When asked to comment on their religious affiliation, most Japanese continue to identify themselves as Buddhists. And yet the majority of Japanese Buddhists come into contact with Buddhist institutions only following the death of a loved one, when a priest is called on to perform funeral and memorial rites. Many regard this situation as evidence of Buddhism's increasing irrelevance to contemporary Japanese society, perhaps even an indication that Japanese Buddhism is not long for this world.
Some also find it troubling that these rituals are ostensibly performed for the well-being of the soul of the deceased, flagrantly contradicting the central tenets of “true” Buddhism, which stresses an unsentimental acceptance of impermanence and the nonexistence of the soul. So-called funerary Buddhism, however, is not unique to Japan, and, contrary to popular belief, Japanese Buddhism's concern for the dying and the dead is not something that has emerged only recently. Death and...
