Growing trend of having ashes scattered is nationwide symbol of transition in Japan's cultural practices, says anthropologist
BY RACHELLE COOPER
In Canada, one of the biggest decisions people must make surrounding their own death is whether to be cremated or buried intact. But in Japan, where 99 per cent of the deceased are cremated when they die and it's illegal to bury a body intact without special permission in many cities, the new controversial consideration isn't about how to dispose of the body, but about where the ashes will go, says Prof. Satsuki Kawano, Sociology and Anthropology.
Kawano, who's been studying memorial rituals in Japan for the past four years, says the growing trend of having ashes scattered is a nationwide symbol of transition in the country's cultural practices.
“In Japan, it's customary to maintain a grave for multiple family members because it's a symbol of the family continuing,” says Kawano. “The scattering of ashes is a way of contesting that cultural practice. It's a declaration of a person's independence. It differs from past practices, where graves of the deceased were cared for by descendants.”
When a movement called the Grave-Free Promotion Society started 14 years ago, the taboo on scattering a person's ashes in the hills or the sea began to be challenged. Kawano has interviewed some of the organization's 11,000 members to determine why they've chosen to break traditional Japanese customs.
“One answer I found is that it's about being in control of their own lives,” she says. “Previously, adult children were responsible for conducting the rituals for their parents, but the parents are now saying: ‘We're not going to be dependent on you. We're going to make our own contracts and make sure they're carried out.'”
The decision is sometimes made on a purely financial basis, says Kawano. It's not unusual for a family to pay $30,000 to purchase the plot for a family grave in Tokyo, and that doesn't include the $100 yearly maintenance fee.
“A family grave has to be maintained eternally in theory, so buying it is not the last expense. Once you buy it, you have to have a successor, who's most likely to be the eldest son.”
In addition to one-time and yearly fees, family members have to perform costly rituals, she says. The average Tokyo funeral costs about $35,000, including temple fees, funeral company bills and gifts and refreshments for guests. And in the Buddhist faith, family members don't pay for just one service. There are several memorial services for each person that the Japanese feel a moral obligation to perform whether they're religious or not.
“If your plot is located in a Buddhist temple compound, ancestor veneration rites occur many times: right after death and on the first, third, seventh, 13th, 17th, 23rd, 27th and either 33rd or 50th anniversary of the death,” says Kawano.
Small wonder that scattering ashes, with its one-time fee of $1,000, is growing in popularity.
“It's practical,” says Kawano. “Scattering also attracts people who like nature and don't like Buddhist rituals.”
Demographic changes have also had a significant influence on memorial rituals, she says. “The birth rate is now 1.29, so you don't always have children who can take over the family grave.”
In addition, the grave can't be shared among siblings. If it goes to the oldest son, the second son has to buy a new plot and start his own family grave. Among the Grave-Free Promotion Society members Kawano interviewed, many were second sons who didn't inherit a grave from their parents.
Visiting the family grave is an important moral act in Japan, so ash scatterers also have to face questions about where their family members will visit them, she says.
Society founder Mutsuhiko Yasuda told Kawano that accommodating the space for graves is causing environmental damage. Because of lack of space, large-scale cemeteries are now being developed on hillsides, he said. To make the cemeteries accessible to elderly visitors, the natural environment has to be severely altered through paving and the use of pesticides.
“Yasuda has worked as an environmental activist and has a notion that cemeteries are destroying the mountains and the hills,” says Kawano. “His organization is attracting people who have a sense of respect for nature.”
According to a 1998 national survey, about 13 per cent of Japanese people want to have their ashes scattered when they die.
“The family grave is still the norm, but it's interesting that an alternative is now emerging,” Kawano says.
