2009 Fiscal Year Final Research Report
The Research in the Socio-cultural Meanings of The Natural Funeral (shizensou)-focused on death and the cultural disposal of the skeletal remains
| Project/Area Number |
19530444
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
Sociology
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| Research Institution | Kumamoto University |
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Principal Investigator |
TAGUCHI Hiroaki Kumamoto University, 大学院・社会文化科学研究科, 教授 (20040503)
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| Co-Investigator(Renkei-kenkyūsha) |
TERAOKA Shingo 奈良女子大学, 文学部, 准教授 (90261239)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2007 – 2009
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| Keywords | 自然葬 / 散骨 / 墓制 / 両墓制 / 霊魂 / アニミズム / 他界表象 / 聖なるもの |
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| Research Abstract |
The results that was given through this study are the followings.
(1) I researched the preceding studies of the Ryoubosei distributed in the Kinki region in an early-modern times, and practiced fieldwork in some communities. The Ryoubosei is the mortuary practices which are characterized by the two kinds of grave, called the Umebaka and the Mairibaka. Then I observed that the skeletal remains and the soulhad not always been considered the indivisible existence. This fact means that the negative (and radical) attitude against the remains worship, found out among people upholding ashes scattering today, had been included in the tradition of the Ryoubosei.
(2) I gave attention also to the Mubosei, the mortuary practices without any gravestone, which existed in the early-modern times. That has four characteristics, that is to say, cremation, ashes scattering, no graves and no visit to a grave. These characteristics are the same ones as modern natural funeral (shizensou), and therefore the Mu
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bosei is likely to be an archetype of shizensou.
(3) Ashes scattering as a ritual without any specific religion has been found out regularly, through my observations. That is, whether people upholding ashes scattering are the believers of the specific religion or not, the selected space and time for scattering are sanctified, which is to say, the ritual of ashes scattering appears itself as the sacred for a while. This kind of ritual, even if it is done by nonreligious people, means sanctification of the personality of the dead, which is in accord with the slogan of "Settle the gravestone into our heart!"
(4) This research, at first, has been begun on the hypothesis that the movement of shizensou means a phenomenon returning to animism, which is the belief in the spirit of various natural objects. The reason is that I knew some stereotyped and repeated statements such as, 'He has returned to nature' or 'She could have returned to nature'. For checking out this hypothesis, I practiced a questionnaire to 315 respondents belonging to the association that supports ashes scattering. Then, a small number of respondents agreed with the concept that the soul of the dead person go into a natural object after ashes scattering, and exist eternally as the spirit of it. On the contrary, many respondents have tendency that not to believe or sure of the existence of the soul after death. Therefore, the original hypothesis has to be denied on these evidences. Less
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Research Products
(4 results)
