A Study of Contemporary Folk Customs Regarding Death, Funerals, Graves, and Ancestor Worship

从1994年到1996年进行了三年的调查，在全国各地进行了关于死亡和葬礼仪式、家庭和对祖先的态度、家庭佛堂和牌位、墓地和墓碑、葬礼任务分工等方面的调查，取得了许多新的发现。对丧葬民俗的研究，大致分为以丧葬仪式为中心的研究和以社会关系为中心的研究。本研究提供了一个新的研究视角，特别是发现了在三个党派的葬礼任务分工方面存在着显著的地域差异及其意义（“血亲”家庭和亲属及其他姻亲），千恩（当地社区的“与当地有关的”人）和无关系的人（包括佛教徒和佛教僧侣或其他群体的“无关系的”人） ...更多信息 例如，在广岛县山形郡千代田町，一群邻居在葬礼上扮演中心角色，死者的家人和其他亲属什么也不做，只是坐在死者身边守夜。在山口县丰浦郡的北町，葬礼的第一天是由家人和亲戚来准备，从第二天起，由邻居们来分担葬礼的主要工作。在敦贺、美滨等几乎所有居民都有血缘和婚姻关系的村庄，葬礼的第一天是由家人和亲戚来准备，第二天以后，由邻居们来分担葬礼的主要工作。在福井县，某些亲属被选中扮演“非亲属”的角色，他们抬着棺材，执行其他葬礼程序。另一个例子是岩手县下平郡的岩泉町，那里的葬礼主要由家人和亲戚主持，邻居只起辅助或支持的作用。最后一个例子，家人和亲戚在葬礼中扮演主角，这在古代和中世纪的记录中有所描述。可以认为，随着近代早期邻里组织的发展和互助习俗的传播，全国各地的丧葬行为主体逐渐从“血缘”人转向“乡土”人。不同地区的丧葬习俗和其他民俗的差异可能反映了特定的地方历史。根据最近的发现，我现在正在通过进一步阅读文献和研究民俗来验证这些差异。少

study, carried out for three years from 1994 to 1996, yielded many new findings from surveys conducted in various areas of the nation concerning death and funeral rituals, the ie (family) and attitudes toward the ancestors, butsudan (family Buddhist altar) and ihai tablets, graveyards and tombstones, division of tasks at funerals, and so forth. Some of the findings are summarized here.Research on funeral folkways has been divided between that centering around funeral rituals and that revolving around social relations. The analyzes of both tended to be one-sided.This study offers a new perspective to the subject, most notably the discovery of marked differences by region and their significance with regard to the division of tasks at funerals among three parties, ketsu-en ("blood-related" family and relatives and other kin related by marriage), chi-en ("locale-related" persons of the local commukity), and mu-en ("non-related" persons including undertakers and Buddhist priests or other cl … More ergy).In Chiyoda-cho, Yamagata-gun, Hiroshima prefecture, for example, a group of neighbors perform the central functions at funerals, with the family members and other relatives of the deceased doing nothing but sitting vigil by the deceased. In Hohoku-cho, Toyoura-gun, Yamaguchi prefecture, funeral preparations are done by family and relatives on the first day, and from the second day onward a group of neighbors divide the central functions of the funeral among themselves.In villages where almost all residents in the neighborhood are related by blood and marriage -such as villages in Tsuruga and Mihama, Fukui prefecture -certain relatives are chosen to play the parts of "non-kin" who carry the coffin and perform other funeral procedures. Another instance is from Iwaizumi-cho, Shimohei-gun, Iwate prefecture, in which the main parts of the funeral are performed by the family and relatives, with neighbors playing only a supplementary or support role.This last instance, of family and relatives taking the leading role in funerals, is described in records dating from ancient and medieval times. It can be assumed that with the development of neighborhood organizations and the spread of mutual assistance practices in the early modern society, the main actors in performing funerals gradually shifted throughout the country from "blood-related" to "locale-related" people. Differences in funeral and other folkways fromnone region to another may be reflections of specific local history. Based on the recent findings, I am now in the process of verifying these differents through further perusal of documents and study of folk customs. Less