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Description of  When Death Falls Apart: Making and Unmaking the Necromaterial Traditions of Contemporary Japan

0226829014 rar Through an ethnographic study inside Japans Buddhist goods industry, this book establishes a method for understanding change in death ritual through attention to the dynamic lifecourse of necromaterials. Deep in the Fukuyama mountainside, the grave of the graves (o-haka no haka) houses acres of unwanted headstonesthe material remains of Japans discarded death rites. In the past, the Japanese dead became venerated ancestors through sustained ritual offerings at graves and at butsudan, Buddhist altars installed inside the home. But in twenty-first-century Japan, this intergenerational system of care is rapidly collapsing. In noisy carpentry studios, flashy funeral-goods showrooms, neglected cemeteries, and cramped kitchens where women prepare memorial feasts, Hannah Gould analyzes the lifecycle of Read more