Buddhist style memorial with posthumous names

Transfer of the spirit of the deceased to the memorial tablet
This crucial and special rite, performed by a Shinto priest, usually takes place during the wake. The spirit of the deceased is called out of the body and installed in the memorial tablet. The senrei sai is found only in Shinto funerals. However, Edo-period Shinto funerals do not include the senrei sai, so it is probably of twentieth-century origin.

The Shinto memorial tablet is similar to a Buddhist memorial tablet in form and function, and for that very reason it is called by a different name: reiji, not ihai. The reiji, less ornate than the Buddhist ihai, is usually made of plain wood with the posthumous name painted in black. A mirror, shaku (the wooden pallet that symbolizes priestly authority), or something closely connected with the deceased may also be used as the reiji.

Shinto priests holding the ‘shaku’, symbol of authority.  This can be used as the ‘reiji’ into which the spirit of the dead is transferred.

In summary, the rite proceeds as follows:
1 . Priests and mourners enter the ritual site, usually a room in the house.
2. The chief priest bows once, and the mourners then bow.
3. The central rite is performed in darkness (see below for a discussion of the nighttime setting of Shinto funerals). The lights are extinguished, and the priest stands in front of the coffin. The reiji has been placed before the coffin. The priest removes the cloth covering from the reiji and faces the reiji toward the coffin. He may go right up to the coffin, open a small window in the coffin that allows one to see the face of the deceased and hold the reiji near the face (so that the deceased can “see” the reiji? or because the vital spirit comes out with the breath?).  The priest may wear a gauze mask over his mouth and nose, so that his own mortal breath (or, worse, spit) cannot defile the memorial tablet or the spirit of the deceased. At the same time, the mask protects the priest from the impurity of the corpse.
This ambiguity — deceased as divine, corpse as polluted — is evident at several points in the Shinto funeral. The priest recites the appropriate prayer, which effectively moves the spirit from the corpse to the reiji — from its fleshly housing to its new abode in the spirit tablet. The priest puts the cover back on the reiji. After the spirit has been installed, the tablet is placed in the temporary ancestral altar. The mourners maintain silence during this rite. Now the lights can be turned back on.
4. The priests and others sit in front of the temporary ancestral altar.
5. Offerings are presented. During this time, musicians may play particular gagaku music used only during wakes and funerals.
7. The priest offers another prayer. This prayer is intended to pacify the spirit of the deceased.
8. Offering of tamagushi [see previous entry for Shinto Death 6].
9. The offerings are removed (or they may be left out).
10. The chief priest bows once. The priests leave the site.

It is through this rite that the spirit of the deceased is transformed into a divine spirit. Thus, it is at this point that the posthumous name begins to be used. The spirit of the newly dead person is volatile, liminal and polluted. It is more dead (so to speak) at this first stage of its spirit life and therefore more polluted, due to its closer association with the impure corpse. One Shinto spokesman states that because the spirit of the deceased is polluted, it is placed in a temporary ancestral altar for fifty days after the death.

A Japanese funeral with photo of the deceased and name tablet (courtesy moviespix.com).

After the spirit has entered the reiji, the reiji should be moved to a separate room until the coffin leaves the house (probably to prevent the spirit from reentering the body, although there is no official Shinto support for this interpretation). The spirit is now considered to be separate from the body, but the body continues to receive attention.

Several Shinto priests described to me a dualistic understanding of the spirit/body relationship (the body is temporary clothing to be outgrown and thrown away; the spirit continues to live for a very long time, maybe forever [none had firm views on eternity]). Nonetheless, it seems to me that in practice Shinto, like most of Japanese religion, views a person as a conjoining of two or more essences that separate at death. One inhabits the memorial tablet; another stays with the bones in the grave. It is important to communicate with and make offerings to both.

It would be hard to argue that the grave can be forgotten (“it’s just bones in there”) and only the memorial tablet remembered. Or vice versa. This double-spirit is reminiscent of the Chinese “souls,” but there is no explicit use of the terms in today’s Shinto.

In twentieth-century Japan, the dead also seem to inhabit their memorial photograph. In funeral processions, three items are carried with equal solemnity: the memorial tablet, the cremated remains, and the photograph. After the funeral, the photograph is usually set in or near the altar and will remain there for decades. Some people tell me that the expression on the photograph changes in accordance with the mood of the deceased.

A look at the popular Japanese books on “spirit photographs” will convince anyone that Japanese spirits have an affinity for snapshots. The Japanese college students whom I teach make presentations using slides they have taken of religious places or objects (temples, shrines, statues, amulets, votive tablets, seldom graves). The students often do not want to keep the slides after they have finished their presentation because they are “afraid” of the “ghosts” or “spirits” in the slides. Throwing the slides out is not a good solution, since it would make the spirits angry. What to do? Give the slides to the teacher.

Finally, the deceased may appear in dreams. It is hard to say whether this is a fourth spirit or one of the other two or three that has left its usual station in order to contact a sleeping relative.
Sometimes two reiji are used and the spirit of the dead is installed in both of them. One of the reiji will be burned with the corpse when it is cremated, and the other one will be installed in the household ancestral altar.

One Shinto priest explained that a person’s spirit is “infinite, limitless, and divisible.” He made an analogy to the divisibility of a kami. During a festival with a portable shrine, part of the kami is in the mikoshi traveling around the shrine neighborhood, while another part of the kami remains in the main building of the shrine.

During festivals the spirit of the kami is transferred from the main shrine to the mikoshi and carried around town. Similarly the spirit of the dead is thought to be transferred to the ‘reiji’ after death.

This is part of an ongoing series about the Shinto manner of handling funerals and death.  Though Buddhist funerals remain the norm, special Shinto funerals do take place and their ritual procedure is a little different.  In this adapted piece from Elizabeth Kenney’s article, the focus is on the wake, when people gather to commemorate the deceased. (For Part 1 of the series, click here.)

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Wake
The Shinto wake, like the Buddhist wake, is usually held the day before the funeral ceremony. In some cases, the wake is a gathering of relatives and friends without a special program of activities. In other cases, the wake is structured very similarly to the funeral. And in yet others (increasingly the norm, it seems) the guests attend the wake very briefly, almost in an assembly-line fashion. The priests, of course, perform their ritual duties as before, but their only audience is the close family of the deceased.

Ritual ablution has always been important for Shinto, dating back to hand washing in streams

The mourners at a Shinto wake must purify their hands and mouths with water before entering the room. Usually, the funeral company will have set up a small bucket of water and a ladle for the guests. White paper or small towels may also be provided.

If the wake is held in a private home, the purification may be performed at the bathroom sink, if no other arrangement is possible. In that case, the guest should simply wash his hands and not rinse out his mouth (because it would be too rude to spit in someone else’s sink — an everyday etiquette taboo being more compelling than the need to observe the established Shinto methods of purifying oneself, which definitely include rinsing out one’s mouth).

People perform the same simple purification again before attending the funeral. This hand-washing rite is one of the rituals that distinguishes a Shinto wake or funeral from a Buddhist one. It is not that purification is absent from a Buddhist funeral: participants in a Buddhist funeral purify themselves only after the funeral (with salt) before reentering their home or workplace. A guest at a Shinto funeral does this, too.

The mourners’ self-purification before entering the wake or funeral place is analogous to the simple purification called for before one enters a Shinto shrine. A funeral is too polluted and polluting to be conducted at a shrine. Nonetheless, the presence of the Shinto priests and their ritual implements, perhaps especially the purification wand, transforms the secular house (or other building) into a sacred place that demands purification before entering.

Upon leaving a wake or funeral, the guest receives a small packet of salt, printed with the word “purification”. Even if one does not attend the wake or funeral, someone who has given condolence money (say, to an office colleague whose father has died) will still receive the packet of purification salt, in this case at the time of receiving the return-gift for the condolence money, usually forty-nine days after the death.

Salt plays an important part in Shinto rituals as a purifying agent

The return-gift might be small white towels (themselves symbolic of — and actually useful for! — purification) or a department store gift coupon. The interesting point here is that the office colleague who did not attend the funeral may seem not to have incurred the impurity of death, but he is still in need of purification. Other office colleagues, who did not give condolence money, receive no purification salt.

This can be understood either as long-distance attendance at the funeral (on the model of the Shinto “worship from afar”) or long-distance “contamination” with death pollution, since a route of “infection” can be traced through a series of contagious hands (like the 0-157 bacteria): he touched the condolence-money envelope, gave it to his bereaved colleague, and that envelope entered the realm of death pollution.

It is not always salt that is distributed for purification to people who have attended a Buddhist wake or funeral. At two wakes I attended recently, the mourners were handed a damp towel after paying their respects to the deceased.

The wake might include the following stages:
1 . The coffin-altar has been prepared by arranging the offerings of washed rice, salt, water, sake, vegetables, seaweed, cakes, etc. Also set up is a photo of the deceased — an important element of modern funerals. Other decorations are arranged as described above.
2. The priests and mourners enter the room.
3. The chief priest bows once, then the mourners bow once all together.
4. Food offerings are made.
5. The priest offers prayers and an elegy. A purification ceremony may also be performed at this point.
6. Offering of tamagushi: first the priests, then the chief mourner, followed by relatives in order of closeness and status, and finally friends and other mourners.
7. The offerings are taken away.
8. The chief priest bows, and the mourners then bow in unison.
9. The priests leave the room, while the mourners watch silently.

A priest about to present a tamagushi offering to a participant in a ceremony

When the mourners are called upon to present tamagushi at the altar of the deceased, they are on stage. This is the only real action they must perform, and, to judge by the attention devoted to the correct way of offering tamagushi in the etiquette books, it is something to worry about. The tamagushi offering takes only a few seconds, but to the novice it seems hopelessly complicated. Remember that most mourners, unlike the priests, have never done this before and have no chance to practice.

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How to offer tamagushi:
a. Receive the tamagushi from the priest.
b. Hold the tamagushi by placing your right hand, palm down, over the stem and grasping the branch with your thumb. Hold the leafy part in your left hand, with your palm facing up so that the leaves are on top of your palm. Bow in front of the altar.
c. Keeping the tamagushi pointing upward, rotate it clockwise until the stem, still held in your right hand, is pointing toward you.
d. Switch hands, so that the left hand is holding the stem and the right hand is holding the leaves. The palm of the right hand should be facing up.
e. Continue turning the tamagushi clockwise, with your left hand still holding the stem, until the stem is pointing away from you.
f. Place the tamagushi on the table, with the stem pointing toward the altar.
g. Bow twice. Clap twice without making noise (see below).
h. Bow once more. Return to your seat.

The tamagushi offering occurs in various Shinto rites: weddings, building dedications, memorial service for used needles, and so forth. The tamagushi itself symbolizes sacredness and purity. In the ritual context, it serves as a medium of exchange among the kami, priests, and lay people.

At a funeral, the tamagushi travels from the kami (symbolically) to the priest to the mourner to the deceased. This is not a descent, but a loop. In the funeral setting, the tamagushi has the added function of representing Shinto against Buddhism and Christianity. All three types of funerals include offerings from the mourners to the deceased, but each is purposefully differentiated from the others. Buddhists offer incense, while Christians offer flowers, and Shintôists offer tamagushi.

Tamagushi often play an important part in Shinto rituals, and knowing how to present them is an important part of the protocol

Offerings for the dead are similar to those for a kami – rice, salt and water together with some favourite food or drink

This is part of an ongoing series drawn from an academic article by Elizabeth Kenney.  For a link to the original article, see Part One.  The extracts below concern the time leading up to the funeral ceremony when the deceased is still in the house.

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Daily offerings to the deceased
Until the coffin is removed from the house, offerings are made to the deceased twice a day, in the morning and evening. The offerings may consist of the deceased’s favorite food (this type of offerings is called “usual offerings,”) or washed rice, salt and water (“fresh offerings,”). The latter are offerings usually made to the kami.

Offerings for the kami may include fish and meat, but not for the Buddhist dead

The dual offerings indicate the double, transitional nature of the deceased: he is both human and divine. Fujii Masao comments that the offering of real-people food during this stage is one thing that distinguishes a Shinto funeral from a Buddhist one, and the etiquette books advise that the Shinto dead may receive offerings of fish and meat, in contrast to the Buddhist dead, who observe vegetarian precepts.

Announcement of the “return of the spirit” to the local shrine
The announcement may be made to the local shrine or to the place where the deceased was born. The family sends a representative to the shrine to make the announcement.  This rite is often omitted (or performed via telephone) nowadays, and probably seems redundant to many people, since the death has already been announced to the household kami. It is significant for our purposes, because it has no corresponding act in Buddhist funeral activities.

Purification ceremonies for the grave site
If a new grave is to be built, an “earth pacification ceremony” is called for. This is the same ceremony conducted before the construction of a new building in order to pacify the earth gods. The norito [prayer] used for the grave is appropriately different from the house-building norito and asks the kami to look after the grave that is to be built.

After the grave has been made, another purification ceremony is performed. The area to be purified is marked off with a bamboo rope. One Shinto priest waves a purification wand, and another sprinkles salted hot water over the area.

Purification wand used by priests in their purification ritual

Shinto priest’s purification
In the period right after death, the deceased is cared for mostly by the family members. The first series of rites for preparing the corpse do not require a Shinto priest, but a funeral director may be present to offer guidance.

The Shinto priest has a liturgical role, does not touch the corpse, and usually does not participate until the wake. In preparation, the priest undertakes simple purificatory exercises, such as pouring cold water on himself or abstaining from meat. One priest told me that he took a bath in the morning before conducting a wake or funeral (whereas most Japanese people take their baths in the evening). These are the same sort of exercises that Shinto priests perform before most shrine ceremonies.

Before rituals such as this, priests have to engage in purification rites

Placing valued objects in the coffin or grave was common practice in ancient times. Here a Viking burial is shown with shield and sword accompanying the warrior to the next world.

This is the fourth in a series of articles about the Shinto funereal practices, adapted from an academic article by Elizabeth Kenney.  (For a link to the original article, see Part I.)

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Encoffining
The chief mourner and other relatives assemble in the room. There is seldom a priest present. Holding the futon, the mourners lift the corpse and put the corpse and futon together into the coffin. They then cover the body with a new futon.

Various symbolic objects or items especially valued by the deceased may go into the coffin, too. I have heard of a fishing rod, a pipe, books, a doll (“to keep her company”), clothes, rosaries, make-up, a comb, the deceased’s umbilical cord (very common), blank white paper “money” (shades of China!), and real 1,000-yen bills.

The paper doll ‘scapegoat’ used to remove impurities

(One can’t help but speculate that the doll is a vestige of the Sino-Japanese custom of putting clay figures into a grave. At the same time, since in Japan dolls (usually paper) are used in purification rites, the doll in the coffin might function as a scapegoat for the spirit of the deceased. It is worth noting that the doll I heard about was not an old-fashioned paper cut-out, but a regular plastic baby doll.)

Next, the coffin is closed and, in some cases, purified (in which case, a Shinto priest will be asked in). Next, the family members purify themselves by washing their hands and rinsing out their mouths. This is the hand-washing rite that reoccurs several times during the funeral rites.

When the coffin has been set in its proper place, the mourners sit in front of it. The chief mourner bows and everyone follows. Close family members offer food. The mourners then bow in order of closeness to the deceased. The food may be cleared away or left there. Finally, the chief mourner bows, the other mourners do likewise, and they all leave the room.

In ancient times ‘haniwa’ clay figures used to accompany burials

The encoffining was traditionally done under the direction of a Shinto priest. However, in today’s Japan, it is more often a ceremony directed by an employee of a funeral company, who leads the family through the proper steps.

The coffin must be set up in the manner in which it will remain for a day or two. Behind the coffin stands a folding screen. The coffin is placed on benches so that it is raised up. A photo of the deceased may be propped up in front of the coffin. A small table with the protective sword is placed to the right of the coffin, near the head of the deceased.

As many as three long, narrow tables are placed in front of the coffin: on one are placed the awards, medals, commendations, and so forth, that the deceased had received in life; another table is for the food offerings; and on a third are placed tamagushi. Pairs of sakaki and lanterns (lights) may also be set up in front of the coffin. The whole area should be enclosed with curtains on three sides.

A priest prepares to hand a tamagushi offering to participants to present to the kami.

Death is usually associated with Buddhist practices, as pictured here, but Shinto funerals take a slightly different form

3. Announcement of the death (to the ancestral altar, and shrines connected to the deceased.)
The Shinto death is reported to the kami (either in the family kamidana [house altar] or at a shrine). If the deceased or relatives had prayed for a cure at a certain shrine, then a visit should be paid to that shrine in order to announce the death. If the shrine is far away, then a representative can be sent or the family can “pray from afar”. The death may also be reported to the ancestors (who are kami, after all) at the place within the house where ancestral rites are conducted (usually the ancestral altar, but sometimes the kamidana).

After the announcement, a white piece of paper is pasted over the kamidana in order to insulate the kami from the impurity of death. The soreisha, which houses the ancestral tablets of a Shinto family, is also covered with a sheet of white paper. In contrast, a Buddhist household covers the kamidana but not the butsudan [Buddhist altar], since the Buddhist ancestors do not need to be sealed off from the impurity of death. It is the chief mourner, the most polluted person, who covers the soreisha with the white paper.

4. Pillow decorations
The body of the deceased is placed with his head pointing north or to the right (from the point of view of the mourners facing it). The face is covered with a white cloth. Behind him is a plain white folding screen, which may be provided by the funeral company.

Kamidana with Shinto-style utensils for offerings

On a small table of unvarnished wood, the relatives set out food offerings for the deceased. The low table used for Shinto pillow decorations is distinctive, made of plain wood, with four legs on each side, joined together at the bottom by a horizontal foot. The offerings are the deceased’s favorite foods, along with the characteristic Shinto offerings of sakaki, washed rice, salt, sake, and water (The Jinja Honchô manual specifies the deceased’s favorite foods or washed rice, salt, and water).

In addition, a protective sword or knife may be laid on top of the corpse, pointing away from his face, or set out on a separate table (the preferred Shinto arrangement). An ordinary knife or even a razor may stand in for the sword, but the funeral company will supply a sword. For women, a mirror may be used instead of a sword (to deflect, rather than cut down, the forces, never clearly named, that hinder one’s journey to the netherworld).

For Buddhist pillow decorations, one might use candles, flowers, incense (usually one stick at a time), a bell, water, glutinous rice balls, and a bowl of rice with a pair of chopsticks stuck straight into the rice.

Sakaki branch tied to a torii pillar

The tree used in Buddhist pillow decorations is the shikimi ([illicium religiosum]) — also written, significantly, with a made-in- Japan character consisting of “tree” plus “Buddha”, a perfect counterpoint to the character for sakaki, which is comprised of “tree” plus “kami”

The chart below shows a clear pattern of differences between the Shinto and Buddhist pillow decorations.

Shinto  kami tree (sakaki); uncooked rice / for the gods; water / for the gods; salt; sake; [sometimes tamagushi]; [sometimes one or two candlesl
Buddhist   – Buddha tree (shikimi); flowers (“living”);  cooked rice / for the dead; water / as though for the living; dango dumplings; bell; incense; one or two candles; favorite foods of the deceased

The Shinto dead eat uncooked rice that is not normally eaten by a civilized Japanese person. (Raw rice is eaten at certain Shinto ceremonies as part of the naorai, a shared meal in the presence of the kami. This is another example of the kami’s preference for uncooked food. In the Tenrikyô religion, raw rice is used as spiritual medicine. Both these examples illustrate the fact that raw rice, usually “less than” food, becomes “more than” food in certain ritual settings.)

Both the Buddhist and Shinto dead drink water. But the Buddhist dead drink it out of a regular glass or teacup, even a mug. In contrast, the Shinto dead drink their water from the container used at Shinto rituals. Here again, the details of presentation can be matched with patterns of food symbolism to demarcate the Buddhist vs. Shinto dead.

Offerings of sake and salt at a shrine