteries had fallen above all to public authorities and Buddhist communities A few initiati-ves had been taken by private companies—the rail companies Seibu and Keio in particular had each built a cemetery in the western suburbs—but such activities remained marginal The 1948 Law on Graveyards and Burials restricted the building of cemeteries to three categories of ope-

rators: local authorities, “religious corporations” (shukyo hojin, which

mainly consisted of Buddhist communities) and public interest

foun-dations (koeki hojin) Private companies could create such founfoun-dations

but this required a considerable injection of capital A simpler solution entailed acting on behalf of a religious community, a Buddhist parish

to be precise It was via this method that new channels for the creation

of cemeteries were established in the 1960s, dominated by monumental masons Their activities were stimulated by the growing demand for graves in Tokyo’s suburbs, emanating from households uprooted by the rural exodus They were further aided by the adoption of a City Plan-ning Act in 1968 which, by restricting urbanisation in the suburbs of large cities, caused land values in these areas to drop The impact of this act was evidently considerable since 20 percent of Japanese cemeteries with a surface area of more than one hectare were constructed during the ten-year period from 1965–1975 (Yokota, 2007, p.171)

The growing role of private operators also reflected the ment of the authorities The last major cemetery to be built by the Tokyo municipal authorities was in Hachioji and opened in 1971 Along with its

disengage-seven predecessors this brought the total to 1.1 million tsubo of public

burial space, a figure far below the production objectives set in the 1920s

(1.8 million tsubo), which also appeared to have been seriously

underesti-mated The Tokyo authorities attempted to remedy this shortage of plots

by introducing less space-hungry graves measuring 3.3 square metres instead of five Thus rows of small square graves, known as “lawn-style

graves” (shibafu-gata ohaka), began to appear in public cemeteries from

1971 (see cover image) This was a fairly daring attack on the traditional grave system, which had been a part of Japanese customs for several centuries, but the gamble paid off in the long run Very clearly Ameri-can inspired, unenclosed and decorated with a minimum of accessories (flower vases and incense burners), these lawn-style graves did not im-mediately convince the masses However, their modest price finally won people over and they became the prelude to other innovative systems

such as wall graves (kabe-gata ohaka, 1991) and ossuaries (nokotsudo,

1993),15 with the latter now extremely common

Mass migrations of the population towards large metropolitan areas during the post-war era also had a considerable impact on funeral service supply The rural exodus caused the close relationships between families and Buddhist parishes to crumble and weakened intergenerational ties

In the cities, village cooperatives were replaced by societies whose role was to pool the resources needed to organise marriages and funerals With their ten-year instalment plans and extensive range of services of-fered (which even included kimono rental), these mutual-aid societies were extremely popular with the working classes left impoverished by the war (Suzuki, 2000, p.56) By comparison, the services offered by

sogisha remained little diversified and for the most part focused on the supply of accessories and corpse transportation Later, the differences between these two types of operators gradually faded as funeral parlours

became widespread This development allowed the sogisha to align their

services with those of the mutual-aid societies

Restructuring of the Stakeholder System

With the disappearance of their monopoly, the Buddhist communities were gradually required to share their “funeral income” with private ce-metery developers and undertakers The Japanese funeral industry was thus restructured around these three main categories of stakeholders to the detriment of public involvement, with the authorities being pushed into a secondary role

Buddhist Communities Adapt to the New State of Affairs

The Meiji era put an end to the Buddhist communities’ monopoly on death but the post-war rural exodus was much more damaging to their funeral

activities, for the mass migrations towards the cities enabled rural folk to escape the oppressive control of their family temple and benefit from the competitive forces at work in their new place of residence Deprived of their worshippers, rural Buddhist parishes went into decline as their eco-nomic base shrank Their urban counterparts fared better Although the se-cularisation of urban lifestyles eroded their parishes their “overall funeral market” did not collapse, for even in the large metropolitan areas death has remained closely associated with religious practices Funeral ceremonies are held for two thirds of all deaths in Tokyo,16 85 percent of which are Buddhist.17

Furthermore, Buddhist monks soon found a new way of ting for their dwindling resources by introducing a new element into their

compensa-funeral package: the kaimyo, or posthumous Buddhist name of the ceased The kaimyo was originally an honour reserved for the most pious

de-parishioners and was designed to facilitate their transition to Buddha

sta-tus after their death Monks then took to assigning kaimyo in exchange

for money Over time, this posthumous name has become such an integral part of Buddhist funerals that in certain temples it is now a requirement for obtaining a burial plot From being a passport to the hereafter, the

kaimyo has thus become a laissez-passer for cemeteries The make-up

of the kaimyo varies slightly between sects but is generally composed

of six to nine Chinese characters indicating the name of the temple, the social status of the deceased and their honorific rank Its cost is set freely

by monks and the same kaimyo may double in price between temples

Within parishes the honorific rank chosen makes all the difference The

rank of koji for men and taishi for women are the most expensive, with prices exceeding one million yen The average cost of a kaimyo is around

200,000–250,000 yen and accounts for half of the average amount ved by monks for a funeral (549,000 yen in 2008).18

recei-Over the last few years kaimyo have been sold at discounted prices,

ten times less than the usual cost, by monks who are not affiliated to any temple This new category of Buddhist clergy often originates from rural areas, having been forced to leave due to unemployment Some of them only officiate in the cities on a seasonal basis and combine these activities with the sale of gravestones and Buddhist accessories These freelance

monks are known as manshon bozu, or “apartment monks.” They

per-form rites from various Buddhist affiliations and operate on a sub-contract basis on behalf of undertakers or monumental masons.19 Naturally they are highly criticised by their peers, who accuse them of failing to respect customs Yet in their own way these monks are helping to revive Buddhist rituals through the syncretic nature of their liturgy

Regardless of whether or not they are affiliated to a temple, Buddhist monks are tending to lose contact with families in favour of funeral under-

takers The religious services they provide are now an integral part of the vast chain of services offered by companies in the sector In order to have access to bereaved families, monks are obliged to maintain networks with undertakers and hand over between 5 and 30 percent of their income; the same goes for funeral accessory providers, whose levy is in the range of 10 and 50 percent.20 Yet funerals are far from representing a one-off service for monks As we have seen, the funeral marks the beginning of a series of rituals that links bereaved families to the temples carrying out these me-morial services, thus providing income over a period of thirty-three years

The role of temples in funeral affairs is far from being restricted to performing ceremonies In reality, just as in previous times, they earn the majority of their income from running cemeteries There are more than 2,874 Buddhist temples in Tokyo Prefecture,21 most of which are concen-trated (2,213) in the twenty-three centrally located special wards.22 Not all

of these establishments have a cemetery but as “religious corporations”

(shukyo hojin) they are authorised to build mortuary sites.

In the centre of the capital where land is scarcest monks often choose

to convert all or part of their cemetery into a nokotsudo (ossuary) These

mortuary facilities are often multi-storey Plots take a variety of forms pactus units and shelves), with the most frequent being the “coin locker’

(com-ossuary” (rokkashiki nokotsudo,23 see image 1.1 in photospread) In this sion cinerary lockers are surmounted with a mini-altar devoted to worship (prayers, incense burning).24 Having first been trialled in public cemeteries

ver-in 1993, nokotsudo have sver-ince spread throughout the country However,

Buddhist temples are alone in dedicating their entire funerary space to this type of facility due to the scarcity of land available to them

It goes without saying that nokotsudo are more affordable than

tradi-tional graves; however, in the most exclusive areas of Tokyo the cost of nerary lockers is rising At Azabu Joen, for example, a temple located just

ci-a stone’s throw ci-awci-ay from hectic Roppongi, ci-a “coin locker” costs ci-around fourteen thousand US$ This is the price to pay in order to guarantee fre-quent visits at a later date by being interred in a lively neighbourhood

As we can see, the land development strategies of Buddhist nities are entirely compatible with the radical innovations in graves In

commu-reality, the nokotsudo are merely the visible tip of the iceberg The family

grave system has grown old and rather than clinging to this model monks have noted the change A growing section of the urban population is in fact rejecting this traditional model: women, who are loathe to share the grave with their mother-in-law, husband (known as a “posthumous divorce”) or even their parents25; homosexuals and unmarried couples who cannot be buried together; and more generally all those wishing to free their descen-dants from the burden of tending their grave The drop in Japan’s birth rate has only accelerated this process What is the point of paying a fortune for

a grave when there are no descendants to look after it?

Somewhat paradoxically, Buddhist communities are among those most actively precipitating the decline of the family grave Although they represent a tiny minority some of these communities have become a pro-digious force of innovation in this field The explanation for this lies in the relationships they maintain with civil society in the form of non-profit organisations (NPO) working on innovative grave systems, notably com-munal, which most often entail some means of pre-mortem socialisation (Kawano, 2004; Duteil, chapter 3) This extraordinary diversification in burial space is made possible by separating the grave—an object with an

increasingly short lifespan—from the extended rites (eitai kuyo) This

di-sassociation, which has occurred in response to urban demand for tuality, is reviving Buddhism through the invention of attractive and less conventional kinds of memorial services

spiri-Private-Sector Growth in Cemetery Creation

Many temples in the centre of Tokyo do not have a cemetery, while others want to develop new funerary sites In such cases a private operator may build a cemetery in the suburbs on their behalf and market the burial plots The private companies involved in such activities are dominated by mo-numental masons Real estate companies have also been drawn to this lucrative sector but they tend to operate as direct sub-contractors for tem-ples located in the central areas by updating their mortuary sites (recycling abandoned graves26 and marketing the new plots)

The modus operandi of the monumental masons consists in sing land in controlled urbanisation areas where, due to construction limi-tations, the value of land is considerably lower than in adjacent residential areas They then market the plots at a price which, expressed in square metres, sometimes greatly exceeds that of building land in urban areas.27

purcha-These entrepreneurs do not neglect their core activity and oblige buyers

to commence work on their grave in the two years following the purchase

of the plot, thus leading a large number of graves to remain empty as they await the death of their owner

Traditional graves in the centre of Tokyo (area including the three special wards) occupy an area measuring 0.8 square metres Their price of between 2.3 and three million yen (representing between five and six-and-a-half months’ income)28 includes the cost of the plot held in per-petuity and the building of the grave, respectively 1.3 and one million yen (see table 1.1) According to a survey conducted by the weekly finan-

twenty-cial journal Dayamondo,29 the portion attributable to the materials used to build the grave accounts for only 16 percent of the price since monumental

masons prefer to use stone imported from China The remaining amount, between two and 2.5 million yen, is shared between the monumental ma-son and the Buddhist temple according to terms that are a closely guarded secret Some masons have had considerable success with such building ac-tivities This is the case for Nichiryoku, a huge company that in two years has managed the feat of building five cemeteries in the suburbs of Tokyo and Yokohama (1999–2001).

Whether they are constructed by monumental masons on behalf of Buddhist temples or—more rarely—by foundations,30 these private lands-caped cemeteries are open to all faiths Prices here are higher than in public cemeteries but some of them are veritable hotbeds of innovation offering a vast array of graves for all budgets This is the case at Izumi Joen, located

in the western suburbs of Tokyo, where several innovative graves have been trialled including: the first ten-year individual plots; communal plots located under a cherry tree and combined with multi-confessional exten-

ded rites; and “with pet” (uizupetto) graves flanked with a mini-grave for

the owner’s pet (chapter 3) These private cemeteries have succeeded in closely following the highly changeable demand from urban customers by increasing the number of short-term graves, which are less space-hungry and more affordable than traditional plots held in perpetuity

What is the scale of this market that is attracting so many private rators? It is very difficult to estimate since no statistics on the supply of plots are available A rough idea can be gained by multiplying the annual number of deaths by the average price of a grave (1.5 million yen).31 This gives an overall turnover of 1,750 billion yen (22.7 billion US$) shared by religious communities and private operators

ope-Restructuring of the Undertaking Industry

Boosted by the successive periods of economic growth during the war period, undertaking services have become a genuine industry and an integral part of METI (Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry) nomen-clature The latest report by this ministry, dating from 2005, lists 4,107 companies employing 50,933 people Mutual-aid societies specialised in organising marriages and funerals are few in number (around three hun-dred) but possess national networks for instalment collection On the other

post-hand, there are ten times more sogisha, who along with the mutual-aid

societies share 40 percent of the market but they often employ a maximum

of nine people.32

The activities of undertakers generate income of 890 billion yen, and this is without counting the associated services and accessories (presents, transport, catering, etc.), which using other sources can be estimated at some

17.5 billion US$.33 In total, the overall turnover of this industry can thus be seen to be roughly on a par with that of the grave market (1,350 billion yen

or 17.6 billion US$).34

Families currently spend an average of 2.31 million yen on funerals,35

marginally less than for a wedding (3.17 million yen), an amount valent to five months’ wages More than 60 percent of this amount (1.42 million) goes to the undertaker, roughly a quarter to the monk (549,000 yen) and the rest to the caterers

equi-Undertakers coordinate the entire chain of funerary services from the hospital to the crematorium, with certain tasks being outsourced

to specialists (flower arrangements, corpse transportation, making of

presents for the koden gaeshi)36 for which they receive a commission Among their services the rental of the funerary altar consumes no less than 60 percent of the budget The altar sets the tone for the rest of the funeral: the number of projections, the quality of the wood, and the level

of sophistication with which it is carved all determine the choice of other accessories, notably the coffin The fact that this purchase can be paid off over more than twenty years makes it highly profitable for undertakers

Moreover, undertakers have invested in funeral parlours (sogijo), which

have become indispensable in urban areas but inflate the costs for holds The number of funeral parlours in Japan currently stands at 2,700, the majority of which were built in the 1980s and 1990s

house-The cost of the services performed by undertakers has traditionally been cloaked in the deepest secrecy Frequently in the past the bereaved, who were reluctant to negotiate prices out of respect for the deceased, only discovered the cost of the funeral once it had been performed This situation is now changing As early as 1984 the film director Itami Juzo made shock waves by breaking the taboo surrounding the cost of death

in his film Ososhiki (“Funeral”) It took the bursting of the economic

bubble at the beginning of the 1990s to bring transparency to the funeral industry Since the consumer frenzy that characterised the period of spe-culative euphoria (1985–1991) households have become more concer-ned about prices It was in this new context that the American operator All Nations Society decided to take on the Japanese funeral industry with transparent pricing and fixed funeral rates of three hundred thou-sand yen Since then, price transparency and budget rates have gained a firm footing The funeral industry is attracting more and more operators from outside the sector such as private rail groups (Nankai and Hanshin

in Osaka; Keikyu in Tokyo), major retailers (the Aeon group, which aims to take a 10 percent share of the market, and the regional retailing chain Maruhiro), and even hoteliers (Otani and Keio Plaza) All of these companies are extremely well known, a key factor for success in a sec-tor where gaining the client’s trust is vital This shift has disadvanta-

ged traditional market players—the mutual-aid societies and family-run

sogisha—who hold 80 percent of the market in this sector

Reduced Public Involvement

The corollary of the private sector’s post-war rise to power in the funeral industry has been the disengagement of the authorities from their tradi-tional areas of activity: cremation and the creation of funerary site.Once the exclusive domain of the municipal authorities, cremation is nowadays carried out essentially by private operators In Tokyo’s twen-ty-three special wards only one crematorium in eight is public Prices in such crematoria are highly subsidised and fixed at 7,300 yen for Tokyo residents, six times lower than the cost of the cheapest cremation in a private facility (Kuroki, 2003, p.80).37

A similar situation can be observed at public cemeteries, which offer considerably lower prices than in the private sector but a very limited supply The Greater Tokyo Area has around sixty municipal cemeteries, compared to almost ten thousand graveyards owned by religious corpo-rations (mostly Buddhist), not to mention the innumerable family gra-veyards38 (more than 67,000), which can no longer be built

Tokyo Prefecture ceased building large cemeteries within its tory in the 1970s If we do not take into account the small funerary sites (including the twenty or so cemeteries spread throughout the Izu and Ogasawara archipelagos),39 Tokyo Prefecture has only twelve cemete-ries, four of which are situated in the central area of the special wards (see map 1.1 and table 1.2) The latter have been designated public parks and are highly sought after Demand at Aoyama cemetery in particular, which is located in a prestigious area, outstrips the number of plots by thirty to one The unforgiving law of supply and demand means that pri-ces here peak at 9.5–9.8 million yen (123,500–127,400 US$ or twenty months’ salary) for a permanent burial plot measuring three square me-tres Tokyo Prefecture is content to manage these funerary sites by recy-cling burial plots once the graves have been abandoned

terri-In other prefectures within the Greater Tokyo Area (Kanagawa and Chiba), municipal authorities are showing greater initiative when it co-mes to accommodating their dead (see map 1.2) The city of Yokohama (Kanagawa prefecture), the second most populous city in Japan, pur-chased land belonging to an amusement park, which closed in 2002,

in order to build a landscaped cemetery (Memorial Green) “Eternal” memorial services and a communal grave are funded by an NPO and not a religious establishment Local authorities are thus continuing to

20 10 N

0 20 (km)

Tokyo 23 special wards

Kanagawa Prefecture

Saitama Prefecture

Chiba Prefecture

Saitama City

Tokyo

Prefecture

Chiba City

Yokohama City

Tokyo Center

Zoshigaya (11 ha) Somei (7 ha)

Hachioji

(10 ha)

Tama (128 ha) Aoyama (26 ha)

10 5 0 10 (km)

N

Source: Natacha Aveline-Dubach, based on data from Tokyo Prefecture's hygiene department (2009).

Source: Natacha Aveline-Dubach, survey of prefectural authorities.

innovate but they are being surpassed by the Buddhist communities and private operators who, in the interests of survival, are keen to meet the requirements of a constantly evolving demand.

The Outlook for the Funeral Industry

The number of deaths has been rising exponentially since 1990 If we are

to believe official projections the number of deaths in Japan will double by

2040, rising from 800,000 to 1,663,000 in fifty years (see graph 1.1) And yet the funeral industry is not set to profit fully from this trend Although

it will remain undeniably healthy, a slow erosion of its revenue is ted over the coming decades This is because consumer expectations have undergone a radical change, evolving into a more diversified and persona-lised demand, yet one more concerned with cost

predic-Subjectivation and Increased Intimacy of Funerals

In his book entitled Happy funeral!: How to decorate the end of one’s

life, Hiroyuki Wakao illustrates the change in Japanese society’s attitude towards funerals The leading role in funerals is no longer played by the undertaker but by the deceased, who has become the pre-mortem organiser

Source: Natacha Aveline-Dubach, based on data from the National Institute of Population and Social

Security Research, Population Statistics of Japan 2008.

of a final tribute resembling an “end of life review” (Wakao, 2007).

In this respect Japan is merely following a trend already observed in the United States and Europe, characterised by a decline in the communal and instituted nature of funeral rituals in favour of a more intimate ceremony focused on the personality of the deceased and emphasising genuine emo-tions (Trompette, 2008)

Having become the active subject of their funeral the deceased-to-be endeavours to reduce the cost There are several reasons for this: a desire for modesty, parsimony out of consideration for their descendants and the constraints of a budget that is often crippled by healthcare costs Drastic cuts are made in the budget for floral tributes and rental of the funerary altar, but most of all an effort is made to reduce the number of participants Farewell ceremonies where guests see the deceased for the first time thanks

to a photo of them placed on the altar are now increasingly rare These days only the family or a wider circle including friends and close relatives (between 5 and 30 people) are invited to partake in the final tributes At the same time, there is a trend in the cities for simpler funeral ceremonies, with

the sparsest being the so-called “direct funeral” (chokuso), a single tribute

paid at the crematorium during the cremation, which in Tokyo already counts for two or three out of ten funerals.40

ac-This shift in consumption modes is endangering the business of the small undertakers that make up the majority of the industry (70 percent have fewer than ten employees) Until now, many of these small operators were able to survive on just one funeral contract per month—or even one every two months—when such contracts earned them three million yen With ceremonies becoming more intimate they are bearing the brunt of the resulting drop in business income, especially since in the major urban areas the funeral parlour has become the core provider of their services.41

Attempts have been made by small sogisha to jointly own funeral parlours

but these initiatives often end in failure (JETRO 2006, p.6) A trend wards market concentration is thus underway within the industry Accor-ding to a study conducted by METI the number of companies with capital exceeding fifty million yen grew by 45 percent between 2002 and 2005.42

to-These large-scale operators are able to cut costs by reducing diation costs within the service chain They are no longer paid a commis-sion by their sub-contractors but a fixed initial franchise fee They have diversified their services in order to better conform to the increasing perso-nalisation of demand To compensate for the decline in the value of funeral contracts they are moving into the field of corpse preparation, offering new services focused on their funeral parlours

interme-This is evidenced by the growth in the practice of embalming, which was introduced by the American company International Mortuary System (IMS) in 1988 and has been promoted in Japan ever since by fifty or so

companies, including the major undertaking firm Koekisha in Osaka (see graph 1.2) Alongside IMS, this company manages the largest number of

“embalming centres” in Japan (respectively four and eight out of three centres), as well as training the first Japanese embalmers.43 Yet the Ja-panese terrain is hardly receptive to such a technique Making incisions in the neck for bleeding the corpse is not well received by Buddhism, which favours naturalness and sobriety in death While the body may be furtively displayed, there is no need for it to be embellished ahead of its imminent cremation Thus the acceptance of embalming in Japan far from equals that

thirty-in European countries: it is used thirty-in just 1.8 percent of deaths, compared to

30 percent in France, 75 percent in northern Europe and 90 to 95 percent

in the United States.44 Used essentially to prepare bodies disfigured by an accident or a long illness, it has only begun to establish itself as a simple

corpse preparation technique since the film Okuribito (Departures in

En-glish, released in 2008) which threw the spotlight on ritual bathing and corpse make-up.45

This positioning in the technical field of corpse preparation is part of

a more general move to professionalise the funeral industry in a context of increased price transparency A “funeral director” qualification was crea-ted in 1996 involving the introduction of a two-level diploma accredited

by the ministry for labour.46 The course is taught in specialised private

Source: Natacha Aveline-Dubach based on data from the International Funeral Science Association Japan.

schools since despite a long tradition of research into death and funeral rites no such university department exists.47 Other initiatives have led to a standardisation of the services offered by undertakers: the introduction of ISO standards (9000 and 14000) and the creation of a national indicator

of service quality by an independent body, JECIA (Japan Etiquette and Culture Investigation Association) In 2010, 144 companies were awarded the maximum score (five stars) by JECIA.48

By demystifying the ceremonial of funerals, the professionalisation of the industry is helping to increase the speed with which funerary rituals

are secularised “Non-religious funerals” (mushukyo-so) have emerged in

which music takes the place of sutras and floral offerings replace incense Yet monks are not to be outdone They are striving to reclaim their role in accompanying the bereavement process and the search for spirituality in the face of death However, they must also gain the trust of consumers by ending the secrecy surrounding the cost of their services Some of their initiatives have met with great success, such as the launch of the website

“Tera-net Sangha” (“network for followers of Buddha”), created in 2009

by a group of young monks This highly visited website provides all ner of advice about funerals and is thus meeting needs that undertakers are unable to fulfil Furthermore, Buddhist communities are using their mor-tuary sites to update the religious services they offer via innovative new types of eternal rites co-organised with NPOs (cf chapter 3)

man-Individualisation and Dematerialisation of Graves

Far from only affecting funerals, the subjectivation phenomenon is also having a profound impact on modes of burial Graves are undergoing a twin process of individualisation and dematerialisation made possible by the virtually exclusive practise of cremation (98.2 percent of deaths).49

The reduction of corpses to ashes is encouraging the individualisation

of graves through the ensuing reduction in their size, as well as through unlikely combinations of individuals in “communal graves.” Individual and communal graves are thus two facets of one same individual grave project in which the deceased-to-be disengages from the social system: this means emancipation from the control of the in-laws for the spouse, from the Buddhist temple for the parishioner and more generally from the extended family for any deceased The recently arrived green grave

(jumokuso, literally “tree funeral”) is part of the same process, with both

an individual version in a forest-graveyard and a communal version “under cherry trees” available (cf chapter 3)

The individualisation of graves is also providing a solution to the risk

of a rise in the number of “disconnected dead” (muen botoke): deceased

persons whose lack of descendants deprives them of eternal peace due

to there being no one to tend their grave The solution of Buddhist munities to this phenomenon, made rampant by the declining birth rate, consists in separating graves from memorial rites We have thus seen the emergence of limited-duration individual burial spaces combined with

com-“eternal” memorial services (eitai kuyo) Plots are recycled at the end of

varying durations, sometimes ten years, but mostly three decades in order

to correspond to the ritual cycle The ashes are then placed in a part of the cemetery or temple that is inaccessible to the public

Thanks to this turnover in burial plots there is hope for urbanites to escape the growing footprint of funerary spaces presaged by the soaring number of deaths It should be noted that this recycling of graves is far from being led by the authorities On the contrary, this reduction in the physical trace of the dead follows an entirely bottom-up rationale via a commercial supply that aims above all to reduce the cost of graves In its most extreme form the dematerialisation of graves consists in scattering

ashes (sankotsu), a practice that was initiated in Japanese cities during the

1990s Various forms exist: one can just as easily bury the ashes discreetly

in one’s garden as scatter them in the nearest river However, preference

is usually shown for dedicated funerary sites: “memory gardens” or tery-islands50 with a communal memorial system, or scattering the ashes

ceme-at sea, a practice thceme-at is sometimes delegceme-ated to a third party.51 In both cases, no trace of the deceased is generally conserved Such funerals are thus modestly priced, except in certain luxury niches involving scattering the ashes by helicopter over Mont Blanc or sending capsules into space

Although sankotsu only concerns a tiny percentage of deaths (estimated

at around 2 percent), it is positively viewed in Japan as it is seen as a dern version of ancestral pre-Buddhist practices involving the return of the body to nature It appeals to the under-forties52 in particular since the

mo-success of the film Sekai no chushin de ai wo sakebu (Crying Out Love in

the Centre of the World, 2004).53

Lightweight and divisible, ashes also lend themselves well to the quity of graves The remains of the deceased can be shared out among the main family members or scattered in different places cherished by the departed Nomadism is also encouraged by the practice of setting ashes into accessories (necklaces or bracelets), when the ashes are not used to create such objects themselves (artificial diamonds or ash statues, cf chap-ter 3) Nomadism is even affecting traditional graves since urbanites began

ubi-to transfer them from the countryside The practice of saiso (literally the

“re-holding of the funeral”), or transferring of graves from rural areas to the big cities, relieves young seniors of the tiresome journeys involved in attending to the family grave when local family networks are no longer able to do so This luxury entails complex administrative formalities and

occasionally tense negotiations with the Buddhist parish of the original metery To compensate for their loss of income monks demand an average indemnification of 300,000 yen or 12 percent of the total cost of renewing the grave, which is estimated at 2.5 million yen (32,500 US$) Yet these obstacles do not seem to be hindering the emerging trend for transplanting graves which should benefit the funeral industry.

ce-Conclusion

With turnover in the region of forty billion US$ for graves and funerals—

or 70 percent that of the major retailers—Japan’s funeral industry appears

to be extremely powerful Its outlook also looks bright if we are to judge

by demographic predictions concerning the number of deaths However, the radical transformations affecting demand for graves and funerary ser-vices will prevent the industry from benefiting fully from this demographic shift

The traditional family grave founded on the principle of a plot held

in perpetuity is in fact being replaced by frequently recyclable small ves—mostly in ossuaries—reflecting individual projects that sometimes fly in the face of convention This development reflects the rise to power

gra-of the individual as the main agent in his or her post-mortem condition in

an ageing society where preparation time spans several decades following retirement Its timely arrival comes just as the growing number of deaths threatens to exacerbate land use conflicts in urban spaces that are already saturated The resulting structural fall in the per-unit cost of graves is a powerful stimulator of innovation in private funerary sites, made possible

by a skilful blend of emulation and cooperation between private and gious operators (monumental masons, Buddhist communities and NPOs) The disintegration of the family grave is echoed by a simplification in funeral ceremonies, both of which are products of the same phenomenon

reli-of individualisation Here too, parsimony is required reli-of the deceased-to-be

in order to reduce the burden on descendants as much as possible tricting participation in the final farewell to the extended family allows budgets to be reduced, all the while focusing the ceremony on the per-sonality of the deceased Performance and authenticity prevail over the mortuary ostentation embodied by funerary altars, whose cost previously consumed the majority of the funeral budget Such changes are difficult

Res-to follow for small undertakers accusRes-tomed Res-to conventional ceremonies and threatened by the arrival of major retailers in their sector Just as with graves, innovation is creating lucrative niches within a constantly diver-sifying supply In an effort to halt the reduction in pre-funeral costs, new services are being developed in the field of corpse preparation (make-up,

ritual bathing, embalming, etc.) and traditional pomp is beginning to take the form of ceremony-performances for an “original ending” highlighting the inventiveness of the deceased.

These transformations are accelerating the secularisation of funeral rites and placing the formerly all-powerful Buddhist communities within the sphere of influence of the undertakers However, these communities have managed to successfully maintain their funeral practices thanks to their continually strong position in the provision of graves, though in the interest of survival they must compromise with civil society and modify their rites in order to follow, if not anticipate, the material and spiritual expectations of rapidly evolving urban societies

Notes

1 The first archaeological traces date back to the Jomon period, before the third century BC.

2 According to the Shoku Nihongi, these cremations took place in 700 and 703

res-pectively Andrew Bernstein, “Fire and Earth, the Forging of Modern Cremation in Meiji

Japan,” Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 27, no 3–4 (2000): 300.

3 The ie was both a real (legal) and a symbolic (link between the generations) unit

that linked individual members of one line of descent up until the promulgation of the civil

code in 1948 The continuity of the ie must be ensured through the upkeep of funerary

tablets and graves It also involves worshipping ancestors (with offerings and prayers)

before the family altar (butsudan) and the Shinto shrine for deified ancestors (kamidana)

The former is used for the recently departed and the latter for deceased who have attained the status of ancestors at the end of the ritual cycle Patrick Beillevaire, “La famille, instru- ment et modèle de la nation japonaise [The Family: Instrument and Model for the Japanese

Nation],” In Histoire de la famille, tome 3: Le choc des modernités [The History of the

Fa-mily, Volume 3: The Clash of Modernities] ed by André Burguière (Paris: Armand Colin, 1986), 315–350.

4 Or, if there were no sons, the adopted son-in-law or any other male representative

of the family.

5 Period spanning from 1603 to 1868 The Meiji era that followed was characterised

by the internationalisation and modernisation of Japan following the fall of the shogunate

6 During this period, Shinto communities developed specific rites closely modelled

on Buddhist ceremonies These rites have survived through to today, and are even riencing a certain revival, but have never threatened the predominance of Buddhism in the worship of the dead In 2005 only 2–4 percent of funerals held were Shinto Although a few Shinto cemeteries have recently been created (cf chapter 3), the percentage of Shinto funerals has not significantly increased.

expe-7 Confucians took advantage of this swing of the pendulum against the Buddhists in order to fight the practice of cremation They objected to it on the grounds that it hindered ancestor worship by preventing the remains from being kept whole and also claimed that fumes from crematoria were a menace to public health.

8 With the exception of the spouse of the deceased.

9 Four main categories existed: warriors (samurai), farmers, craftsmen and

mer-chants The latter, sometimes extremely wealthy, were the most despised by the shogunate

as they did not produce anything.

10 The first hearse was introduced to Japan in 1917 by an undertaker in Osaka Many

hearses were subsequently imported from the United States Shoichi Inoue, Reikyusha no

tanjo [The Birth of Hearses] (Tokyo: Asahi Sensho, 1990), 135.

11 According to Inoue, the appearance of this type of hearse in Japan was due to the need to show the weight of the deceased’s corpse, which in the main had previously been

carried by men (Inoue, Hearses, 10) In fact, the Japanese have retained the tradition of lectively carrying heavy objects, as seen in Shinto rituals involving the carrying of mikoshi

col-(altar of the Shinto god) during local religious celebrations.

12 A maximum price of 4 yen per tsubo was set for these purchases.

13 Kindaiteki koen bochi.

14 A similar change was observed in China in the 1980s with the disappearance of the

term gongmu (“public graves”) in favour of words formed using the character for “garden” (yuan), cf chapter 4.

15 The nokotsudo first appeared in Japan around the eleventh century, on Mount Koya

(to the south of Osaka) It spread throughout the southern part of Japan from the 1920s onwards, particularly after the Second World War, but was slow to establish itself in the north

16 Figure from the Daiichi Life Research Institute, cited in the Japan Times, October

22, 2009 In 2005 the percentage of funerals to deaths was 64 percent as a national average (710,402 out of 1,117,000).

17 Masao Fujii and Soichi Yagisawa, Nihon soso bunka daijiten [Dictionary of

Ja-pan’s Funerary Culture] (Tokyo: Shikisha, 2007), 43.

18 Figure from the Japanese Consumer Association, cited in the Japan Times, July 28,

2009.

19 According to a survey by the weekly financial journal Dayamondo these monks

are exploited by those contracting their services, who do not hesitate to syphon off more than half of their income Special issue “Tera.haka.sogi ni kakaru kane [Temple, grave and

funeral income],” Dayamondo, January 24, 2009, 36.

20 Dayamondo, 44–45.

21 Administrative entity covering the city’s twenty-three special wards, the new city

of Tama in the west and the Izu-Osagawara archipelago located in Tokyo Bay (cf Map 1.1) Tokyo’s urban area is principally composed of four prefectures: Tokyo, Chiba, Kanagawa and Saitama (cf Map 1.2)

22 There are around 77,000 Buddhist temples in Japan.

23 Literally “in the form of a locker.”

24 Compact units and shelves are generally inaccessible places for storing urns cated in graveyard basements) Memorial services therefore take place in a public space located above ground.

25 According to a survey conducted in 2002 by the centre for economic research Daiichi Shomei, 23 percent of married women did not wish to be interred in their husband’s

grave Hiroyuki Wakao, Happi-na osoushiki ga shitai! Jinsei no faina-re dou kazaruka?

[Happy Funerals! How to Decorate the End of One’s Life ?] (Tokyo: Magajin Haousu, 2007), 23.

26 Once graves are no longer tended the authority operating the cemetery can recover the space, provided that they follow a strict procedure requiring consultation with grave