Indebtedness and comfort: The undercurrents of mizuko kuyō in contemporary Japan

Abstract

It is difficult to recall exactly when weekly magazines and T.V. programs began to take up and sensationalize the theme of a associated with mizuko *7k , that is, aborted or stillborn children. It is manifestly clear that the pain and sorrow of losing a child is most directly realized by the would-be mother. Undeniably there are many people who, due to various circumstances, could not avoid losing their child through an abortion. To prey on people's suffering and weakness by advertizing an association of a curse with these mizuko, while being fully aware of such circumstances, strikes one as a pernicious business. Nevertheless there are a large number of people who respond to these solicitations. Why are these memorials or offerings for mizuko (mizuko kuya zk T A ) so popular in Japan today, and what is it about them which appeals to contemporary Japanese? There are some who believe that the large number of abortions carried out in Japan today, and the increasing demand for mizuko kuy5, are due to the deluge of sexual information and the shameless profusion of the so-called sex industry, and that abortion is most common among the younger population. However, as we shall see in more detail later, the available data does not support this theory. The roots of this problem are too deep to be explained simply by the sexual habits of 'the younger generation. Instead this trend is closely connected to the religious views of the Japanese people, especially their concept of the spirits of the dead (reikonkan Z r ), and in this sense mizuko kuyd is an important topic for those interested in Japanese religion. In this article we will examine mizuko kuya and the related subject of memorials for pets (petto kuya) from the perspective of religious studies. Since the subject encompasses a number of sensitive issues, we will first take