Buddhism

summary

Buddhism was established by Budda in India. It was introduced into China and Japan. Japanese people adopted it, and changed it as Japanese people can accept it.
Traditional Buddhism has no practice to worship ancestors. However, it has been introduced in to Japanese Buddhism. In August many Japanese people hold “the Bon Festival.” They have holidays in order to worship ancestors.
Buddhism teaches us the doctrine of the transmigration. We have to be involved in the circle of transmigration. There are six worlds. The mankind world is one of the worlds. In these six worlds, we have to suffer. So Buddhism say we must escape the transmigration cycle.
Traditional Buddhism has nothing to do with the funeral. However, in Japan, the main work of Buddhism monks is funeral.
Traditional Buddhism has protected by government. Especially in edo period, the government protected Buddhism in order to remove Christianity. All Japanese people were forced to belong some temple. So Buddhism monks could manage their living, even if they didn’t preach philosophy. They had only to do their daily routines such as funeral. They forgot what the Buddhism taught. Now most monks can’t teach it.

Photos Visit Shunkoin Zen Temple

Interview Rev. Takafumi Kawakami

After having learned something about Zen meditation and having had a tour around Shunkoin Zen temple, we had the opportunity to ask Zen priest Rev. Takafumi Kawakami some questions in relation to our group research.

Field Research: Religion & Japanese Students

Religion: We went to the University November festival and we decided to ask as many people as we can about their religious beliefs and events related to religion. We managed to ask 15 people:
* 13 out of 15 claimed that they are not religious (the other 2 said that they are Buddhist but only because their family is Buddhist)
* 14 out of 15 claimed that they take part in the religious events, such as:
- Hatsumode (New Year`s celebration) 11
- Christmas 11
- Shichi-go-san 9 out of 9 asked
- O-bon (the dead people memorial festival) 12

We also asked about the marriage, if they would like it to be traditional Shinto style or a western church style. We only managed to ask 6 people, all of them girls. 3 of them stated that they want it to be a western style wedding and 3 said that they are interested in both, but they only consider to have a Shinto wedding because it is a Japanese tradition to do so.

Buddhist Funeral

Summary

Japanese Buddhism has changed over the years and now mainly has the function of dealing with all things concerning death, since death and blood are a taboo in Shintoism. 

Japanese Buddhism has been adapted to fit Japanese society during many centuries. Therefore, even though it might sound contradictory, Japanese Buddhism is not very much concerned with the idea of reincarnation. Rather, the main function that it has is to provide for the honouring of ancestors. 

In general, Japanese people believe that after you die, your spirit goes to the world of the afterlife. The better your deeds during your lifetime, the better your afterlife. However, it might also happen that a death person has not been well taken care of during his or her life or has been murdered for example. In this case, the spirit has some 'unsolved business' and can stay in the world as we know it and haunt people. Ghost legends are very common in Japan and the belief in ghosts is widespread.  The family and friends of a death person are responsible to take good care of him or her. It is also in their own interest since the death spirit can haunt them if they don't. Therefore, Japanese people have many memorial services for the deceased members of their family, up until the hundred memorial. 

The funeral in Japan consists of a wake, the cremation of the deceased, a burial in a family grave and many memorial services. 

Photos funeral

preparing the deceased for funeral in the film Okuribito

altar of funeral

the wake with family

Here are some photos I took related to the Japanese Buddhist funeral.

family at the grave

graveyard in Tokyo

This is a the trailer of Okuribito, a film about a men who's job is to prepare the death for their funerals. 

For more information about 'funeral Buddhism' this is a very interesting and relevant article from the New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/14/world/asia/14japan.html

Buddhism funeral

The picture is ossunaries in Buddhism temple.

from http://tsukijihongwanji.jp/tsukiji/nokotsu.html

Some photoes of a wedding in a shrine.

Hello. This is Hiroki. Here are some photoes of a wedding in a shrine.

from http://www.sugajinja.or.jp/kaikan/kekkon/index.html

from http://www.bentennoyado.com/wedding/2007/05/post.html

from http://356.biz/topics.html

from http://wedding.gnavi.co.jp/site/1/a753100/custom1.htm

Are these enough so far?