On the eve of the funeral a wake is kept. The body must be kept for at least twenty-four hours after death. In great families where elaborate preparations must be made for the funeral, it is often kept for several days; but in most other houses the funeral takes place as soon as possible. In the summer heat it is naturally important that the body should be buried with the least delay. When more than one night intervene between the death and the funeral, the wake is sometimes held every night. Friends and relatives are invited, and they burn incense before the coffin and offer prayers; and in the interval the conversation turns upon the deceased and every effort is made to console the bereaved family. A priest is called in from the family temple, and he recites three or four prayers in the course of the night. In a separate room a slight repast is offered to the persons gathered in the house, and though sake is drunk, it is taken very quietly.
COFFINS AND AN URN.
The coffin is among the better classes a double box of wood, oblong in shape to allow the body to lie in it. Sometimes the box is single and almost square, the body being made to sit in it, and sometimes an earthen jar is used; and among the poorest it is no more than a barrel with bamboo hoops. The coffin is wrapped in white cloth. The bier may be only a rest with poles extending at both ends; but in most cases, especially if the coffin is oblong, it has a curved roof with a pair of gilt lotus flowers in front and behind. The square coffin has usually a baldachin over it; formerly it used to be carried in a palanquin. The pall differs in colour according to the sex and age of the deceased. It is made of two square wadded covers like quilts; and the upper or outer cover is light-blue for a man and the lower one is white if he has not yet reached his forty-first year and red if he is past that age, while the outer cover is white for a woman, and the inner red or pink according as she has or has not passed her thirty-second year. The lower cover differs in colour according as the deceased is under or over the age which is considered most critical for one of the deceased’s sex.
The funeral usually takes place in the afternoon; but in summer the cortège leaves the house at an early hour of the morning. In the country the mourners gather before the funeral and take a meal; but in Tokyo it is usually the chief mourner who has a meal before starting. At such a meal a second helping is never taken as it may presage another death in the family. One bowl of rice on which clear bean-curd soup is poured, is eaten with a single chopstick. At other times, therefore, it is considered unlucky to take only one helping of rice.
A BUDDHIST FUNERAL PROCESSION.
The funeral procession is not always in the same order; but in a middle-class funeral the order is commonly as follows:—The procession is led by a person who acts as its guide; he is followed by men carrying white lanterns on long poles, huge bundles of flowers stuck in green-bamboo pedestals, birds in enormous cages, and stands of artificial flowers which are almost always large gilt lotus plants; these men always march two abreast with the exception of the caged birds, for the flowers, natural or artificial, are invariably presented in pairs, while the cages are single. They are the presents of friends and relatives and their names are given on the wooden tickets attached to these presents. The birds in the cages are taken to the temple and there set free as an act of mercy, while the natural flowers are thrown away or pulled to pieces by the children of the poor in the neighbourhood who invariably come and beg when there is a funeral. After the flowers comes the priest who has been sent from the temple to return with the funeral procession; he is in a jinrikisha. Then follow persons carrying incense and the tablet, and if the deceased was a government official, a military or naval officer, or otherwise a man of rank and position, the decorations which he may have received are also carried. The tablet is carried by the chief mourner or some other member of the family; in the latter case the chief mourner follows the hearse. In the wake of some flags, on one of which is inscribed the deceased’s Buddhistic name, comes the hearse beside which walk the pall-bearers, generally persons in the deceased’s employ. It is immediately followed by the family and relatives, and then by other mourners. The mourners should properly follow on foot; but frequently they go in jinrikisha and carriages; moreover, it has become the custom for mourners who are not intimate friends of the deceased to proceed straight to the temple and wait there for the arrival of the procession.
When the funeral procession reaches the temple, the bier is placed in front of the shrine, which stands at the furthest end of the temple hall. The chief mourner, family, and relatives take their seats usually on one side of the hall and the other mourners on the opposite side, leaving a space between the shrine and the front entrance of the hall for the officiating priest to hold the funeral service. When all have taken their seats, the officiating priest, who is as a rule the superior of the temple, enters with his assistants. With gong, bell, drum, and cymbals the prayers are recited and sutras chanted. The officiating priest then recites alone a prayer which is to guide the spirit of the dead on the road to Hades. After this prayer, the chief mourner, family, and friends and relatives advance in front of the bier and, taking a pinch of incense, drop it into the censer to burn. Where there are many mourners, two or more censers are placed close to the bier and the incense-burning is begun simultaneously so as not to keep the mourners waiting a long time for their turn. The chief mourner and his nearest relatives come forward and thank the mourners in the hall, or stand at the entrance and thank them as they leave. Sometimes, an address expressive of sorrow or in eulogy of the deceased is read by a relative or friend.
