Death Customs in Contemporary Japan

In the Kojiki, initiation into society was often signified by sharing the same vessels; since one wants to avoid the society of the dead, various visual and symbolic means are employed to sharpen the distinction between utensils and food used by the living and by the dead, even while the ritual deepens the relationships between the two. While the spirit of the departed person is served in this symbolic way, the living at the funeral ceremony are fed different, but equally meaningful, items, most often in the form of sushi with four colored ingredients in the center; the phoneme for four, shi, also means "death," and such food is considered appropriate only for a funeral.

When the body is prepared for the funeral, it is bathed with "reverse water," sakasa mizu, where hot water is added to cold, in contrast to the normal way of preparing a bath for the living, where hot water is cooled (if desired) by the addition of cold. The body is then dressed in a kimono which is folded opposite to the normal fashion, that is, hidarimae, right over left (the way women's shirts are buttoned in Western cultures). Needless to say, these procedures are considered inappropriate for living persons because per se they suggest preparation for a funeral.

Most Japanese avoid wearing shoes or zori while inside a house because of the tatami on the floor. Of course, on practical grounds it is cleaner for the house and kinder to the woven straw mats; but this custom also has to do with funerals, where only the corpse wears shoes or sandals, along with the bearers who carry the coffin out of the house at the conclusion of the ceremony. Numerical aspects of gift giving are also affected: normally one avoids giving things in even numbers, but in addition, one never offers anyone only one cup of tea to drink or one bowl of rice to eat or a single flower, for these practices are associated with funerals and may not be a part of everyday behavior.