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The site of Japanese family members praying to their departed loved ones at an altar bearing their photo is still a standard scene in movies and TV drama. However, in reality, surveys show that the custom of keeping a butsudan (仏壇), or Buddhist altar, is slowly dying out.

An Edo Era Tradition

The roots of the Buddhist altar go back at least 700 years in Japanese history. The practice started with a larger structure, the tamamushi-no-zushi ( 玉虫厨子), which originated from Houryuuji in Nara, sometime around the 1300s. It's said that this structure was meant to represent the life of Japan's symbolic first emperor. But the tamamushi-no-zushi was typically only kept by royalty and government officials, not commoners.

The practice of ordinary folks keeping a Buddhist altar in the home began with lay followers of the Pure Land sect (浄土真宗; joudo shinshuu) of Buddhism during the Muramachi era. Like the sushi we enjoy today, however, the Buddhist altar as a widespread cultural custom dates back to the Edo era of Japan. The practice likely arose due to Christian persecution: donating to the local Buddhist temple and keeping an altar were solid proof that one hadn't converted to “the barbarian's religion.”

People erected the altars in their homes as a way of honoring their loved ones who had passed on. The altar was paired with another custom imported by Japanese Buddhists from China: the ihai (位牌), a tablet bearing the common name, Buddhist name, and date of death of the deceased.

Survey: Only 40% of Households Have a Buddhist Altar

Of course, Christianity is no longer actively persecuted in Japan. And the influence of Buddhism, as we've discussed elsewhere, has waned greatly.

That decline – and possibly space and economic factors to boot – mean that fewer people feel the need to keep a Buddhist altar around. In fact, according to a survey run between 2012 and 2016, only 40% of respondents said they have a Buddhist altar in their house. This decline can be seen sharply when you consider that, in 2003, the Buddhist tools market brought in 4.6 billion yen; by 2016, that number had fallen to 3.1 billion.

https://toyokeizai.net/articles/-/325674 (JP) Link: The Totally Shocking Side Effect of Japan's “Buddhist Altar Flight”

What does that mean for Japan? Funeral and end of life business consultant Furukawa Mitsuko believes that Japan shouldn't lose site of what she sees as the most important part of a Buddhist altar: the offering of food to one's departed family members.

私たちは、特定の宗派の信仰がなくても、先祖供養として仏壇の前に座り、故人の面影が写真や位牌と重なり、対面するということを感覚的に行っているものです。 Even if we belong to no fixed religion, sitting in front of a Buddhist altar to mourn our relatives facing their picture and mortuary tablet, is an experience steeped in feeling.

Furukawa urges readers to keep this spirit of offering, along with the practice of speaking a brief word to one's departed relatives – even in homes that don't keep a Buddhist altar.

The key question though is: will anything take the Buddhist altar's place? Some companies are trying to take mourning into the digital age, with iPhone apps and online applications that offer infinitely customizable “virtual altars.” None of these apps, however, have seem to caught on in a big way. Time will tell how this hundreds-year old custom survives the tradition to the digital age – or, indeed, if it survives at all.

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