The Influence Of Ancestor Worship And Conception Of Death In Japanese History

Japan is a country that pays great attention to funeral etiquette,this is because the Japanese have a very strong concept of ancestor worship,they think their own life are affected by the ancestors of asylum,afoundation of the ancestors is guarding their protector.The ancestor worship is to let the Japanese to come very naturally dead ancestors funeral.In addition,since the introduction of Buddhism to Japan, Buddhist karma, reincarnation reincarnation,the pure land of ultimate bliss thought and traditional Shinto thought fusion,forming a Japanese national unique view of life and death, hope oneself can like cherry is generally a beautiful to die,die with dignity,and quietly is the wish of many Japanese.This thought also affected the Japanese and its attention to the funeral customs.Japan has two mainstream funeral types since ancient times.Is a Shinto burial ceremony;the other is a Buddhist cremation ceremony.After the Meiji Restoration,the Japanese funeral customs took a lot of change and formed the existing form gradually.In order to carry out national Shinto, the Meiji government banned people to practice Buddhist cremation, even specially issued a cremation injunction.This makes the Meiji period has become the mainstream of burial burial ceremony.However burial high cost makes it difficult to generalize, after the end of the Second World War, the collapse of State Shinto, Buddhist cremation again to become the mainstream society.The Japanese don’tjust pay attention to the burial ceremony,also attaches great importance to the tombstone and cemetery.The tomb system of Japan has experienced a long developing stage, and has formed the way of the tomb system which is now based on the stone pillar.The modern Japanese thought that the tomb offered the stage for the life cycle, the cemetery is the place where the ancestors rest,there is no earthly troubles and noisy,is the sacred land.The tombstone is the monument in the process of the death and the transformation of the cycle.Japan’s tomb system in the main form of the family as a unit of the burial tomb, the tomb of the homestead, village community village tomb.These different tombs reflect the different culture of life and death in different regions.In addition to the cemetery buried ancestors grave,Japanese but also at home in worship of the deceased used in lifetime of a bowl of mutton shrines,in the first 7th,third 7th and seventh 7th anniversary for support.This support lasts for seven years.Because the Japanese believe that after seven years, the deceased to the gods,the guardian of the entire family.In addition to every household alone the deceased support outside, Japan and is known as the nation’s second big festival Ullambana.The Japanese believe that on that day,the underworld will open a day,first people’s soul will return to earth,reunited with loved ones.Therefore,the various parts of Japan will hold a grand ceremony to worship,to meet the ancestors back.