Invisible population the place of the dead in east asian megacities

Invisible Population Invisible Population The Place of the Dead in East Asian Megacities Natacha Aveline-Dubach LEXINGTON BOOKS Lanham • Boulder • New York • Toronto • Plymouth, UK Published by Lexington Books A wholly owned subsidiary of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc 4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706 www.rowman.com 10 Thornbury Road, Plymouth PL6 7PP, United Kingdom Copyright © 2012 by Lexington Books All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Invisible population : the place of the dead in East Asian megacities / [edited by] Natacha Aveline-Dubach p cm Includes bibliographical references Summary: “Provides new information on funerary practices in East Asia's largest cities in which spatial constraints and the secularization of lifestyles are driving innovation It reveals common trends in Japan, China and Korea, and addresses emerging challenges such as urban sustainability and growing social inequities.”—Publisher's description ISBN 978-0-7391-7144-8 (cloth : alk paper)—ISBN 978-0-7391-7145-5 (ebook) Funeral rites and ceremonies—East Asia—History—20th century Funeral rites and ceremonies—East Asia—History—21st century Death care industry—Social aspects—East Asia—History—20th century Death care industry—Social aspects— East Asia—History—21st century City and town life—East Asia—History—20th century City and town life—East Asia—History—21st century I Aveline-Dubach, Natacha GT3282.I68 2012 393'.93095—dc23 2012003265 The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 Printed in the United States of America Introduction Acknowledgments This book is the fruit of extensive fieldwork studies and data collected for the purpose of creating maps My thanks go to those who helped us with our work Although conducting research in Japan and Korea posed no difficulty, China proved to be much less accessible This obstacle was overcome with the precious help of our Chinese colleague Professor He Bin from Tokyo Metropolitan University, and the valuable support in China of Ivan Luvidich (Consulate General of France in Shanghai) and Jean-Claude Thivolle (CNRS office for China) Moreover, we have our translator, Karen Grimwade, and desktop publishing operator, Véronique Ponchon, to thank for the privilege of being able to reach an Englishspeaking readership Lastly, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to the French National Research Agency, ANR, for their financial backing throughout the four-year research project Note on language transcription systems and monetary conversions When transcribing the three languages, the Hepburn system was used for Japanese, pinyin for Chinese and the official Revised Romanization system for Korean Monetary conversions into euros were all based on September 2011 exchange rates Contents Contents Acknowledgments List of Illustrations Introduction Natacha Aveline-Dubach iii vii viii Chapter 1: Creative Destruction—The Shattering of the Family Grave System in Japan Natacha Aveline-Dubach Retrospect on the Origins of the Funeral Industry in Japan Restructuring of the Stakeholder System The Outlook for the Funeral Industry Conclusion Chapter 2: The Experience of Death in Japan’s Urban Societies Katsumi Shimane Introduction The Main Stages of the Traditional Ceremony The Evolution of Funerals in Urban Societies Conclusion 29 Chapter 3: Emerging Burial Spaces and Rituals in Urban Japan Fabienne Duteil-Ogata New Religious Institutions Set Out to Conquer Funerary Affairs Tailor-Made Grave Systems Graveless Burial Systems Conclusion 50 Contents Chapter 4: The Revival of the Funeral Industry in Shanghai: A Model for China Natacha Aveline-Dubach The Rise and Fall of Shanghai’s Funeral Industry The Revival of the Funeral Industry Under Close Supervision New Challenges for Deathspaces Conclusion 74 Chapter 5: Dealing with the Dead: Funerary Rites in Contemporary Shanghai Maylis Bellocq Funeral Reform in Shanghai Funerary Sites: Restricted Spaces Survival and Reorganising of Traditional Practices Conclusion 98 Chapter 6: Traditional Funerary Rites Facing Urban Explosion in Guangzhou Yukihiro Kawaguchi Introduction The Evolution of Funerary Rites Since the Imperial Era Funerary Rites in the Contemporary China, the Example of Panyu District The New Policy On Graves Conclusion 123 Chapter 7: Cremation’s Success in Korea: Old Beliefs and Renewed Social Distinctions Élise Prébin Cremation and Burial: Successive Debates Throughout Korean History Choosing Cremation and the Type of Grave Conclusion 138 Chapter 8: Funerary Sites in Seoul: A History Marked by Colonial Experience Ryohei Takamura Changes in Funerary Site and Grave Regulations The Creation of Cemeteries and Construction of Crematoria in Seoul 165 Contents Evolution in Mortuary Spaces and Facilities After Independence Conclusion Chapter 9: Overview of Korea’s Funeral Industry Shi-Dug Kim The Importance of Funeral Services Changes in Burial Systems Bright Future for South Korea’s Funeral Industry Conclusion 192 Conclusion Natacha Aveline-Dubach 206 About the Authors 220 Index 222 Contents List of Illustrations Table 1.1 Graves prices in the main private cemeteries in the Greater Tokyo Area Table 1.2 Grave sites in the Greater Tokyo Area Map 1.1 Public cemeteries in Tokyo Prefecture Map 1.2 Public cemeteries in Tokyo’s urban area Graph 1.1 Change in the number of deaths in Japan between 1990 and 2055 Graph 1.2 The spread of embalming in Japan Map 4.1 Map of the cemeteries in Shanghai Graph 4.1 Estimated number of deaths in Shanghai between 2002 and 2050 Table 8.1 Change in the number of deaths, cremations and burials in Seoul from 1911 to 1931 Table 8.2 Number of deaths, cremations and burials in Gyeonggi Province Table 8.3 Private and public graveyards in the Greater Seoul Area Map 8.1 Map of the cemeteries in the Seoul Metropolitan area Table 9.1 Funeral parlours in Korea as of June 2006 Table 9.2 Cost of funerals by service level in the funeral parlours of K Hospital (2009) Table 9.3 South Korean cemeteries in 2007 Table 9.4 South Korean ossuaries (31 December 2007) Graph 9.1 Demographic forecast for the number of deaths in South Korea viii 10 14 15 15 16 18 81 89 174 175 180 182 196 197 198 199 201 Conclusion 209 (from the English word mansion) As asserted by Soichi Yagisawa in my film Mourir Tokyo2 (Dying in Tokyo), the development of collective housing as an alternative to detached homes could be considered to have facilitated the acceptance of vertical graves Whatever the case may be, the silhouette of the nokotsudo is now a familiar sight in mortuary sites, particularly in the small cemeteries adjoining Buddhist temples which are scattered throughout the urban area of the Japanese capital A similar phenomenon can be observed in Korea, where the number of ossuaries has risen recently as an alternative to the traditional grave In contrast to Japan, however, this type of grave is often chosen as a means of social differentiation Élise Prébin (chapter 8) provides peculiar descriptions of extravagantly adorned “VIP rooms” that speak volumes about the purchasers’ intentions Whereas in the past the size of the tomb was a mark of one’s social status, today the size of graves is regulated by municipal orders (in China and Korea) or by the constraints of land markets (Japan) Private companies are thus vying with each other through imaginative attempts to diversify their range of luxury products using the latest innovations In China, ossuaries have existed since the Maoist era in the form of guhuitang (funerary towers or pagodas) or bizan (niche walls) They tend to pale in comparison with the graves in Shanghai’s landscaped cemeteries, but in rural areas they represent the supremacy of the urban funerary culture (hygiene, health, order, and aesthetics) that the authorities are struggling to impose Luxury ossuaries have nonetheless made a breakthrough in Shanghai in the form of avant-garde facilities, such as those at Meiguiyuan, but they target above all overseas Chinese (natives of Taiwan and Hong Kong, who are accustomed to vertical graves) and hold little sway with local populations The fact of the matter is that despite the growth of cremation and the breakdown of the ancestral grave system, urban populations in north-east Asia continue to show a strong attachment to the traditional grave, around which public and private cemeteries are structured Making graves vertical has not solved the problem of accommodating the dead.3 On the contrary, in Korea it has aggravated the problem through the construction of vast family ossuaries turning mortuary sites into concrete sprawls Saturation of Deathspaces in Urban Centres Moreover, among the three megacities studied it is Seoul that is currently experiencing the most critical situation in terms of housing its dead Only one single public cemetery remains in the central city: Manguri Park, located in the north-west of Seoul in a district that is home to ten million 210 Natacha Aveline-Dubach inhabitants Just like Manguri, the four other cemeteries run by the city in Gyeonggi Province are now full Seoul is thus obliged to compromise with local suburban authorities in order to continue housing its dead there, a situation that is placing it in an increasingly awkward predicament Having unrelentingly—and successfully—promoted cremation in an effort to reduce the footprint of its deathspaces, it now faces opposition from residents who are blocking the construction of a second crematorium The almost total disappearance of mortuary sites from the central city is a colonial legacy As early as the beginning of the twentieth century the Japanese occupation forces began to systematically relocate cemeteries and crematoria outside the capital, a policy that was facilitated by the natural style of the traditional mode of burial (mounds of grass-covered earth) and which was continued after independence by the authoritarian governments of Syngman Rhee and Park Chung-Hee Today the dead are more or less equally divided between the suburbs of Seoul, the metropolitan area of Incheon (ninety-five cemeteries) and Gyeonggi Province (ninety-seven cemeteries), with some mortuary sites resembling necropolises Additionally, Seoul’s dead return to the many clan graveyards in the provinces— sometimes occupying an entire mountain—causing staggering traffic congestion during the festival of the dead (Hangawi/Chuseok) as families flock to visit graves Shanghai also lost its centrally located gravesites, partly through the relocation policy implemented by the Communist Party during the 1950s and 1960s, but more particularly as a result of the devastating excesses of the Red Guards during the Cultural Revolution Yet the city has fared better than its Korean counterpart thanks to its larger surface area (7,000 square km compared to 600 square km) containing fifty or so mortuary sites, the majority of which are less than thirty years old Many of these sites have been landscaped to bring the local funerary culture into line with international standards Despite resembling public parks with their undeniably attractive gardens, water features and rest areas, they are far from being open spaces Surrounded by high walls, they let nothing filter through to the outside and their presence is barely indicated by their monumental gate, as if to justify Maylis Bellocq’s comment that “Shanghai is a city in which death no longer exists” (chapter 5) Yet managing the dead has always been a headache for the city and this is even more the case today, with funerary sites set to reach saturation point over the coming decade At first glance Tokyo Prefecture, which is also facing a swell in its deceased population, appears to be well equipped, with fourteen public graveyards and almost 3,000 mostly Buddhist religious cemeteries The metropolitan area of the Japanese capital, known as Greater Tokyo, has Conclusion 211 as many public gravesites as Shanghai (65) and close to 10,000 religious cemeteries However, unlike the Chinese megacity, here graves are displayed openly Tiny Buddhist cemeteries in central areas, sometimes barely enclosed, occupy residual space along major roads or are located in residential areas; while the city’s public cemeteries resemble parks whose atmosphere becomes vibrant during the cherry blossom season In the outskirts of the city mortuary sites expand in size, colonising the hills behind Buddhist temples or unfolding their tree-lined pathways in municipal and private cemeteries Graves are such an integral part of the urban landscape that there seems to be an inexhaustible supply Yet this is far from being the case Tokyo Prefecture ekes out burial space in its saturated graveyards in dribs and drabs, and only authorities in the large suburban cities (Yokohama, Chiba, Saitama) continue to create new burial space for their residents Elsewhere the initiative is left to the Buddhist communities, which open their cemeteries to other faiths only in sites whose creation and sales activities have been contracted out to private operators (mainly monumental masons) Yet unlike in Seoul and Shanghai, managing the dead is not a source of concern for the central city, which just like Seoul unloads its dead onto the suburbs, yet without involving itself in the creation of new funerary sites Its residents are thus forced to pay through the nose by turning to private sector gravesites, which are being constantly pushed back towards the far reaches of the urban fringes Monumental masons, Buddhist communities and NPOs are taking concerted action to invent new space-saving plots that avoid the need to move away from the centre Individualisation of Funerals and Pre-Death Socialisation Systems The “cross fertilisation” effect born of the interaction between these three categories of industry players explains the extraordinary abundance of innovative services and burial solutions in Japan Other factors are involved: the drop in the birth rate, leading to a lack of descendants to perform memorial rites for the deceased, and the changes affecting the family, whether through a change in the balance of power (emancipation of women from the authority of in-laws) or the emergence of new bonds (unmarried couples, homosexuals, etc.) These changes are contributing to the disappearance of the traditional grave, which had survived until now despite the transition from the ie to the nuclear family Individuals are now stamping their personalities on graves, as well as on funeral and memorial services for the dead Indicating one’s preferences entails planning for death in advance The in- 212 Natacha Aveline-Dubach dividualisation phenomenon is consequently accompanied by a trend for pre-death consumption The future deceased, who are living increasingly longer, invest their time in organising their own funerals and looking for a grave, thus sparing their descendants the need to carry out these tasks while simultaneously asserting their personality through their choices (chapter 2) The most representative burial system among these new trends is the “pre-need communal grave,” creating new types of communities whose members are tied through affinity—the decision to be laid to rest in the same grave—and no longer by blood or marriage Such post-mortem pairings rely on pre-mortem means of socialisation that provide comfort to isolated individuals during the final stage of their life They are combined with “eternal” memorial rites, leading Buddhist temples to perpetuate ancestral traditions in new community settings Thus, rather than putting an end to memorial rituals, individualisation has breathed new life into Buddhist funerary rites by encouraging monks to update their religious practices Moreover, the impacts of this phenomenon are not restricted to traditional Buddhism but have spread to other affiliated religious movements like Soka Gakkai, and even to Shinto communities, despite their repulsion for the pollution associated with death (chapter 3) Such freedoms are unheard of in China and Korea, where the ageing of the population is less advanced and religious communities and associations less involved in funeral affairs The individualisation of graves is nonetheless undeniably at work, leading cemetery developers and undertakers to develop innovative graves and services Systems of predeath socialisation can even be seen in China, such as the one involving cancer sufferers who tend the trees in their dedicated section of Fushouyuan cemetery Reducing the Ecological Footprint of Death Whatever form innovation takes, it is driving a move towards reducing the “ecological footprint” of death through a twin process of diminishing and recycling funerary sites The surface area of cemeteries is reduced by verticalising and miniaturising graves; recycling is carried out by reducing the length of usage rights from perpetuity to sixty years in Seoul and to thirty years (in most cases) in Tokyo, and from seventy to thirty years (shortly) in Shanghai This trend is the result of a regulatory process undertaken by the government in the case of Korea and China, while in Japan initiative has mostly been left to private operators since most mu- Conclusion 213 nicipal authorities withdrew from the construction of funerary spaces On a more radical level, methods that erase all physical trace of the corpse are emerging, such as the scattering of ashes in natural areas and dedicated spaces within cemeteries (“memorial gardens”) In China and Korea this practice is strongly encouraged by authorities in the cities, who see it as an effective means of reducing competition between the dead and the living for land use Results in the two countries differ widely: in Shanghai, scattering accounts for only percent of burials compared to 30 percent in Seoul Despite the exemplary funerals held for Zhou Enlai and Deng Xiaoping, the Chinese remain extremely reluctant to anything to harm the integrity of the corpse The problem lies in the fact that ash scattering involves pulverising bones, a process that differs from the usual cremation method whereby fragments of bone—pure and solid elements symbolising the paternal line of descent—would normally be left intact Furthermore, the decline of civil society means that cremation does not evoke the same romantic notion of a return to nature as it does in Japan or Korea In fact, even in Japan, where this practice appeals to young people, scattering still accounts for only percent of burials That this practice would become so popular in Seoul in the space of a single decade is thus all the more astonishing This phenomenon stems from the persistence of bad death in collective representations—the sangol, which concerns above all those who die young—but also owes much to the success of public initiatives, which are actively supported by associations and the media (influence of well-known figures within academic and industrial circles, promotion of cremation in television series) The growing awareness within Asian societies of environmental issues has led to the emergence of a new “sustainable” type of grave inspired by Western initiatives: plant-based graves, most often in the form of trees Having first been introduced in northern Japan by a Zen Buddhist community in 1999, these “green graves” have grown in popularity throughout Japan, forming memorial forests or cemetery-islands They subsequently appeared in China and Korea, once again with contrasting results: green graves in Shanghai’s landscaped cemeteries are scarce and constitute the only way for those of modest means to access these prestigious sites; it is at this price that they overcome their fear of a poorly growing plant unleashing harmful forces on their family In contrast, the Koreans have developed a real taste for these natural graves, which resonate with the desire for sobriety in certain sections of civil society The popularity of this model has waned recently due to the insidious pollution from death, which has been accused of contaminating memorial forests (chapter 8) Such re- 214 Natacha Aveline-Dubach presentations hold less sway in Japan The recently introduced “close-at-hand” cinerary objects bestow ashes with a new status not only devoid of pollution but even invested with a talismanic power coherent with the animist foundations of Japanese culture (chapter 3) Stratification of the Funeral Market As methods of corpse disposal and funeral arrangements continue to diversify, funeral markets everywhere are becoming increasingly segmented In Japan and Korea, inexpensive burial arrangements such as ash scattering and intimate funeral ceremonies, which in the past were reserved for the poor, have seduced intellectuals with their sobriety and subsequently spread to the middle classes (chapter 3) At the opposite end of the spectrum costly new services have developed which allow the individual to flaunt their social status and express their individuality Funeral pomp has disappeared from public space and set up home in the funeral parlours and centres (sogijo, binyiguan, jangryesikjang), which transform into hotels for the occasion in order to watch over the dead at great expense Pomp is also more than ever visible in mortuary accessories, whose prices can reach staggering amounts: rental of funerary altars in Japan for more than 17,000 US$, shrouds and urns sold for 4,400 US$ each in Korea, coffins in nanmu wood and urns in precious stone sold at 7,800 and 31,300 US$ apiece in the binyiguan The greatest level of excess is found in China, and this despite the public monopoly on the supply of coffins; it is as if the funerary pomp of the pre-Maoist era had come back to life Graves are no exception to the rule While the burial space market in Japan and Korea is diversifying towards simpler styles, China sets itself apart with the remarkable success of luxury segments Shanghai is reviving its pioneering tradition, drawing on its rich funerary history to invent new deathspaces The result is ever-deepening inequalities in access to gravesites Not that the Communist regime was ever able to establish equality in death: the preferential treatment reserved for the “people’s heroes” proves that this was pure fiction (spatial stratification of martyrs’ cemeteries according to the exploits achieved for the Party, splendour of Mao’s tomb) The roads of Shanghai were, however, cleared of corpses and a decent grave guaranteed for all under the Maoist regime In contrast, nowadays a grave in a landscaped cemetery costs no less than ten months’ salary (4,700 US$) Although a quarter of Shanghai’s inhabitants have access to an inexpensive grave in a rural area in their native region, the rest of the population must shop around among the city’s gravesites The lowest earners are housed in cinerary niches and miniature or plant-based graves Conclusion 215 sold inexpensively in landscaped cemeteries thanks to the governmentbacked policy of promoting social mixity Despite this, many urns are left sitting in the binyiguan awaiting a final resting place that they will never reach The ideal solution would be a significant increase in ash scattering like that seen in Seoul, but the government is unable to impose its authority in this domain without re-opening the wounds of the Cultural Revolution Shanghai’s authorities thus favour less radical solutions—miniaturising graves and shortening plot leases—in order to avoid hampering the consumer frenzy which also extends to graves and funerary accessories The Market for Final Resting Places: A Subsector of the Housing Market? It is very tempting to draw a parallel between housing and burial policies The commodification of graves in China evidently echoes that of housing—which was previously provided by the work units—a process that was initiated during the 1980s in order to establish property as one of the pillars of China’s growth Having witnessed the excesses of insufficiently restrained liberalism, the authorities launched a policy of social mixity by developing inexpensive housing in the major metropolitan centres; the same desire to maintain social balance is visible in mortuary sites with the provision of affordable burial space in landscaped cemeteries Korea also has a strong tradition of state control of the land, the legacy of a long succession of authoritarian regimes (Japanese colonisation followed by dictatorial governments), which until quite recently allowed inexpensive housing and graves costing less than one month’s salary to be produced en masse The advent of democracy coupled with the increased financial muscle of the middle classes has led to a loosening of the state’s hold on urban development sectors As in China, price increases have been observed in funerary sites with the development of luxury segments such as niches in “VIP ossuaries” costing up to 8,400 US$ The private sector now dominates in Gyeonggi Province, where it accounts for 87 percent of mortuary sites The result has been a reduction in the amount of public cemetery space per inhabitant in Seoul’s metropolitan area, which has dropped below that of Greater Tokyo (0.23 sq m/inhabitant versus 0.29 sq m/inhabitant).4 However, the Japanese capital stands out with the eye-watering prices of its burial spaces Graves in the twenty-three special wards fetch an average of between 30,000 and 40,000 US$ (five or six months’ salary) and up to 128,000 US$ in prestigious, centrally located cemeteries It is common knowledge that the tyranny of land values primarily affects housing, and prices in Tokyo were long the highest in the world prior to the collapse 216 Natacha Aveline-Dubach of the “financial bubble.” This situation stems from Japan’s remarkable lack of public intervention in the field of urban development Since the beginning of the twentieth century the government has allowed the private sector to take a dominant position in the supply of major urban services such as suburban rail transport and mass housing It took a more active role in the creation of public funerary sites but its involvement has significantly waned since the 1970s Thus, in this sector too, supply is dominated by private operators (Buddhist communities, private foundations and monumental masons); in return for these public interest services, fairly lax regulations mean that these operators are free to take advantage of land revenue, with the market responsible for regulating itself In the funeral industry the price of burial space has mirrored the general pattern of land values, rising sharply during periods of speculation This was notably the case during the years of the “property bubble” (1985-1990), during which healthy forty-year-olds could be seen jostling with each other outside private cemeteries in order to purchase burial space In an effort to avoid similar problems occurring in Shanghai, the authorities, aware of the success of certain landscaped cemeteries, recently limited the purchase of burial space to octogenarians However, the situation in Japan has undergone a rapid transformation over the past few years Buyers’ loss of interest in traditional graves, caused by the fall in birth rates and the disintegration of family ties, has been marked by a trend for transferring graves, which is highly economical from every point of view Consequently, the grave market may well differ markedly from the housing market in the future, and in one respect already does: the absence of the homeless Graveless corpses are unheard of in the ultramodern megacities of Asia Whatever their involvement in mortuary affairs, the authorities are unable to eschew their role as a last-resort supplier of funerary services for homeless souls Professionalisation of the Funeral Industry These essential services provide a living for a plethora of industry players, which national statistical nomenclature is now seeking to take into account It is difficult to establish a comparison among the three countries due to the varying notions of what constitutes the “funeral industry.” The size of the grave market in Korea is unknown (only the private ossuaries market has been estimated, at 464 million US$), but the revenue from funerary goods and services is estimated to be 4.6 billion US$, with the exception, however, of the highly lucrative urn and flower segments A less restric- Conclusion 217 tive estimate indicates for Japan the sum of forty billion US$, representing twenty-six billion for graves and seventeen billion for funerary goods and services China does not produce such statistics but very rough estimates by the FIS put turnover at thirty billion US$, 80 percent of which is concentrated in the sale of graves The growth potential of the industry in China is thus clearly phenomenal Yet it will be impossible for funeral industry stakeholders to deal with the soaring number of deaths without adopting a new image They must reduce the pollution associated with their professions and break away from the image of the undertaker In other words, the funeral industry must become more commonplace in order to attract new blood to the industry and win the trust of consumers It has been striving towards precisely this goal for the last two decades The first step was to create genuinely professional qualifications combined with accredited training courses Even in Japan, where undertaking firms have a long history, it was not until serious shortcomings in the sector came to light following the Kobe earthquake (1995) that the government decided to regulate the industry Two “funeral director” qualifications (first and second class) accredited by the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Labour have been introduced The course is taught in private professional schools specialised in the organisation of wedding and funeral ceremonies, with participants being predominantly female Similar qualifications exist in China and Korea but funeral directors are trained at university: in the funerary sciences department at Eulji University in Seoul, and the management faculty of the Shanghai University of Science and Technology; a professional course in funeral cosmetology was even created recently at the University of Civil Affairs in Beijing Furthermore, several Korean universities teach classes on funerary culture and this is equally the case at prestigious Beijing University where such a class has recently been created in the philosophy department The introduction of quality standards completes the funeral industry’s drive for standardisation In Japan the initiative came in 1986 from a private organisation, JECIA (Japan Etiquette and Culture Investigation Association), which introduced a system for ranking the best funeral companies according to criteria measuring service quality, price transparency and credibility, among others; only companies awarded a five-star ranking—just under one hundred—appear on the website A similar five-tier accreditation system using stars was introduced by the FIS in Shanghai in order to assess service quality at the binyiguan, gravesites and cemeteries This standardisation has been further supplemented with environmental standards, which are now essential for evaluating service quality Funeral industry professionals are further organised into networks: 218 Natacha Aveline-Dubach powerful in the case of Japan and Korea, but rather discreet in China They regularly convene at large exhibition fairs which act as platforms for the circulation of funerary accessory models throughout Asia Information and communication technology, a core competence for countries in this region, is naturally given pride of place, including graves featuring screens showing non-stop images of the deceased, televisual access to graves for distance visits, virtual graves, and sophisticated alarm equipment for cemeteries, and so on Customers, however, remain fairly unreceptive to this kind of innovation The real technological challenges lie ahead of the commercial chain in the supply of products to professionals This involves a range of scientific fields: biology (products that delay corpse decay), engineering science (non-polluting refrigerating machines and crematoria), and materials science (long-lasting plastics for corpses, quick-burning and low gas emitting cardboard for coffins) As in Europe and the United States, funeral companies are seeking to position themselves in the field of corpse preparation techniques, the pinnacle of which is embalming These services are slowing down the structural erosion of per-funeral prices and increasing the speed with which professions in the industry become commonplace through the scientific nature of corpse treatment Nonetheless, the funerary industry is struggling to spread its wings in this domain In China the binyiguans’ monopoly on corpses prevents any form of private initiative, while in Korea and Japan the practice of ritual bathing and make-up for corpses is widespread—and has even been the subject of renewed interest in Japan since the film Okuribito—but embalming has not really taken root despite attempts by American operators to penetrate these markets As a rapidly expanding sector currently being standardised, the funeral industry is naturally becoming an opportunity to diversify for commercial groups on the lookout for new markets In Japan, major retailers are seeking to obtain significant market shares, while private rail operators in the Osaka region are taking advantage of their local reputation and regional presence to develop their funeral business This trend is increasing dependence on Buddhist communities, which have become sub-contractors for the provision of graves and memorial services It is also increasing competition on the funeral market, forcing operators to position themselves well in advance of death if they are to gain a market share This is evidenced by the growth of the pre-paid funeral sector in Japan and Korea (sale of funeral contracts ahead of death), a trend which mirrors a process that is already well advanced in the United States and Europe Extending analysis to include the new financial imperatives Conclusion 219 imposed on the funeral industry, in Asia as elsewhere, was not one of the objectives of this book However, this is likely to be the site of future competition between operators It could therefore be useful in the future to supplement the observations made in this book with research on the development of the pre-paid funeral market in this region of Asia Notes As we saw in chapter 1, the nokotsudo had been prevalent in the southern part of Japan since the end of the nineteenth century Natacha Aveline, Jean Jimenez (1995) Mourir Tokyo (Dying in Tokyo), 52-mins betacam documentary (http://www.canal-u.tv/producteurs/universite_toulouse_ii_le_mirail/ dossier_programmes/documentaires/mourir_a_tokyo) Except in other territories in the Chinese world such as Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan These figures should be interpreted with caution since the data nomenclature is not harmonised In the case of Tokyo, the surface areas given include spaces not occupied by graves (buffer zones and public spaces) 220 About the Authors About the Authors Natacha Aveline-Dubach is a research director at CNRS, specializing in urban land issues in Northeast Asia She graduated from INALCO in Japanese studies, received a PhD from EHESS and the Habilitation from Lyon University She spent ten years in Japan where she was visiting scholar in various universities (Kyoto, Waseda, Tokyo, Tokyo Metro, Keio), and head of the CNRS representative office in Northeast Asia (2006-2010) She is currently posted to the French Center for Research on Contemporary China in Hong Kong Katsumi Shimane is professor of sociology in the Department of Human Sciences at Senshu University, currently visiting professeur at Vietnam National University in Hanoi He graduated in sociology from Saitama University and previously worked at Tsukuba University He has published several papers on death-related issues in various Asian countries including Mongolia Fabienne Duteil-Ogata is a member of the Laboratory of Urban Anthropology at EHESS She obtained a master’s degree in Japanese Language and Civilization from University Paris VII and a PhD in Japanese anthropology from University Paris X Nanterre in 2002 Her doctoral thesis focused on the impact of social change on Japanese religious practices and was awarded the Shibusawa-Claudel Prize in 2004 Maylis Bellocq is associate professor in the Department of Chinese Studies at Michel de Montaigne University (Bordeaux 3) She obtained a master’s in Chinese Language and Civilization at University Paris VII, and a PhD in social anthropology and ethnology at EHESS in 2005 Yukihiro Kawaguchi is a specialist in Chinese anthropology and associate professor at the Graduate School of Arts and Letters at Tohoku University 220 About the Authors 221 (Sendai) He received his PhD in Arts and Letters from Tohoku University in 2007 and from 2007 to 2010 worked at the National Museum of Ethnology (Osaka) as a research fellow Élise Prébin is assistant professor at Hanyang University Department of Cultural Anthropology (Seoul) She obtained her PhD in Korean anthropology from Paris Nanterre University in 2006 In 2007-2008 she was a Korea Foundation Post-Doctoral Fellow at Harvard UniversityKorea Institute and in 2009 she served as a lecturer at Harvard University’s Department of Cultural Anthropology Ryohei Takamura is an associate professor in Korean language and culture at Akita University He received a PhD from the Graduate School of Agriculture at Kyoto University in 2003 He specializes in historical and ethnographical studies on cemeteries in Korea Shi Dug Kim is the head of the Department of Exhibition and Collections at the Office for Establishment of the National Museum of Korean Contemporary History He received his PhD in Cultural Heritage Studies from Korea University in 2007 He served as senior curator from 1993 to 2011, conducting research on rites of passage of Korea and Northeast Asia 221 Index Index Ancestor worship, 3, 51, 53, 58, 63, 66, 98, 101, 102, 110–111, 116, 117, 125, 126, 131–133, 151–152, 165 Ash scattering, x, 50, 62–63, 66, 92, 184, 213–215 Aoyama cemetery, 3, 13, 15, 184 Binhai Guyuan cemetery, 80–81, 85, 111 Binyiguan, xii, 75–79, 85–88, 90–91, 93, 98, 103–115, 117, 129, 207, 214–218 See Funeral parlour Bochi, 4, 55, 61, 176, 189 Bongbun, 149, 150, 166, 194 Buddhism, ix, 1–2, 9, 18, 50, 52, 56–58, 116, 139–141, 152, 193, 212 Buddhist monks, 2, 7–8, 12, 19, 21, 54, 56, 58–59, 60, 63, 77, 106, 112, 140, 152, 155, 157, 212 Buddhist temple, 2, 4, 8, 11, 19, 52, 57–58, 60–61, 64, 66, 142, 152, 155, 157, 200, 209, 211–212 Burial plot, 4, 7, 9, 13, 20, 53, 61, 165, 168–169 Catholic (Catholicism), 151, 156, 193, 197, 200 Christian (Christianism, Christianity), ix, 2, 113–114, 151–152, 159 Civil society, 9, 22, 63, 66, 208, 213; NPO (Japan), 9, 13, 19, 21, 30, 50, 61–63, 65, 89, 211; NGO (Korea), 144, 146, 151 Coffin, in Japan, 3, 12, 31–35, 37, 39, 40, 42, 43, 208; in China, 75, 76, 77, 90, 100, 105, 107–109, 113–114, 124125, 127, 129, 132–133, 214, 218; in Korea,140, 142, 157–158, 176, 193–193, 202, 214 Confusianism, ix, 16, 138–140, 142, 154, 166, 206 Cremation, xii, 206–210, 213; in Japan, 1, 3–5, 13, 17–19, 37–38, 43, 45, 48; in China, xii, 76–77, 79, 82–85, 87, 91, 98–99, 101, 103–104, 109–110, 117, 125, 127, 129; in Korea, xii, 138–140, 142–159, 166–170, 172–179, 182– 185, 194–195, 198–199, 201–202 Crematorium, in Japan, 4–5, 12–13, 17, 38, 43, 45, 75, 86; in China, 98, 103– 104, 108–109, 113, 116, 119, 127, 129, 132–133; in Korea,157–159, 172, 176–178, 181, 183, 196, 210 Cultural revolution: 74, 78–79, 86, 92, 99–100, 117–118, 207, 210, 215 Danka, 2, 30 Eitai kuyo, 9, 20, 57 See post-mortem rites Embalming, xiii, 17–18, 22, 87, 202, 218 Family grave, ix, 2, 8–9, 13, 20–21, 44, 51, 54, 60–61, 64, 153 Fengshui, ix; in China, 76, 83,101–102, 110, 113, 124, 130, 131, 133; in Korea, 142, 166, 171–173; Fengshui master, see Geomancer F.I.S., 85–86, 88–89, 106, 115, 217 Funeral director, 18, 201–202, 217 Funeral industry, xi, 216–219; in Japan, ix,1, 5–6, 12–13, 16, 18, 21, 37, 46; in China, 74, 76, 78–80, 82, 85–86, 88, 90–93, 95, 97, 100, 102, 115; in Korea, xiii, 192, 194, 197, 200–201, 203 222 Index Funeral parlour, xi–xiii, 4, 6, 12, 17, 38, 40, 45, 52, 75, 86, 98, 100, 103–108, 114, 159, 192–197, 201–202, 206, 214 Funeral rituals (customs), 17, 31, 61, 76– 77, 79, 87, 100, 102, 124, 133 Funeral services, 46, 79, 87, 105, 192, 194, 202–203 Funerals, ix–xi, 207, 211–213; in Japan: 4–8, 11–12, 16–17, 19, 29–33, 35–42, 44–47, 52, 56–57, 64; in China, 75– 76, 78–79, 91, 99–102, 104, 106, 111, 114, 116–117, 123, 125–128, 133; in Korea, 140–143, 151, 153–155, 164, 166, 170, 181, 183, 192–197, 200, 203 Fushouyuan cemetery, 80–81, 90, 212 Geomancer (fengshui master), 101–102, 108, 124, 130, 133, 157 Geomancy, ix, 108, 142 Gongmu, 75, 80, 83, 93, 97 Green funerals (burial, grave), 19, 91–92, 150, 184, 200, 203, 213 Guhuitang, 79, 82, 209 Huaqiao cemetery, 81, 84 Hui cemetery, 83 Ie, 2, 30, 32, 53–55, 62, 211 Ihai, 33, 41, 53, 56, 65 Jumokuso, 19, 57, 61 See Green funerals Kaimyo, 7, 33, 41, 53, 56 Koden, 12, 36, 44–46, 56, 128 Landscaped cemetery, 13, 80, 82–83, 85, 90, 92, 130, 177, 214 Longhua binyiguan, 78, 81, 85–86, 98, 103, 105, 115 Manguri cemetery, 172–173, 179, 182, 209–210 Memorial services, 8–9, 13, 20, 211, 218 See Post-mortem rites, Eitai kuyo Nokotsudo, 6, 8, 54–56, 208, 209 See Ossuary Ngzonglou, 127, 129–130, 132–133 See Geomancer, Fengshui master 223 O-bon, ix, 34 Ossuary, x; in Japan, 6, 8, 21, 55, 208; in China, 79, 82, 89–90, 131–133, 208; in Korea, 147–158, 168–170, 176, 179, 181, 183, 192, 194, 196–201, 209, 215–216 See Nokotsudo for Japan, Binyiguan for China See nokotsudo and binyiguan Paper offerings,111, 113–116, 207 See Xibo Posthumous name, 7–8, 33, 52–53, 59 See Kaimyo Post-mortem (post-burial) rites, ix, 2, 31, 37, 44, 52, 56, 60, 84, 212 See Eitai kuyo Protestant (Protestantism), 151–152, 154, 156, 193 Public cemeteries, 211; in Japan, 3–4, 6, 8, 11, 13–15; in China, 81, 91, 98, 102; in Korea, 145, 147–149, 151, 155–157, 173, 197–198 Pungsu, 142–143 See Fengshui Quingming, ix, 108, 109; 110; 112 131 Sangol, 149, 194, 213 See ash scattering Sankotsu, 20 See ash scattering Shinto (shintoism), ix–xi, 2, 3, 51–54, 57, 212 Shinto graveyards (cemeteries), 51–52, 54–55 Shinto shrine, ix, 50, 51, 54, 57, 66 Sogisha, 3, 4, 6, 11 13, 17 See Funeral industry Sogijo, 12, 214 See Funeral parlour Soka Gakkai, xi, 50, 54–57, 66, 212 Soshiki (Ososhiki), 12, 28, 30, 40, 72 See Funerals and Funeral rituals Sotoba, 52–53, 56, 57 Tree funeral (burial), 11, 19, 50, 57, 61–62, 66, 92, 147, 149–151, 200, 212–213 Wufu, 128–130 Xibo, 102, 109, 110–112, 114–116 See Paper offerings .. .Invisible Population Invisible Population The Place of the Dead in East Asian Megacities Natacha Aveline-Dubach LEXINGTON BOOKS Lanham • Boulder • New York... exception: the funerary issue Indeed, we remain in the dark as to the fate of the dead in these decamillionaire agglomerations Given that the dead population in this particular region of the world... awareness of the spatial challenges linked to the disposal of bodies and by the end of the nineteenth century cremation had established itself as the best way of minimising the footprint of death in