A Study of Ancestor Worship in the new religious movements in Japan.

Research Project

Project/Area Number	60510108
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for General Scientific Research (C)
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Research Field	社会学(含社会福祉関係)
Research Institution	Meiji University
Principal Investigator	KOMOTO Mitugi School of Commerece, Professor, 商学部, 教授 (60101333)
Project Period (FY)	1985 – 1986
Project Status	Completed (Fiscal Year 1986)
Budget Amount *help	¥1,800,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,800,000) Fiscal Year 1986: ¥800,000 (Direct Cost: ¥800,000) Fiscal Year 1985: ¥1,000,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,000,000)
Keywords	Ancestor worship / New Religious Movement / 家 / 社会変動
Research Abstract	The new religious movement in Japan developed in paticular follwing the Taisho Era from instruction in and the practice of rites commemorating deceased ancestors. However, such rites are a departure from the practices of traditional Japanese households. Moreover, this honoring of one's ancestors now includes both the wifes and the husbands. In addition, it also gives us a glimpse of the fact that the word of the spirit is an infinitelly expanding one. From this belief that one's ancestors are always protecting one it follows that some will say that the unhappiness of we, their desendents, resuts from the suffering of those ancestors or an insufficiency of attention to the rites which should honor them. These so-called houseld ancestor commemorative rites do not adhere to socially motivated restrictions, but rather indicate the possibility of a private and free interpretation. Moreover, in todays secularized society, the continuation of deep-rooted, ancestral worship rites, the enlarged domain of daily activites derived from the so-called autonomy of the household, in addition to concern for the contemporary family itself, and the continuing loss of identity, the existenece of eyernally existing ancestors can be thought of a desire for self-affirmation. Furthemore, as regards relgions, the system for explaining human suffering can be thought of as providing stability.