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muenbotoke 無縁仏
 graves of the unknown - pilgrims faces faded into stone  無縁仏 遍路の顔も 石に消え |
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Muenbotoke -The dead without any connection
They are the spirits of persons who have died without a family to perform posthumous rites at the grave for them. They are socially unrelated spirits, unbonded with the social fabric. They are "homeless", with no regular affiliation to a Japanese houshold.
When a pilgrim without traceable relatives dies during the Shikoku pilgrimage, the local people will take care of the burial rites and his ashes are finally layed to rest in this kind of mass grave.
It usually belongs to a temple where the headpriest can say the necessary prayers for the souls to find peace in the next world. Thus the villagers make sure the souls do not come back and haunt the place where they died.
This has been going on since many hundred years.
.. .. .. .. .. Suggested reading:
FACING THE SPIRITS:
ILLNESS AND HEALING IN A JAPANESE COMMUNITY
http://www.folklore.ee/rl/pubte/ee/usund/ingl/kalland.html
Safekeep copy is here
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DarumaArchives-002/message/63
1. Inauspiciousness and pollution
http://lucy.ukc.ac.uk/csacpub/Mono19/Html/wrapped_gifts-1_-5.html
Abortion and Ritual in Japan
Click the photo to read the text.
By John Traphagan
http://www.prc.utexas.edu/photogallery/japan-jizo.html
Child Protectors by Mark Schumacher
My article about the Limbo for Dead Children, Sai no Kawara
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Darumasan-Japan/message/502
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Muenbotoke Graves
Yonago
Izumo Kaido, The Old Road of Izumo 出雲街道
Mihara, Temple Gokuraku-Ji
Visiting Mihara Daruma and the Aoyama Collection
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Shikoku Summer 2005 Our own Haiku Pilgrimage May 2005
.. .. .. .. .. Henro, a Kigo for Haiku
Henro Pilgrimage 遍路
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Henro Pilgirms Culture and Haiku
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Posts
14 comments:
Terrible !
I wish I could escape from here !
How they were thinking at their death.
Nan maida~ nan maida~~
Please take care of your trip.
sakuo.
Fascinating, Gabi. Is it a shrine, or real burial place?
They are so packed together..but it has a feeling of a sacred sculpture.
C.
Hi C. san,
I added a little explanation.
It is a fascinating subject indeed!
Gabi
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It certainly is! I looked at all of them. I was struck by the poignancy of the abortion memorial and fascinated by the depth to which Japanese believe in ghosts!
C.
the headpriest
says the necessary prayers
peace in his mind
The photo with the stone children, gives me the shivers...
GEERT
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ガビさん、
石仏をよくとりあげておられますね。
石仏は無表情の中に何やら意思を感じるような気がして、無言の雄弁さとでもいうようなものを感じます。
私もとても大切にしている自作の石仏の俳句がありす。
石仏 月下密かに 夢を見る
今は身動きの出来ない石仏だけど、もう一度自分の足で歩く事を心の中に念じているという不屈の句です。
英訳したらどうなるんでしょうね。
石仏というのは、心を託しやすいです。 典子
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Thank you so much for your comment.
stone buddha -
under the moonlight
dreaming your dreams
Gabi
無縁仏さま・・・
人が死んだらどんなに非業な死で亡くなったとしても仏さまになる。
というのが日本伝統のご供養。南無。
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Thank you Gabi san for this Haiku and all the information ~
Let The Grace Of The Buddhas pour into you.
sincerely
Narayanan
Thank you Gabi san ~ The Haiku is soaked in wabi~sabi so to say !!
Pardon my audacity to use such words !
"The dead don't die ~ They go elsewhere and make another cosmic
cage !"
from my book of aphorisms
sincerely
Narayanan
am impressed by this, Gabi.
graves of the unknown -
pilgrims faces faded
into stone
The pilgrims also now dead and in some fleeting way memorialised; the moving contrast between faith, death and the passing of time.
J.
Gabi san, I enjoyed reading your explanations and taking a glimpse of Japanese culture.
M.
Thank you, Gabi...
you always provide us with such
interesting information!
L.C.
Love the photo, Gabi. The haiku works better for me with the photo than as a stand-alone haiku, though . . . but I think I'd still be missing a lot without some explanation.
S.C.
無縁仏 muenbotoke
at least 43 legends to explore
.
Ehime, Imabari
https://japanshrinestemples.blogspot.jp/2017/08/yama-no-kami-06-regional.html
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muenbotoke legend from Aichi
八名郡 Yana district 山吉田村 Yamayoshida
About 35 years ago, a man wa on his way home from a 施餓鬼 Segaki ritual and had to pass a steep slope. Suddenly he felt all dizzy and could hardly move.
A diviner told him that he had been possessed by muenbotoku 無縁仏 an unknown dead pilgrim, who had been killed at this slope.
https://kappapedia.blogspot.jp/2017/12/oni-legends-regional-01-list.html
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