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

从1994年到1996年进行了三年的研究，在全国不同地区进行的关于死亡和葬礼仪式、家庭和对祖先的态度、家庭佛坛和伊哈伊碑、墓地和墓碑、葬礼任务分工等方面的调查得出了许多新的发现。关于丧葬民俗的研究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。这项研究为这一主题提供了一个新的视角，最显著的是发现了地域上的显著差异及其在葬礼任务分工方面的意义，三方分别是：克苏恩(有血缘关系的家庭和亲戚以及其他与婚姻有关的亲属)、齐恩(与当地社区有关的人)和木恩(包括殡仪业者和僧侣或其他CL…在内的不相关的人例如，在广岛县山形郡的千代田町，一群邻居在葬礼上扮演中心角色，死者的家人和其他亲属除了坐在死者旁边守夜外，什么都不做。在山口县Toyoua-un的Hohoku-cho，葬礼的第一天由家人和亲戚做准备，从第二天起，一群邻居相互分担葬礼的中心职能。在附近几乎所有居民都有血缘关系和婚姻关系的村庄--比如福井县Tsuruga和Mihama的村庄--某些亲戚被选来扮演抬棺材和执行其他葬礼程序的“非亲属”角色。另一个例子是岩手县下平郡的岩泉町，葬礼的主要部分由家人和亲戚主持，邻居只起辅助或辅助作用。这最后一个例子是家人和亲戚在葬礼中起主导作用，在古代和中世纪的记录中都有描述。可以想见，随着近代早期邻里组织的发展和互助实践的传播，全国各地的丧葬表演主体逐渐从与血缘有关的人向与场所有关的人转变。从一个地区到另一个地区，葬礼和其他民俗习惯的差异可能反映了特定的当地历史。基于最近的发现，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。较少

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