CHAPTER XVIII.

FUNERAL.

Unlucky ages—The Japanese cycle—Celebration of ages—Respect for old age—Death—Preparations for the funeral—The wake—The coffin and bier—The funeral procession—The funeral service—Cremation—Gathering the bones—The grave—Prayers for the dead—Return presents—Memorial services—The Shinto funeral.

When the Japanese child has passed through its teens without any serious mishap, its mother is not yet altogether free from anxiety; for there are certain stages of its life at which it is threatened by misfortune. Superstition has fixed certain ages, different according to sex, which must be passed with utmost circumspection if one would escape calamities; these ages are the twenty-fifth, forty-second, and sixty-first years for men and the nineteenth, thirty-third, and thirty-seventh years for women. Here we may note a curious way of counting years commonly practised in Japan; in official reports and legal documents one’s age must be given according to the number of full years and months one has lived, but on other occasions we have a very loose way of computing our ages. Thus, when we say that a man is thirty years old, we do not mean that he is full thirty years of age or that he is in his thirtieth year, but we mean that he has seen thirty solar years of the almanac; that is, if we say in 1910 that he is thirty years old, we mean that he was born some time in 1881, and if his birthday is the New Year’s Day, he would be twenty-nine years old on the same day of 1910, but if it is the thirty-first of December, he would be only twenty-eight years and a day on the first day of 1910, still we speak of him in either case as being thirty years old. A baby born on the last day of the year would be two years old the next morning; its second year according to our mode of computation is, in short, the solar year in which it completes its first twelvemonth. When, therefore, we say, for instance, that a man’s first inauspicious age is his twenty-fifth year, we mean the solar year in which he completes his twenty-fourth year. Thus, the twenty-fourth, forty-first, and sixtieth years of a man and the eighteenth, thirty-second, and thirty-sixth years of a woman are really their climacteric years; and of these the most critical are the forty-first for a man and the thirty-second for a woman, for not only these years themselves, but the years immediately preceding and following each of them also, are considered inauspicious, so that the crisis lasts in either case for three years, during which period men and women refrain as much as possible from acts that may appear like tempting Providence.

The sixtieth year is our grand climacteric, after which a man must be prepared for death at any moment; but this age is treated as one for congratulation and never for sorrow or anxiety, because it completes our cycle of years. To each year is assigned an element of nature, namely, wood, fire, earth, metal, or water, each of which is divided into two kinds, elder and younger, so that there are practically ten elemental signs by which the years are successively designated. Again, there are twelve signs of animals, which are also applied to years; these animals are the rat, ox, tiger, hare, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, ape, fowl, dog, and boar. The years are designated in order after these animals. Since, then, the years are named in succession after the ten elemental and twelve animal signs, the same combination of an elemental and an animal sign recurs every sixty years; the year of the first sign of metal and the sign of the rat, which last coincided with the year 1852, will come again in 1912, that is, sixty years after the other. Our cycle, therefore, comprises sixty years; and a man who has completed this sexagenary cycle is supposed to return to childhood, and often wears red under-garments or red-lined clothes and a red cap after the manner of children. He invites friends and relatives to a dinner to celebrate the occasion.

The next celebration takes place when a man has reached his seventieth year, which is named “a rarity since antiquity,” after the saying that man has seldom since antiquity reached seventy years. The septuagenarian distributes among his friends and relatives large, round, red and white rice-cakes with the character signifying longevity written on them. The seventy-seventh year is celebrated as the fête of joy, because the characters for seventy-seven resemble the character for joy when written in a certain style. On this occasion fans, cloth wrappers, and rice-cakes with the character for joy written on them are distributed among friends and relatives. The eightieth year is celebrated in the same manner as the seventieth; and the celebration of the eighty-eighth year, which is called the fête of rice because of the resemblance of the characters for eighty-eight to the character for that useful cereal. The ninetieth and hundredth years are also celebrated when such opportunities occur.

When a man whose days have exceeded threescore years and ten passes away, the words that his friends come and sometimes utter to his surviving family sound more like congratulation than condolence; it is not, however, as a cynic might suppose, that they congratulate the family upon having ridden itself of a peevish old man who was a damper upon all its innocent enjoyments; it is because they consider it a matter for congratulation that he should have lived to such an age, and since death must come to all, he was to be envied for having succeeded so long in keeping off that unwelcome guest. They often add the wish that similar good fortune may be theirs. The aged as a rule live happily, except such as have no relatives nor any one else to depend upon; and though they may complain of the infirmities that come with years, they never lack sympathy and, so long as they do not make themselves disagreeable, are treated with tenderness by their friends and neighbours. The respect for old age, which is one of the fundamental precepts of Confucian philosophy, is a national characteristic in Japan no less than in China.

When an illness takes a serious turn or an injury is likely to prove fatal, the members of the family are, if they live apart, summoned home and gather around the death-bed. It is considered unfilial, and unfortunate if unintentional, not to be present at a parent’s death, as, for instance, children are warned not to go to bed with their socks on even in the coldest weather since, in that case, they would be unable to attend at their parents’ death-bed. When the patient is in the last article of death, his wife and children put their mouths close to his ear and call him by name; recalled by the dear voices, life flickers for a moment and then goes out. And when the glazed eyes and rigid face show that all is over, his lips are wetted with drops of water; so universal is this custom that the expression “to wet the dying lips with water” has come to signify the tending of a patient in his last illness, as when we say that the wife should be younger than the husband since it is her duty to wet his dying lips with water. The folding screen which is usually set around the head of the bed to soften the daylight in the sick-room, is put upside down. The bed is replaced by a matting, and the quilt is put over the body with its ends reversed so that its foot is over the dead man’s breast; and a white cloth is laid over the face to hide it as its exposure is believed to be an obstacle to the soul’s journey on the road to Hades. A table of plain white wood is set at the head of the bed. At the furthest end is placed a tablet of white wood, on which the Buddhistic name of the deceased is written in Indian ink. The Buddhistic name is the name by which the deceased will be called in prayers and at his temple; he may have received it in his lifetime as many people ask priests of high virtue and reputation to give them such a name, or more often, the superior of the temple where the funeral service is to be held, is communicated with immediately and desired to give the name, which he fixes upon according to the deceased man’s social position, calling, and services to the temple. In front of the tablet are ranged in a line a vase with a branch of the Chinese anise or oldenlandia, a cup of water, and a lamp lighted with rape-oil; all these utensils are made of unglazed earthenware. On the nearest edge is set an earthen censer in which incense-sticks are kept constantly burning, with a box of the sticks beside it. A sword or a knife is placed on or near the corpse to avert the malign influences of evil spirits.

Meanwhile, the family shrine is not unfrequently covered to prevent the ingress of the air polluted by the presence of the dead body. The front gate is closed and, in shops and tradesmen’s houses, a reed-screen is hung inside out over the front entrance with a notice of the family bereavement and, often, of the date of the funeral. A similar notice is sent to friends and relatives, and also advertised in the papers. The family temple is notified and a priest comes from it and recites prayers before the tablet. In the evening the body is washed in a tub; first, cold water is poured into the tub and then hot water is added to the required temperature. Superstitious people insist at other times upon pouring hot water into any vessel and then adding cold water even when the reverse process would be more convenient, simply because the latter is the rule at the body-washing. The washing is done by near relatives; sometimes the body is merely wiped with water; and, in the case of a woman, the water is simply poured on the body by inverting the dipper outward with the left hand instead of inward with the right as on other occasions. The head is shaved after washing by touching it with the razor in small patches instead of running the razor continuously which may presage a succession of misfortunes in the family. Next, the grave-clothes are put on; the garment is made by two female relatives sewing with the same piece of thread in opposite directions without knotting the ends. Around the neck is suspended a bag containing Buddhist charms and a small coin or picture of a coin to pay the ferriage on the road to Hades. A rosary and a bamboo staff are also put into the coffin. Mittens, leggings, and sandals are worn, the last being tied with the heel-ends to the toes to signify that the dead shall not return drawn back by love of this world. The wife, if the deceased is her husband, sometimes cuts off her hair and puts it in the coffin in token of her resolve never to marry again. Into the child’s coffin a doll is put to keep it company on its lonely journey to the other world. The coffin is then filled with incense powder or dried leaves of the Chinese anise.

On the eve of the funeral a wake is kept. The body must be kept for at least twenty-four hours after death. In great families where elaborate preparations must be made for the funeral, it is often kept for several days; but in most other houses the funeral takes place as soon as possible. In the summer heat it is naturally important that the body should be buried with the least delay. When more than one night intervene between the death and the funeral, the wake is sometimes held every night. Friends and relatives are invited, and they burn incense before the coffin and offer prayers; and in the interval the conversation turns upon the deceased and every effort is made to console the bereaved family. A priest is called in from the family temple, and he recites three or four prayers in the course of the night. In a separate room a slight repast is offered to the persons gathered in the house, and though _sake_ is drunk, it is taken very quietly.

The coffin is among the better classes a double box of wood, oblong in shape to allow the body to lie in it. Sometimes the box is single and almost square, the body being made to sit in it, and sometimes an earthen jar is used; and among the poorest it is no more than a barrel with bamboo hoops. The coffin is wrapped in white cloth. The bier may be only a rest with poles extending at both ends; but in most cases, especially if the coffin is oblong, it has a curved roof with a pair of gilt lotus flowers in front and behind. The square coffin has usually a baldachin over it; formerly it used to be carried in a palanquin. The pall differs in colour according to the sex and age of the deceased. It is made of two square wadded covers like quilts; and the upper or outer cover is light-blue for a man and the lower one is white if he has not yet reached his forty-first year and red if he is past that age, while the outer cover is white for a woman, and the inner red or pink according as she has or has not passed her thirty-second year. The lower cover differs in colour according as the deceased is under or over the age which is considered most critical for one of the deceased’s sex.

The funeral usually takes place in the afternoon; but in summer the _cortège_ leaves the house at an early hour of the morning. In the country the mourners gather before the funeral and take a meal; but in Tokyo it is usually the chief mourner who has a meal before starting. At such a meal a second helping is never taken as it may presage another death in the family. One bowl of rice on which clear bean-curd soup is poured, is eaten with a single chopstick. At other times, therefore, it is considered unlucky to take only one helping of rice.

The funeral procession is not always in the same order; but in a middle-class funeral the order is commonly as follows:—The procession is led by a person who acts as its guide; he is followed by men carrying white lanterns on long poles, huge bundles of flowers stuck in green-bamboo pedestals, birds in enormous cages, and stands of artificial flowers which are almost always large gilt lotus plants; these men always march two abreast with the exception of the caged birds, for the flowers, natural or artificial, are invariably presented in pairs, while the cages are single. They are the presents of friends and relatives and their names are given on the wooden tickets attached to these presents. The birds in the cages are taken to the temple and there set free as an act of mercy, while the natural flowers are thrown away or pulled to pieces by the children of the poor in the neighbourhood who invariably come and beg when there is a funeral. After the flowers comes the priest who has been sent from the temple to return with the funeral procession; he is in a jinrikisha. Then follow persons carrying incense and the tablet, and if the deceased was a government official, a military or naval officer, or otherwise a man of rank and position, the decorations which he may have received are also carried. The tablet is carried by the chief mourner or some other member of the family; in the latter case the chief mourner follows the hearse. In the wake of some flags, on one of which is inscribed the deceased’s Buddhistic name, comes the hearse beside which walk the pall-bearers, generally persons in the deceased’s employ. It is immediately followed by the family and relatives, and then by other mourners. The mourners should properly follow on foot; but frequently they go in jinrikisha and carriages; moreover, it has become the custom for mourners who are not intimate friends of the deceased to proceed straight to the temple and wait there for the arrival of the procession.

When the funeral procession reaches the temple, the bier is placed in front of the shrine, which stands at the furthest end of the temple hall. The chief mourner, family, and relatives take their seats usually on one side of the hall and the other mourners on the opposite side, leaving a space between the shrine and the front entrance of the hall for the officiating priest to hold the funeral service. When all have taken their seats, the officiating priest, who is as a rule the superior of the temple, enters with his assistants. With gong, bell, drum, and cymbals the prayers are recited and sutras chanted. The officiating priest then recites alone a prayer which is to guide the spirit of the dead on the road to Hades. After this prayer, the chief mourner, family, and friends and relatives advance in front of the bier and, taking a pinch of incense, drop it into the censer to burn. Where there are many mourners, two or more censers are placed close to the bier and the incense-burning is begun simultaneously so as not to keep the mourners waiting a long time for their turn. The chief mourner and his nearest relatives come forward and thank the mourners in the hall, or stand at the entrance and thank them as they leave. Sometimes, an address expressive of sorrow or in eulogy of the deceased is read by a relative or friend.

The bier is then taken to the crematory by the chief mourner and his relatives. There are a few public cemeteries on the outskirts of Tokyo, where the body may be taken immediately from the temple and buried as it is. But for burial in a temple yard in the city the body must be first burnt; and accordingly it is taken to a crematory. There are seven crematories just outside Tokyo, none being permitted in the city. The body is taken to one of these and put in an oven; the fire is lighted; and the door of the oven is locked and the key taken home by the chief mourner.

Early next morning, the relatives return to the crematory, and in their presence the oven is opened. The bones and ashes are gathered into a tray, which is brought out and the mourners pick the bones from among the ashes. Every piece must be picked up by two persons holding it with two pairs of chopsticks and put into the urn. When all the bones have been picked out, the urn is closed with a lid and taken to the temple.

The grave may be dug in a small plot bought by the family in a public cemetery when the body is to be buried with its coffin. In that case a separate grave is dug for each body; but if it is to be interred in a temple yard, one grave will serve for the whole family, for there is a hollow under the tombstone which is closed with a stone, and at each burial the stone is removed to put in the urn. The tombstone is an upright stone, square in section and with a tapering top, which stands on a stone pedestal. The front inscription merely gives the name of the family with, perhaps, the family crest over it, and the Buddhistic name of the deceased is engraved on a side. In a public cemetery where the grave-enclosures are larger and a tombstone is set up for every member of the family, the tombstone naturally cannot be got ready in time for the funeral, and a wooden grave-post is stuck in the grave with the Buddhistic name in front and the lay name and date of decease on the sides.

After the funeral, the tablet of the deceased is set on a table at home, and a light and incense are kept burning before it until the seventh day from the day of decease; and prayers are offered at the grave every day for the same length of time, after which a priest comes from the temple every seven days until seven weeks are passed. For forty-nine days the spirit of the dead wanders in the dark space intervening between this world and the next, and every seven days it makes an advance forward, in which it is materially helped by the prayers of those it has left behind; according to some, the spirit hovers for the same period over the roof of its old home, for which reason many people dislike to remove until the period has terminated from a house in which a member of the family has died, as his spirit would have to hover over a house deserted by those he loved.

At the end of the fifth week, packages of tea and boxes of cakes of wheaten flour stuffed with red-bean jam are sent as return presents to those persons who brought offerings to the dead. On the forty-ninth day, forty-nine cakes are taken to the temple; in old times the human body was believed to contain forty-eight bones, and if to these the skull is added, the total becomes forty-nine, and as emblematic of these bones, one of the cakes is made much larger than the rest. They are offered before the dead, and after prayers have been recited and incense burnt, the large cake is taken home and divided among the family. A wake is sometimes kept on the night of the forty-eighth day; and on the following day, after the service at the temple, those who attend are taken to a restaurant and entertained, when the near relatives, who have hitherto abstained from animal food in token of their mourning, take it as this day ends the period of deep mourning.

A memorial service is next held on the hundredth day. On this day the provisional tablet which has hitherto been set up in the family shrine is exchanged for the permanent one; and at the temple also, the tablet which is there kept is taken down from the shelf on which are placed the tablets of the recently deceased. On the day of decease every month prayers are recited and a meal-tray set before the tablet in the family shrine. The next memorial service at the temple takes place on the first anniversary, after which comes the second anniversary which, after the method of reckoning mentioned at the beginning of this chapter, is called the third anniversary, so that a second anniversary is unknown in the commemoration of a death or any other event. The later anniversaries on which services are held are the seventh, thirteenth, seventeenth, twenty-third, twenty-seventh, thirty-third, thirty-seventh, fiftieth, and every fifty years thereafter.

We have given above an outline of the ordinary Buddhist funeral, though the procedure varies slightly with each sect of Buddhism. There is, however, another form of funeral, which is performed with Shinto rites. As, however, the two forms resemble each other in the main, we may here give a few points of difference between them.

When a death takes place, it is reported at once to the shrine of the local tutelary deity, and a Shinto priest called in. The date of the funeral is then fixed. The body is laid in the upper part of a room, and the face is covered with a white cloth; before it is set a table, on which are put some washed rice, water, and salt, and a lamp is lighted; and perfect silence reigns in the room. A tablet is placed before the body and the ceremony of transferring the spirit of the dead to the tablet is performed. Then a new bed and pillow are put in the coffin and the body is laid on them with the face covered and a new quilt put over it; and at the same time many favourite articles of the deceased are laid beside him. The coffin is then filled up, and the lid nailed on it. The body is never washed, but it is sometimes wiped with a wet cloth if it has lain long in the sick-bed. The coffin is laid on wooden rests, and rice, water, and salt offered before it; it is next placed in a bier which has a roof like that of a Shinto shrine. The funeral procession is led by the guide, who is followed by bearers of lanterns and branches of _cleyera japonica_; after them come priests and carriers of red and white flags with a box of offerings between them. Next comes the officiating priest and after him is carried a flag bearing the name of the deceased with his court rank and title, if he had any; and then, more lanterns, followed by the hearse and the rests behind it. The grave-post is carried next, and after it marches the chief mourner, behind whom walk the near relatives and after them, the general mourners. When the procession reaches the hall for burial service, the bier, is laid on the rests and the _cleyera japonica_ and the flag with the deceased’s name are set up. Offerings of food are made before the coffin and the officiating priest reads out a funeral address giving a short sketch of the deceased’s life; and then all the priests, the chief mourner, the relatives, and the rest of the mourners take each in turn a _tamagushi_, which is a branch of _cleyera japonica_ with strips of paper hanging from it, and laying it before the coffin, makes a bow to the dead. The food is removed and the coffin brought down and buried, the relatives throwing the earth into the grave. The grave-post is next set up and fenced round with bamboo poles, which are connected with sacred rope. The priest announces the burial and bows to the grave, in which act he is followed by the mourners present. Before leaving the burial-ground, all the mourners are purified by the priests with a sacred wand. On the night of the funeral, when the house has been purified by sprinkling salt water over it, the _cleyera japonica_ and flowers of the season are put in vases before the tablet, a lamp is lighted, and food is offered to it; and the priest reads a prayer and, together with the others present, offers the _tamagushi_ and bows to the tablet, after which the food is removed, and the service ends.