Ceremony and Ritual in Japan: Religious Practices in an Industrialized Society

283 Pages·1995·4.357 MB·English

by  D. P. Martinez, Jan Van Bremen

Ceremony and Ritual in Japan
The Nissan Institute/Routledge Japanese
Studies Series

Editorial Board
J.A.A.Stockwin, Nissan Professor of Modern Japanese Studies, University of
Oxford and Director, Nissan Institute of Japanese Studies.
Teigo Yoshida, formerly Professor of the University of Tokyo, and now Professor,
Obirin University, Tokyo
Frank Langdon, Professor, Institute of International Relations, University of British
Columbia, Canada
Alan Rix, Professor of Japanese, The University of Queensland
Junji Banno, Professor, Institute of Social Science, University of Tokyo

Other titles in the series:

The Myth of Japanese Uniqueness, Peter Dale
The Emperor’s Adviser: Saionji Kinmochi and Pre-war Japanese Politics,
Lesley Ann Connors
Understanding Japanese Society, Joy Hendry
A History of Japanese Economic Thought, Tessa Morris-Suzuki
The Establishment of the Japanese Constitutional System, Junji Banno,
translated by J.A.A.Stockwin
Industrial Relations in Japan: the Peripheral Workforce, Norma Chalmers
Banking Policy in Japan: American Efforts at Reform During the Occupation,
William M.Tsutsui
Education Reform in Japan, Leonard Schoppa
How the Japanese Learn to Work, Ronald P.Dore and Mari Sako
Japanese Economic Development: Theory and Practice, Penelope Franks
Japan and Protection: The Growth of Protectionist Sentiment and the
Japanese Response, Syed Javed Maswood
Japan’s Nuclear Development, Michael Donnelly
The Soil, by Nagatsuka Takashi: a Portrait of Rural Life in Meiji Japan,
translated and with an introduction by Ann Waswo
Biotechnology in Japan, Malcolm Brock
Britain’s Educational Reform: a Comparison with Japan, Mike Howarth
Language and the Modern State: the Reform of Written Japanese, Nanette
Twine
Industrial Harmony in Modern Japan: the Invention of a Tradition, W.Dean
Kinzley
Japanese Science Fiction: a View of a Changing Society, Robert Matthew
The Japanese Numbers Game: the Use and Understanding of Numbers in
Modern Japan, Thomas Crump
Ideology and Practice in Modern Japan, Robert Goodman and Kirsten Refsing
Technology and Industrial Development in Pre-War Japan, Yukiko Fukasaku
Japan’s First Parliaments 1890–1910, R.H.P.Mason, Andrew Fraser, and Philip
Mitchell
Militarization in Contemporary Japan, Glenn D.Hook
Emperor Hirohito and Showa Japan, Stephen S.Large
Japan: Beyond the End of History, David Williams
Ceremony and Ritual in
Japan
Religious Practices in an
Industrialized Society
Edited by Jan van Bremen
and D.P.Martinez
London and New York
First published 1995
by Routledge
11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE

Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group

This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2003.

© 1995 Jan van Bremen and D.P.Martinez; individual chapters
the contributors
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented,
including photocopying and recording, or in any information
storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from
the publishers.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the
British Library.

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book has been applied for

ISBN 0-203-42954-0 Master e-book ISBN

ISBN 0-203-73778-4 (Adobe eReader Format)
ISBN 0-415-11663-5 (hbk)

Cover photograph shows prayer sticks being burned during a
Fire ritual
Contents
List of illustrations vii
Notes on contributors ix
Series editor’s preface xi
Acknowledgements xiii
Introduction The myth of the secularization of
industrialized societies 1
Jan van Bremen
Part I The question of tradition
1 Wedding and funeral ritual: Analysing a moving target 25
Robert J.Smith
2 Rituality in the ken game 38
Sepp Linhart
3 The parish of a famous shrine: The influence of rites and
ceremonials on urban life. The sanctuary of Ebisu in
Nishinomiya 67
Sylvie Guichard-Anguis
Part II Rituals for the dead
4 On structural duality in Japanese conceptions of death:
Collective forms of death rituals in Morimachi 83
Halldór Stefánsson
5 Orchestrated reciprocity: Belief versus practice in Japanese
funeral ritual 108
Jane M.Bachnik
v
vi Contents
6 Memorial monuments and memorial services of Japanese
companies: Focusing on Mount Ko¯ya 146
Hirochika Nakamaki
Part III The tools of ceremony
7 A Japanese Shinto¯ parade: Does it ‘say’ anything, and if
so, what? 161
Arne Kalland
8 Women and ritual 183
D.P.Martinez
9 Sonaemono: Ritual gifts to the deities 201
Jane Cobbi
10 The ritual of the revolving towel 210
Joy Hendry
11 Cleaning floors and sweeping the mind: Cleaning as a ritual
process 227
Ian Reader
Conclusion The rituals of urbanity: Temporal forms and
spatial forms in Japanese and French cities 246
Augustin Berque
Index 259
Illustrations
FIGURES
2.1 The representation of numbers with the fingers according
to the Yoshiwara saiken kayou kami (1743) 40
2.2 Representation of snake (hebi), frog (kawazu) and slug
(namekuji) in the mushi-ken according to the Kensarae
sumai zue (1809) 42
2.3 Sho¯ya-ken (more commonly called kitsune-ken or
to¯hachi-ken) according to the Kensarae sumai zue (1809) 44
2.4 To¯ra-ken according to the Kensarae sumai zue (1809) 46
2.5 Sukuitama-ken or kendama, here called kobbutama,
according to the Kensarae sumai zue (1809) 49
2.6 The ken-kin or ken-mawashi according to Fu¯getsu gaiden
(1771) 50
2.7 Komurasaki from the Eastern League is fighting against
Usukumo from the Western League with Hanamurasaki
acting as referee in an illustration from the Yoshiwara
saiken kayou kami (1743) by Nishimura Shigemasa 52
2.8 An illustrated ken poem from the Yoshiwara saiken
kayou kami (1743) 54
2.9 Utensils for ken-sumo¯ as illustrated in the Fu¯getsu
gaiden (1771) 55
2.10 The ring used in ken-sumo¯ according to the Fu¯getsu
gaiden (1771) 56
2.11 A ken-sumo¯ scene as given in the Fu¯getsu gaiden (1771) 58
2.12 A ken-sumo¯ banzuke from O¯saka 60
5.1 The Kato¯ universe: permanent and temporary ties 118
5.2 Kato¯ family universe: Ju¯nosuke’s funeral 120
5.3 Reversal of normal practices after death 124
5.4 Parent/branch participation in Kato¯ funeral: third day 126
vii
viii Illustrations
5.5 Neighbourhood (kumi) participation in Kato¯ funeral 127
5.6 Kato¯ house plan 129
5.7 Uchi/soto reciprocity in Kato¯ funeral 136
8.1 Gender and ritual power relations in Kuzaki-cho¯ 196
TABLE
8.1 Roles and ages of women involved in various rites
in Kuzaki-cho¯ 188
Contributors
Jane M.Bachnik is a Professor at the Institute of Multimedia Education, the
Ministry of Education in Chiba, Japan. Her research interests focus on
pragmatic/indexical meaning and include Japanese family, self, society and
small business organization. Her publications include Situated Meaning:
Inside and Outside in Japanese Self, Society and Language (with Charles
J.Quinn, Jr) and Family, Self and Society in Contemporary Japan.
Augustin Berque is Professor of Geography and Head of the Centre de
recherches sur le Japon contemporain at the Ecole des hautes études en
sciences sociales in Paris. His recent publications include Du Geste à la cité:
formes urbain et lien social au Japon (Japanese translation forthcoming)
and Miburi kara machizukuri e (Cosmology of the city).
Jan van Bremen is Associate Professor at the Centre for Japanese and Korean
Studies, University of Leiden and Co-founder and Liaison Officer of the
Japan Anthropology Workshop. His interests focus on the anthropology and
intellectual history of Japan and he has published widely in these fields.
Jane Cobbi is Research Fellow at CNRS and a Lecturer at the Ecole des
hautes études en sciences sociales, Paris. As a result of much fieldwork she
has published work on, among other things, material culture, food habits
and the anthropology of work.
Sylvie Guichard-Anguis is affiliated to the National Scientific Centre of
Research in France. She is currently a Lecturer in the UFR of Geography at
the Sorbonne and the Institut Catholique in Paris. She has published several
articles on urban geography in Japan.
Joy Hendry is Professor of Social Anthropology at Oxford Brookes
University. Her current areas of interest are politeness and other forms of
indirect communication in contemporary Japan. Her most recent books are
Wrapping Culture: Politeness, Power and Presentation in Japan and other
Societies and Understanding Japanese Society (second edition forthcoming).
Arne Kalland is Senior Research Associate at the Centre for Development
and the Environment, University of Oslo. His publications include Shingu:
A Study of a Japanese Fishing Community.
ix