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I went to a funeral this week. The office lady's father died at the age of 63. People from school went to the funeral to pay their respects, and some money. I was invited along for a "cultural experience". The night before the funeral there was another ceremony. I guess it parallels our wakes, but I don't know because I didn't go. The morning of the funeral, one of the teachers collected 2,000 yen from everyone (128yen = $1). He put this into a special funeral envelope (there are special envelopes for every occasion). Then everyone changed into their black clothes (black is worn for funerals and weddings), and off we went to the funeral home. The place was in the mountains of Kiryu and was specially for funerals. Outside there were many giant plastic discs of varying dark shades, decorated with dark plastic flowers. Underneath was kanji, but I don't know what they said. I do know that they didn't say the same things. There was another funeral going on at the same time. We went to the left and merged with a small crowd of people standing in line. Turns out we were standing in line to sign a guest book. So I wrote my name and address and continued onto a window that looked like a coat checkroom. This was staffed by a funeral home personnel. This was where people gave their money envelopes, and the man behind the counter have a present in return. Since we came as a group from the school, we were directed to a table where we were given a large bag full of gifts: one for everyone in the office. I was then taken inside where the funeral was already in progress. The room where it was being conducted was full, so many people were standing outside in the foyer. Inside, was a huge wooden replica of a temple and its grounds. In the middle was a photo of the deceased. Below his photo were offering of mochi or manju, apples, and oranges. On either side of the temple were white flowers with large white signs with writing. The signs were the same on both sides. Some of them had the family name on them, but I couldn't read the rest. Center stage was a Buddhist priest who was chanting at the appropriate times. Off to the left were the members of the family; They were facing the "audience." On the right side, parallel to the family was an MC who worked for the funeral home. He was behind a small podium and was wearing white gloves and holding a microphone. In-between the chanting, the MC was talking. The talking and chanting went on for a while, when all of a sudden, people started moving around. The MC was calling out people's, and organization's names. As the names were called, the men (an in this case, almost all were men) got up and went to the front. At the front of the room there was a table with many small, square metal "bowls." One side of the "bowl" had a flame, and the other side had a pile of incense or fragrant wood. The people would go to a "bowl", bow, throw the wood into the flame 3 times, bow, bow to the family, to a group of men on the right, bow again, then walk out and bow to the family once again. The MC was talking the whole time this was being done, but I'm not sure he was always saying names. Shortly after the important men were lining up, everyone lined up to offer incense, myself included. I felt pretty dumb because I had no idea what to do or why, and because I was wearing a green coat. When I say everyone wears black to funerals, I mean EVERYONE wears black. Shoes, dresses, suits, coats, even scarves are black. Everyone had taken off their coats when offering incense, but I was too cold to. I didn't realize I'd be standing outside for most of the ceremony. The only color in the audience was white, from men's shirts, and from strings of pearls some women were wearing (pearls are special for funerals for some reason). That was it for the ceremony that I saw. It had already started when we got there, and probably continued for some time after we left. We didn't get to see the deceased. I was told that only family members get to see the person. Another thing that was really different is that included in the gift from the funeral was a packet of salt. After the funeral, you are supposed to throw the salt on you in order to purify yourself. I hope I got all the details right, but I am not sure. I hope totell you more after my Tuesday night lass. My student's assignment is to tell me about Japanese funerals. Valerie |