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The Passage of Death in the Japanese Context in Pursuit of an Lnculturated Lutheran Funeral Rite

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The Passage of Death in the Japanese Context in Pursuit of an Lnculturated Lutheran Funeral Rite The Passage Of Death In The Japanese Context In Pursuit Of An lnculturated Lutheran Funeral Rite Mark D. Luttio THE RITUALS surrounding the event of death, passing, someone will take responsibility that is to say "funerary rites," are no doubt for carrying out the appropriate funerary as ancient as civilization itself.1 The distin­ rites. Thus, the event of death becomes an guished historian Arnold Toynbee states occasion where the greatest of care is taken that "The oldest, most numerous and most by all to adhere strictly to the rituals imposing relics of our ancestors are funerary" involved in the funeral process. Coming to (Toynbee et al. 1969, 59-60). Certainly all cul­ terms with this fact, and finding ways to tures throughout history have understood account for the concerns of Japanese cul­ death as an exigent moment in life's pas­ ture, vis-a-vis the celebration of the funeral sage, and as such have at least tacitly pre­ rite, has been a perennial issue with which scribed ways in which to ritualize the the church in Japan has had to grapple. transition. As the social anthropologist My own awareness of the centrality of Margaret Mead concludes, "I know of no the ritual surrounding the event of death people for whom the fact of death is not among the Japanese and the subsequent critical, and who have no ritual by which to ramifications which this has concerning the deal with it" (1973, 89-90). It can safely be question of celebrating Lutheran liturgy in the said, then, that the funeral rite is a univer­ context of Japanese culture comes as a sally observed "rite of passage," something result of an experience as a guest presider in which is enacted and experienced around the a Japan Evangelical Lutheran Church parish globe in virtually every culture. on the Feast of All Saints in 1985. Much to In the case of Japan, which might well be my surprise, at the completion ofthe morn­ described as one of the most traditional ing service, the wife of the Japanese pastor societies in the twentieth century, the felic­ (for whom I was substituting) informed me itous observance of the funeral rite is a mat­ that it was now time to proceed to the ter of profound importance. Shibata Chizuo nokotsudo (columbarium) located on the (Professor of Practical Theology at Japan roof of the church, and conduct the annual Lutheran Theological Seminary) is quick to memorial rite for the dead! I was not even point out that funerals and the "care of the aware that such a rite existed in the dead" is one of the most important dimen­ Lutheran Church! sions of Japanese culture, having a long his­ Walking into the small dark columbarium tory and place of honor within that society I could see along the sides of the room the (Shibata 1993).2 It might be said that the rows of shelves which housed the urns con­ greatest and most visceral concern for taining the cremated ashes and bones of the Japanese is insuring that, at the time oftheir deceased. After proceeding through the 18 Lumo: The Passage of Death in the japanese Context order of service without any major faux pas, tion of Christian death, vis-a-vis Japanese I noticed at the end of the liturgy that some cultural expectations." of the church members came and stood before certain urns, pressed their hands MORTUARY RITES IN CONTEMPORARY together with fingers pointing at a forty-five JAPANESE CUL TURE7 degree angle and bowed profoundly. It was clear that these parishioners, as It is the contention of this essay that the they made their way from one urn to anoth­ meaning of the funeral rite in Japanese cul­ er, were paying their annual respect to the ture is to be understood not so much as a dead, not unlike what often takes place in rites de passage which carries the bereaved Japanese culture in front of the family grave through transition, though it most assured­ at the vernal and autumnal equinox. Here, ly serves this purpose as well, but rather as most assuredly, I was witnessing the relent­ a constitutive ritual concerning the very less march of a sacred ritual exceedingly foundation upon which Japanese society is dear to the Japanese, an observance that was built, namely, the identity of the "house­ bound to take place, for some, with or with­ hold" (ie).s To put it another way, mortuary out the assistance of the church's liturgy. rites in Japanese culture are not simply con­ When the service was over I left the church cerned with negotiating the fact of death columbarium with a new, if somewhat itself, but are integrally connected to the baffled, consciousness of Japanese spirituality continuation of the household and the lin­ and its impact upon the church. It was espe­ eage of ancestors; these can only be sus­ cially as a result of this experience, and my tained through the process of celebrating subsequent reflection upon it, that I began to the obligatory linear and cyclical mortuary be acutely aware of the centrality and rites. 9 It is ultimately through this ritual importance of death-related ritual among process of felicitous observance of the the Japanese and its influence upon the obligatory funerary rites and the concomitant liturgy of the Lutheran Church in Japan. ancestor cult that the "household identity," Clearly, mortuary custom, with its con­ to which the dead and the living belong comitant household ancestor cult, is one of together, is nurtured and maintained. As the most important issues with which the professor Ishii explains, "In the concept of church in Japan must come to terms, if ie are included not only existing family Christianity hopes to take root in Japanese members but also the spirits of the deceased soil. 3 In short, developing a successfully of the lineage. The worship ofthe dead was inculturated funeral rite is an imperative regarded, therefore, as an important task for task for any Christian Church located in the the continuation of ie (family)" (1979, 51). Japanese context.4 It should not come as a surprise then to This essay, then, will examine the newly discover that nearly ninety percent of the "inculturated" 1993 Japan Evangelical Lu­ Japanese population regularly perform theran Church (JELC) funeral rite set against hakamaeri (visits to the family or ancestral the backdrop of mortuary custom in con­ grave) to report important events which temporary Japanese culture, since this is a have transpired in their lives. As Robert necessary preliminary step in gaining an Smith concludes his discussion on "caring understanding of the significance to the for the dead" in Japanese culture, "Death changes in the new 1993 rite.s Ultimately this does not. .. sever the ties between the essay will attempt to analyze and assess deceased and the members of his house­ how the Lutheran Church in Japan has pur­ hold. A person can expect that in the normal sued the issue of inculturating the celebra- course of things his spirit will continue to 19 JAPAN CHRISTIAN REVIEW 62 1996 share in the life of his immediate kins­ these acts, the household structure and men ... " (Smith, 114). This phenomenon of identity is reaffirmed and sustained. "caring for the dead" is understood as a In the final analysis, it must be conclud­ means of sustaining the warm, human rela­ ed that mortuary rites in contemporary tionships of this world into the next, and in Japanese culture are not so much a way to so doing, keeping the family, as well as the "dispose" of the deceased, as they are a way community, intact. Conversely then, as to "transpose" the deceased, from a living Herman Ooms reports, "People who are member of the household to an ancestral thought of as not venerating their ancestors, member. Thus, it is in caring for the dead (as are believed to have broken with the com­ witnessed especially in the offering of munity" (Ooms 1967, 267). incense, flowers, and food, in the "direct In short, an examination of the funeral address" of the deceased, and in the caring process in Japan reveals the fact that at the for the ashes, mortuary tablet, and grave), core of Japanese culture lies an understand­ even as the dead "care" for the living, that ing that the members of the ie, even after the the interdependent relationships of the event of death, go on living together in an household are sustained and nurtured inextricable relationship of interdepen­ through the complex and protracted death­ dence-a concept which Japanese scholars ritualization process. have called, shisha seija kyozon, or the liv­ ing and the dead existing together (Has hi­ THE 1993 JAPANESE LUTHERAN FUNERAL RITE moto 1975).1o It is ultimately this concept of "the household of the living and the dead," It might well be argued that the new 1993 that both undergirds and dictates the long Japanese Lutheran funeral rite offers, for the and complex funerary customs of Japanese first time in the history of Lutheranism in culture. Japan, an inculturated practice of Christian Structural elements which are integral to funerary celebration. Ultimately, it attempts the Japanese funeral process, and which without hesitation or apology to provide a ulti.mately have bearing on the "meaning" of fuller, more complete funeral liturgy which the rite, should be noted as follows (espe­ fits the particular needs ofthe Japanese con­ cially since these play a significant role in the text without simply translating an existing changes made to the Japanese Lutheran "burial rite" from the Lutheran Church in the funeral rite): The indo (the instructions) United States as done previously.11 The given by the priest to the deceased for a suc­ new rite is unabashedly Japanese.
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