Comparative Folkloric Research on Funeral Rite

我们对西南群岛、韩国和台湾的葬礼和纪念活动进行了实地研究。这项民俗学研究的目的是了解这些地区看不见的世界。西南岛的研究主要集中在隐岐岛和与龙岛。在近代早期，佛教和神道教在这些岛屿上广泛传播，但并没有严重影响人们的思想。这些岛屿上仍然保留着民间宗教信仰。两个相反的地区，在首尔市的郊区和韩国南部的一个孤岛被选为研究区域。儒家思想和民间宗教的影响在那里的仪式实践中是可见的。然而，近年来，基督教强烈影响了葬礼习俗，葬礼参与者之间的摩擦变得越来越严重。很难理解他们的做法源于民间宗教的概念。在台湾，田野调查在台北及其周边地区进行，比较了道士和民间宗教牧师的丧葬习俗。还调查了妇女合唱佛教经典的情况。本研究成功地找出大陆与台湾原住民的因素，并借由田野调查与比较研究，进一步了解这些地区的丧葬习俗。他们都对死者的灵魂表示敬畏。在日本，这种精神被概念化为“祈求节日的神”，我们希望根据这一概念对葬礼和追悼会进行进一步的案例研究。

We undertook fieldwork studies on funeral and memorial practices in the Southwest Islands, Korea and Taiwan. The goal of this folklore study was to understand the unseen world of these regions. Okierabu Island and Yoron Island were the main areas studied in the Southwest Island. During early modern times Buddhism and Shintoism spread extensively throughout these island but did not seriously influence the thinking of the people there. Folk religious belief still remains in these islands. Two opposite areas; suburbs in the city of Seoul and an isolated island in the south of Korea were chosen as study areas. Influences from Confucianism and folk religion were visible among the ritual practices there. However, Christianity has strongly affected funeral practices in recent years and friction between funeral participants is becoming more serious. It is difficult to understand their practices derived from the concepts of folk religion. In Taiwan the fieldwork was carried in Taipei and its surrounds with the funeral practices of Taoist priests (doushi) and Folk religion priests (houshi) being compared. Women chorus meetings of the sacred texts of Buddhism were also investigated. We successfully identified the elements of continental and Taiwan indigenous origin.This fieldwork and comparative study gave us further clues to understand the funeral practices of these regions. All of them expressed a feeling of awe towards the spirits of the deceased. In Japan, this spirit is conceptualized as 'the gods who beg festivals" and we would like to carry out further case studies of funeral and memorial services based on this concept.