{"id":833,"date":"2008-06-10T12:50:33","date_gmt":"2008-06-10T03:50:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2008-06-10\/833"},"modified":"2010-11-27T21:32:28","modified_gmt":"2010-11-27T12:32:28","slug":"kotsuiri-placing-of-the-bones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2008-06-10\/833","title":{"rendered":"Kotsuiri<\/i> — “Placing of the Bones”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f\/2.8 @ 55 mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>1500 sec, f<\/span>\/3.2, ISO 250 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span><\/span>\nBuddhist Priest Prays<\/span>\nfor Fumie's Grandmother\n<\/div>\n\n

Fumie's Grandmother, Kine Imai, passed away<\/a> at the end of\nApril. This past weekend was the second part of the funeral, the\nkotsuiri<\/i> – \u9aa8\u5165<\/span> – the “placing of the bones”.<\/p>\n\n

A month or so ago, as part of the main funeral, the body was cremated\nsuch that there were still some rather large chunks of bone remaining. A typical<\/span> Japanese (Buddhist) funeral includes a ceremony<\/span> where family\nmembers use chopsticks to pluck certain bone fragments with symbolic\nmeaning from the ashes, placing them into a small<\/span> pot (as shown here<\/a>), and\nwe all did this, including five-year-old Anthony. It's a remarkably<\/span> calming\nevent, solidly and purposefully demarcating the boundary between earthly\nlife and death, providing a strong<\/span> measure of finality and “closure” to the\nfamily.<\/p>\n\n

These bone fragments are kept in a small<\/span> ceremonial pot for a month<\/span> or\nso, allowing the deceased time to make the long and difficult trip to\nHeaven.<\/p>\n\n

Then, its time for what amounts to burial, the placing of these small bone fragments\nunder a family<\/span> gravestone.<\/p>\n\n

First, we all went to a small temple in Kyoto near where Grandma lived\nfor 50+ years, for a short<\/span> ceremony that involved a lot<\/span> of chanting...<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f\/2.8 @ 23 mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>30 sec, f<\/span>\/2.8, ISO 500 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span><\/span>\ninside a small\nTemple Near Grandma's House<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n

The Buddhist priest kneels on the pillow seen in the lower left of the\npicture above, and chants while occasionally using the instruments arrayed\naround him. To his left<\/span> is a large<\/span> metal pot that sings a beautiful<\/i>,\nrich, deep tone when struck with a soft<\/span> mallet. To his right<\/span> is a smaller<\/span>\nmetal “drum” with a harder<\/span> wooden mallet that makes a pure,<\/span> piercing,\nhigh-pitched metal tone.<\/p>\n\n

At his upper right is an orange wooden mokugyo<\/i>, which Wikipedia\ncalls a wooden fish<\/a>. It's a hollow<\/span> wooden instrument (made from a single<\/span> piece of wood) that\nmakes exactly the “bonk” sound one might expect from a hollow<\/span> wooden block.\n(Keep this in mind... we'll see more about mokugyo<\/i> in a later<\/span>\npost.)<\/p>\n\n

These nice-sounding instruments combined with the monk's excellent voice\nto make a pleasing,<\/span> somewhat mesmerizing chant. In the center<\/span> of the\npicture above is a small<\/span> red box holding incense; behind and slightly above\nit is the white box holding the pot of bones. Further behind is the\ntemple's statue of (I assume<\/span>) Buddha. It dates<\/span> from the 1600s.<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f\/2.8 @ 40 mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>40 sec, f<\/span>\/2.8, ISO 640 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span><\/span>\nIncense Burner<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n

Part of the ceremony involves each family member placing three pinches\nof incense from the compartment on the right onto a hot<\/span> coal in the\ncompartment on the left. We did the<\/span> same thing during one of the funeral\nceremonies in April, again here, and a third<\/span> time during another ceremony\nlater in the day.<\/p>\n\n

Each family member then used chopsticks to move the bone fragments from\nthe pot to a small<\/span> cloth pouch, and we all went to the grave site a few<\/span> miles away.<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f\/2.8 @ 17 mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>250 sec, f<\/span>\/9, ISO 250 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span><\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n

I'd always thought that Japanese “gravestones” were just monuments that\ndidn't actually mark a grave,<\/span> but it turns out that the small pouch of\nbones is placed into a cavity<\/span> underneath....<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f\/2.8 @ 55 mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>320 sec, f<\/span>\/9, ISO 250 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span><\/span>\naccess stone moved aside,\nPreparing to Place the Bones<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f\/2.8 @ 17 mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>250 sec, f<\/span>\/9, ISO 250 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span><\/span>\nPraying for the Repose of the Soul of Kine Imai<\/span>\nas Fumie and her folks look on\n<\/div>\n\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f\/2.8 @ 45 mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>1500 sec, f<\/span>\/4, ISO 250 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span><\/span>\nA Daughter<\/span> Prays for Her Mother<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n

The wording on the stone says “Imai Family Grave” (“Imai” being the\nfamily name). Fumie's grandfather's bones are also under there.<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f\/2.8 @ 55 mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>640 sec, f<\/span>\/4.5, ISO 250 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span><\/span>\n
Portrait-Mode Vertical Desktop-Background Versions<\/b>\n\n\n1050×<\/span>1680<\/a>  ·  1200×<\/span>1920<\/a>  ·  1600×<\/span>2560<\/a><\/small>     <\/span>\n<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

After that, we all went out for a nice<\/span> lunch. Fumie's brother lives two\nhours away, and Fumie's dad is usually on business in Malaysia<\/a>, so it was\nnice to be all together.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fumie's Grandmother, Kine Imai, passed away at the end of April. This past weekend was the second part of the funeral, the kotsuiri – \u9aa8\u5165 – the \"placing of the bones\".<\/p>

A month or so ago, as part of the main funeral, the body was cremated such that there were still some rather large chunks of bone remaining. A typical Japanese (Buddhist) funeral includes a ceremony where family members use chopsticks to pluck certain bone fragments with symbolic meaning from the ashes, placing them into a small pot (as shown here), and we all did this, including five-year-old Anthony. It's [...]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,2,25],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/833"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=833"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/833\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}