This is a beautiful telling of the week long series of events surrounding a Japanese (Shinto) funeral. Despite having spent time in Japan, and being privileged enough to visit some amazing cemeteries, as gaijin such a level of participation in a culture’s traditions (along with weddings) is of course very rare. If you’re interested in a fictional tale that recounts similar cultural differences then you might enjoy an entertaining book called American Fuji . It is about an American professor who loses her job teaching English and eventually becomes employed at a Japanese “fantasy funeral” company. I find it comforting that there are so many ways to celebrate a person’s passing and yet our need to honor the dead in some way meaningful to us is universal. “Traditions are imploding and exploding everywhere – everything is coming together, for better or worse, and we can no longer pretend we’re all living in different worlds because we’re on different continents.” –Philip Glass
of personal value
things to keep, and things to leave behind
1 comment
January 6, 2008 at 3:25 am
paulina borsook
i’ve always adored scars, thinking they signify personal history. and unless they are utterly disfiguring, i think they are marks of distinction, as in the scar on harry potter’s forehead.
so yeah, these marks of personal history are a good thing, and to be
honored, as you suggest…