My mom wrote me an email this week and told me she was in the midst of "spring cleaning." It reminded me of a story one of my eikaiwa students told me last week. Her family decided to build a new grave site for their family remains. In Japan, the whole family, generation after generation are put in one "house". Her current stone structure didn't have a floor to it and it was flooded. So the company called one day and said it was demolishing it and she had to come and collect her "family." Her mother, sister and her went and started removing all the "pots" with all the ashes and bones. But some had broken and some members had been put in there without pots. In Japan, they cremate bodies, but not fully. They want some pieces of bone left. So she said she was removing bones and pieces of skull from the grave site. They washed them and laid them all out to dry. They also decided to break open all the pots and bury all the other ashes and bones instead of keeping them. She said it was kinda dirty work, digging in the mud for bones and then washing them all. Luckily it was a bright and sunny day and the bones dried quickly. They were able to finish their "spring cleaning" of the family masouleum in one day. But that is one "spring cleaning" job I hope to NEVER have! But not only do the they have new gravestone being built, it will be free of all the family pots from the last 30+ years. I guess there were a lot in just 30 years! It was time to simplify!!
During this story, it was also brought to my attention that in Japan, families go to the cremation building and watch the body go in and come out. Then the family must collect the remaining ash and bones and put them in a pot. Nobody does it for them. They said it takes about an hour for the body at a high temperature to burn almost entirely, but not completely.
In Nyuzen, this building is located right next to the building where all the garbage is burned. The building that burns garbage also heats the water for a pool and public bath next door. But the woman who told me the story about her family grave said she used to be confused. She used to think that the cremation oven heated the community pool and it weirded her out. Now she laughs at that thought, but I bet a lot of my elementary school kids think the same think!!
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I've heard that they use chopsticks to pass those bones from one person to the next...and that is why it is considered to be bad luck/extremely bad mannered to pass food from one pair of chopsticks to another?!
Whilst we're talking of death...a lady in the office gave me a small cake last week. I smiled and happily asked where she had been on holiday. She replied by saying that her mother had recently died - I felt so bad and really didn't know what to say. Another Japanese tradition I wish I had known about beforehand!
Dan
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