Japanese Buddhist Hospice and Shunko Tashiro

Abstract

A common saying familiar most Japanese is, Born Shinto, die Buddhist. The native Japanese religion of Shinto is a religion of life and light, whose written tradition regards death as the most polluting and contagious taboo. As a result, it does not deal with death and dying (Lai 1983). Buddhism, which has been a part of Japanese culture for thirteen hundred years, functions fill this social need by providing funeral and memorial rituals. Beginning in the mid-Heian period and throughout the medieval period, there were religious medical institutions in Japan called Muj6-in or Oj6-in. According the Ojoy6sbf, a Pure Land Buddhist text, a movement called Nijugo sammai-e (Nembutsu Meditation Society of the Twenty-Five) was established by Eshin (942-1017 B.C.E.) and involved the members in caring for terminally ill patients. The record of Oj6-ki proves that there was a tendency care for the terminally ill in a Buddhist way. During much of their modern history, Buddhists in Japan have not been socially active in the medical arena except for committing themselves performing funeral rituals. Whether they like it or not, they have won for themselves the title funeral Buddhism. This role is confirmed by Buddhism's near monopoly over funeral services for Japanese people of all religions. However, this role is not particularly a religious one; on the contrary, funerals-and Buddhism in general-fulfill a function that is primarily social in modern Japan. This secularization is partially a result of the Tokugawa government legislating that all people had be registered at a Buddhist temple. In an effort recapture the sentiment of the medieval Nijugo sammai-e movement, however, a new group called Vihara has recently emerged in Japan, offering an alternative approach dying and a new role for Buddhism. Vihara is a Sanskrit word that comes from a verb that means to