Originally, we had ceremonial cremation techniques using wood as in the pre-19th and early 20th centuries. Nowadays, crematoriums use electric and are industrialized. Tho there are some ceremonial crematoriums still available.
For us, its a huge ceremony regarding the cremation of the body: we refer to it as
Kotsuage and
Bunkotsu.
The funeral ritual has twenty stages and there are over 20 procedures, we are mainly interested in two of these: Kotsuage which is the gathering of a person’s ashes, and Bunkotsu the distribution of the ashes.
The ritual starts at the crematoria, the family witnesses the deceased being placed in the crematoria chamber and they are then given an allotted time to return. Once the ashes and have had time to cool the family, two at a time, remove the bone fragments with large chopsticks. They start at the feet moving upwards and placing the remains in a cremation urn – as they don’t want the person to be upside down. The most sacred and significant bone is the hyoid bone, which is located in the neck – probably due the connection between the brain and the body?
The ashes can be placed in more than one urn, it is not uncommon for the ashes to shared between the family, the temple and even the deceased’s company!
The urn stays at the family at a shrine for 35 days and is then taken to the graveyard, some families take it to the graveyard straight away – it appears to depend on local custom.
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Ritual of Kotsuage and Bunkotsu, removing of the bone from the ashes
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Ceremonial profession to bring the body (ashes) to temple