Average cost of funeral in Japan is 2,310,000 yen; in Britain 120,000 yen, Germany 190,000, Korea 370,000, U.S. 440,000. Average funeral cost in Japan is obviously the highest. The book “Souchiki ha Iranai” (“Funeral is not necessary”) which produced the ad is now getting sold well.

“I have known that funeral cost so much but…,” with such a surprise, a lot of people would pay attention to this book. In his book, the author Hiromi Shimada retrospects history of funeral in Japan and explains what have made the funeral contemporary style. The something was, according to the book, the process which Japanese Buddhism had evolved into funeral Buddhism and respectability which had been generated by village society.

Against the doctrine of Buddha (who said you could never talk about life after death, and it was waste of time), aristocrats in Middle Ages hoped their luxurious lives after death, and tried to create Pure Land in front of them. The author point out that it was the fundamental cause for Japanese funeral to having become so expensive.

日本における葬儀費用の平均は、２３１万円。ちなみにイギリス１２万３千円、ドイツ１９万８千円、韓国３７万３千円、アメリカ４４万４千円。日本だけが飛びぬけて高いのは一目瞭然で、この比較を広告や帯に打ち出した『葬式は、要らない』が売れている。

葬儀に金がかかることはずいぶん前から知っていたが、ここまでとは……。そんな驚きとともにこの本を手にとった読者は多いだろう。著者の島田裕巳はまず、今にいたる日本の葬式の歴史を振り返り、なぜこうなってしまったのか解説する。そこでポイントとなるのが、日本の仏教が葬式仏教と化していく過程と、村社会によって育まれた世間体という問題である。

〈生前に死後について考え語ることはできないし無駄だ〉と説いた釈迦の教えとはうらはらに、中世の貴族たちは死後も華やかに暮らせるよう願い、浄土を目の前に出現させようとした。ここにこそ日本人の葬式が贅沢になった〈根本的な原因〉があると島田は指摘する。


News Saurce: http://book.asahi.com/aisare/TKY201004050169.html


OPINION by FuangPing
"How great Buddha was..."

Buddha said "you could never talk about life after death, and it was waste of time." I think that’s clearly true. But no matter how many people historically have adhered to their lives after death. It even has caused so much trouble in real life. It maybe leads to the conclusion that religious doctrine can’t defeat worldly human aspiration and respectability.