Sunday Snapshot: Kyoto Graveyard
13th May, 2007 by stuart
Not a particularly cheery snapshot this week, but one that I think everyone will find interesting. This is from a graveyard in Kyoto, showing how overcrowding in Japan affects death as well as life. See a higher-resolution version on Wikipedia.
May 14th, 2007 at 7:25 am
Yup. Most families don’t have a plot. My grandfather’s ashes are at a temple and it’s like…well…a locker room. He’s #202 and the top part opens up and there’s a mini shrine in there and the bottom part is where his ashes are kept in a little tin. The room has rows and rows of these and each are about, say, a foot and a half or so wide. Get’s a bit cramped if the neighbors are there paying their respects too.
And even that is expensive. Something like $30,000 or more for a 20 year lease. After that, if you don’t pay up, they will, very respectfully, put the ashes in a communal plot…which just doesn’t sound soo…well…dignified. Don’t want grandfather’s ashes being mixed in with everyone else’s you know?
I don’t see this happening in the US anytime soon but in Asia and parts of Europe, I can see this become more and more common. It’s already pretty common here in Japan. :/
May 14th, 2007 at 6:11 pm
Been there too :
http://japon.knackes.free.fr/Photos/Moi/DSCN0271.JPG
http://japon.knackes.free.fr/Photos/Moi/DSCN0323.JPG
http://japon.knackes.free.fr/Photos/Moi/DSCN0326.JPG
It’s behind the Shichaku-In, in Kyoto
May 15th, 2007 at 6:30 am
If only we could learn to better utilize space. I say we combine a space-intensive function like burial with another space-intensive activity…like golf. It’d be like a really big game of pachinko! That’s popular in Japan, right?
Fun for the whole family! And you could visit great-grandma, too!
May 16th, 2007 at 9:31 am
[…] tankis = kapinių tankis. Tai labai gerai matyti Kyoto miesto Japonijoje kapavietėse. Gal verta pradėti statyti daugiaaukštes? (Plastic […]
October 18th, 2007 at 5:45 am
This graveyard was actually begun by my family (I actually think they technically still have ownership of it). My ancestors are all buried here.