Ancestor Worship in Contemporary Japan :

Continuity and Change

journal or Senri Ethnological Studies

publication title
volume 11
page range 201-213
year 1984-03-28
URL http://doi.org/10.15021/00003371
SENRI ETHNoLoGIcAL STuDIEs 11 1984

Ancestor Worship in Contemporary Japan:

Continuity and Change

KIyOMI MORIOKA

INTRODUCTION
Accompanying the change of ie after the Second World War, ancestor worship
among the Japanese has also changed considerably. The concept of ancestor has
largely shifted from a unilineal descent to a bilateral orientation. This change has
been accelerated by a widespread acceptance of the nuclear family form. As to the
function of ancestor worship, jural or political functions such as those that legitimize
one's social status have weakened, whereas personal or informal functions as a me-
morialization of one's dead ancestors or an emotional consoling of their spirits have
been strengthened. The butsudon or Buddhist altar, the central object of ancestral
rites inside the private house, is still kept in many Japanese households. Variations
exjst, however. There can be temporary delays in setting up a butsudun, establishing
a shelf in a corner of a room to serve as a butsudan substitute, as well as direct disuse
of the custom. Even among those who own a butsudon the rate of the ritual per-
fOrmance is not high, and the forms ofpractice vary. These tendencies are all related
to an increasing significance of personal over formal functions of the worship.
In this chapter the form of practice based on the ie or household is referred to as
"classical ancestor worship". That which has appeared in the process of the tran-
sition of the ie is called "modified ancestor worship". In present-day Japan, classical
ancestor worship is still fbund in agricultural and mountain villages, and the modified
form tends to occur in urban areas. Further, even "modified ancestor worship" is
rare among some nuclear family households.
"Ancestor worship" refers to the totality of the belief in the superhuman power
of the dead who are recognized as ancestors, and the rituals based on this belief. The
dead are not always ancestors. Ancestors must have real or adopted descendants
who are admitted as legitimate in the context of ancestor worship, Legitimate de-
scendants are those who succeed to the social status of the ancestors and who con-
sequently assume the right to worship ancestors. Ancestor worship is, therefore,
indivisibly connected with the patriarchal family and the patrilineal descent group.
Ancestor worship is neither simply a mental representation of ancestors nor an
action of love and respect extended to them as if they were alive. The performance
of a set of rituals is a requisite of ancestor worship, with a belief that dead ancestors

201
202 K. MoRIoKA

have a superhuman power. In this sense, ancestor worship is a central problem in

discussing the relationship between a patriarchal family and religion, and was in fact
the core of the relationship between the Japanese ie (traditional family household df
Japan) and religion. In contemporary Japan, however, the nature of anoestor wor-
ship has been changing, responding to, and forming one aspect of, the change in the
ie. This chapter attempts to analyze the continuity and c,hange in ancestor worship
of the Japanese in this process of recent change. .

ANCESTOR 'WORSHIP AND ITS FUNCTIONS

The ie or household is a social institution which has continued in Japan over
generations unilineally through the male line. According to existing research find-
ings, ancestors in ie comprise all the household heads together with their wives since
its foundation. When a founder established a new ie as a branch household, ances-
tors from the main household were sometimes transferred over. In addition, the
fbunder of a main family was sometimes connected genealogically to the Imperial
Household or to other powerfu1 families in previous periods. Ancestors under the
ie system were shown systematically on a lineal genealogy that included not only
actual ancestors but not infrequently, imaginary ones.
The generational depth of ancestors differed greatly depending on social class.
Not a few politically powerfu1 families claimed an imaginary descent from the gods
recorded in the Japanese sacred scriptures, the Kbjiki or AIihqngi. But for most
commoners, it was difficult to trace their actual ancestors back beyond a few genera-
tions.
Japanese folklorists maintain that an ancestor retains his individual characteris-
tics for a period of time but gradually frees himself from the impurity of death and
loses his individuality, finally merging into the general ancestral soul of the ie. This
is true only for commoners, however. Among politically powerful families or those
with religious authority, each ancestor retained his individuality and was separately
worshipped. Even among commoners, the spirit of a fbunder or of a special restorer
of an ie, or that of an ancestor who died an unhappy death was not fused into the
general ancestral soul.
Among the principle functions of ancestor worship are:

1. StatusLegitimization
Ceremonial attention to the ancestors serves to prove that the present head of a
household has legitimately succeeded to the social status of his ancestors. This is
especially important for households holding political power or religious authority.
In such households, there is more tendency for each ancestor to retain individuality in
order to demonstrate that power and authority have been properly handed down.

2. Stabilization of inter-generational Relations

Demonstrating symbolically the ethics of filial piety to the dead helps an heir
resolve his ambivalent feelings toward his living parent. This supports the well-
Ancestor Worship 203

known proposition of M. Fortes (1961, 1965). In Japan, the practice of shifting the
headship of the household to the heir while the former head is still alive is widespread.
The functional resolution of ambivalence is not as important as in a society where the
domestic power of the head can be handed down to the heir only after his death.
Nevertheless, such resolution was especially meaningfu1 for the socially privileged.

3. Uhij7cation of' Kin

N. Hozumi pointed out this function while discussing Japanese law in terms of
ancestor worship [HozuMi 1912: 21-25]. This can be applied generally to unilineal
descent groups or dozoku in Japan. It is, of course, pertinent to an ie that may be
under stress.

4. Strengthening Motivationfor Hbusehold Continuation

Periodic ceremonies strengthen motivation for household continuation by deep-
ening one's appreciation of ancestral benevolence and teaches one to pray fbr their
help. Appreciation and prayers were urged by the "Ancestor Religion" espoused
at the turn of the century, and, more significantly, by the doctrine of ancestor
veneration taught to school children with the aid of the oMcial textbooks of those days.
In parallel with ancestor worship, oflerings were made to muenbotoke, dead who
had no legitimate offspring to worship them as ancestors. These offerings were
intended to prevent unhappy incidents which might be brought about by troubled
souls. Hence, it can be said that the rites for them had the function of easing the .

psychological tension of people.

In modern Japan, lower class urban workers lacked the physical means necessary
fbr guaranteeing the maintenance of their households and had to work hard to
provide the necessities of everyday life. Under such circumstances, it was not easy
for them to perceive any benefit as being bestowed on them by their ancestors, and
thus it was not easy to recognize ancestors as those to whom one owes gratitude.
Instead, their poverty-stricken situation was often explained as due to the presence of
ancestors who could not successfu11y achieve a state of bliss. While misfbrtune could
be attributed to muenbotoke jn the propertied classes, the misery of the disinherited
could be explained as being caused by ancestors who were not properly worshipped
by their offspring, Therefore, a central function of ancestor worship for lower class
people was to relieve themselves of tension concerning their present plight as well
as possible further disaster and misfbrtune.

CHANGES IN THE IE AFTER THE SECOND WORLD WAR

Concomitant with changes in other social institutions and economic develop-
ment, the ie was gradually changing over the past century fo11owing the Melji Restora-
tion. Changes in the ie fo11owing the Second World War, however, have been notable
especially as the ie changes, ancestor worship supported by ie is also transformed.
It is important therefore to delineate how the ie was legally and socially transformed
since 1945.
 204 K.- MoRIoKA

Formerly, the ie was physically based on a continuity of property. The corpo-

rate family tended to be selfemployed in its own occupational specialization. As
such it was an independent enterprise based on its own property and capital. How-
ever, a meta-economic concept of property as handed down from the ancestors to the
present generation has lost influence. Instead, now more salient are newer notions
of property as a means of production, or as a commodity for negotiation as in the
case of farms now part of suburbs and metropolitan areas. In addition, changes in
the industrial structure of Japan has led to a marked reduction in the number of selfi
employed workers. Households of salaried employees are nbw in a maj ority. Even
in the remaining selfemployed households, not all members are engaged in the family
business. Some are gainfu11y employed outside as is true for part-time farming
households. Thus, the diminution of property and occupation as the material bases
of the ie had made a steady advance [MATsuMoTo 1981: 110--111],
Primogeniture is not only legally abrogated, it has also lost popular favor.
Attitude surveys reveal that the rate of those in support of an equal division ofparental
property among children had reached nearly 50% by the 1960's. Even among those
remaining in favor of primogeniture, a predominant majority connected the right of
exclusive inheritance with the fu11 responsibility to take care of aging parents. Only
a small minQrity continued to think that all property should be handed down to the
heir along with the headship ofthe ie. Although 70% or more remain in favor ofthe
combined residence of parents and a married son or daughter, the assumed reason is
.

the convenience which this arrangement may provide in caring for the aged rather
than as a means of continuing an ie form of living. Those who regard it unnecessary
to adopt a child in order to continue an ie line when there is no real offspring
now number about half the population, while those who stress the necessity to adopt
a child to succeed ie has fa11en to about one third of those contacted [MoRioKA 1980].
Thus, the notion that the ie should be handed down generationally has become less
and less popular.
As to family composition, along with urbanization, the increase of nuclear family
households has become marked in postwar Japan. However, because of the drastic
decrease in the number of children per woman it is estimated that the percentage of
nuclear families will remain constant or decline, and the stem family household in
which parents and their married child live together will become more common.
Yet the so-called contemporary stem family household is more like a generational
combination of two nuclear families of parents and their married child rather than the
singleunifiedhousehold in existence under the ie system of former days. In the ie,
the axis of family life lay in the parent-child dyadic ties. Thus two nuclear families
were bound together firmly by a filial relationship. On the other hand, the focus of
the present-day family, especially those formed recently, is placed on the husband-
wife relationship. Therefore, even when there is a three generation family,, it is merely
a residential alliance oftwo nuclear families. The notion ofa continuation of ie over

generations has almost totally evaporated. ･ L

Because of vulnerability to weather conditions ot to the economic fluctuations,

'
Ancestor Worship 205

the households with an independent small-scale business worshipped guardian deities

often associated with the ancestors who laid the foundation of the business. Now,
since workers' households depend on large enterprises that employ their bread-
winners, it is unlikely for them to practice such ancestor worship. In a family
centering around the parent-child relationship, the extension of filial piety to their
dead ancestors lead immediately to ancestor worship. In a coajugal family, however,
this sort of attitude does, not tend to occur.
As noted above, the drastic change in the ie system, which may well be called a
collapse of the traditional family, naturally should have devitalized ancestor worship.
However, the "Japanese National Character Study'1 reveals that the ratios of re-
spondents who aMrmed their paying reverence to ancestors were 77% for 1953 and
72% for 1978, the decreasing trend being less conspicuous than anticipated [T6KEi
SORi KENKyUJo 1979: 42]. This suggests that the meaning of "ancestor" has changed
between 1953 and 1978. Presumably, the concept of "ancestor" in 1953 was close to
that defined at the beginning of this chapter, but by 1978 has changed considerably
far･from its original meaning. A change in the view of ancestor is assumed to have
taken place. With the decline of the concept of ancestor based on the ie system,a
new concept･devoid of the ie premise may have emerged. Along with such change,
the pattern of worship may also have become modified.

CHANGE IN THE CONCEPT OF ANCESTOR

I will review the actual status of the concept of ancestor by making use of re-
search findings completed since 1960. Since the data were obtained only from
community studies, they are fragmentary but nevertheless they are mutually support-
ing. According to a survey of 87 households conducted in 1974-75 in a farming
community in Okayama Prefecture, "ancestors" meant, fbr more than 70 % of those
interviewed, the founder of household, the household heads since the foundation,
ancestors of the main household, or the household heads of all generations including
those of the main household. That is, a majority held the traditional concept as
defined above. However,･ for the remaining 30% or less, ancestors were either all
those who died in their households or all the dead enshrined at their butsudon, or
their deceased parents, etc. In other words, all deceased family members were in-
cluded in their concept of ancestor. For them, closeness of blood relationship was
more important than lineality [YoNEMuRA 1981: 153]. A 1972 study of 142 house-
holds in a hotspring town in Yamagata Prefecture revealed that two thirds of the
respondents considered the fbunder of an ie or all the deceased heads and their
wives as ancestors, while for 20% or more ancestors were the dead close kin on
both husband's and wife's sides. S. Yonemura, who made the Okayama study,
interpreted his findings as an extension of the concept to ordinary family members
beyond household heads and their wives. Yet it is questionable whether this is a
change that occurred after the war; it is possible that the system of ancestors held by
commoners was so extensive as to include some ordinary household members. At
206 K. MoRIoKA

any rate, the regarding of deceased bilateral kin as ancestors, whjch was entertained
only by a minority of the respondents in the Yamagata study, is different in quality
from the traditional concept of ancestor.
Behind one family of procreation exist two families of orientation on the
husband's side and on the wife's side. On this basis a bilateral concept of ancestor
may emerge. It has been kept latent, however, under the ie system. Again, we
should not hastily summarize this as a new postwar phenomenon, though we admit
that it certainly accords with the decline of the ie in postwar Japan,
This contention is based on replies to the question asking whom the re-
spondents regarded as ancestors. Other than this, the tablets installed in a butsudon
permit an estimation of the extension of "ancestor". In 1963 R. J. Smith employed
this method in studying 429 urban households in Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka and 166
rural households in Iwate, Mie and Kagawa Prefectures [SMiTH 1974: 152-186].
According to his findings, 93 % of the tablets were of the dead on the descent line of the
ie, whereas those for nonlineal kin including relatives on the wife's side averaged only
6% ofthe total. Because the percentage ofnonlineal tablets was hjgher in cities than
in rural areas, Smith concluded that the presence of nonlineal tablets is a newer trend
and serves as the opening wedge of family-centered ancestor worship as opposed to
household-cent,ered ancestor worship [SMiTH 1974: 174]. Also, in Yonemura's
research conducted in Okayama Prefecture, a few instances of tablets for the non-
lineal deceased such as kin on the wife's side were reported. In addition, there were
tablets for siblings who died unmarried, divorced or childless even when married.
In other words, a unilineal concept of ancestor remained dominant, yet an emergence
of a bilateral concept was indicated by the data [YoNEMuRA 1981 : 154]. The coinci-
dence that both Smith and Yonemura confirmed an emerging bilateral concept of
ancestor suggests that a shift is taking place from a concept ofhousehold-centered
ancestor to fami}y-centered ancestor.
This shift can be summarized as a change from a unilineal view which includes
distant ancestors beyond even indirect experiences, to say nothing of direct personal
contact, to a concept which limits ancestors to close kin within the range of direct
experience, but extends bilaterally; and as such a change froM an obligatory concept
which should include all the dead on one's descent line regardless of personal pre-
ference, to an optional one which limits ancestors to the deceased close kin whose-
memories are cherished by offspring. This should indicate .a trend toward the
collapse of the concept of ancestor as defined in the opening paragraph of this
chapter.
The change of concept should accompany a change of function in ancestor wor-
ship. The original four functions are social, whereas the newer functions are much
more personal, that is, they release psychological tensions through an affectionate re-
miniscence of the dead and a contributed of their spirits [SMiTH 1974 : 183 ; TAKAHAsHi
1975]. The former functions have contributed to the stability of household and
society, whereas the latter seeks to bring solace and peace to one's heart. Although
the percentages of those who aMrmed the reverence they paid to their ancestors do not
Ancestor Worship 207

indicate any marked drop, a shift from an obligatory ancestor of an ie to an optional

ancestor of an individual, and "privatization" of the function of ancestor worship
may be in progress behind the scenes.

CHANGES IN CEREMONY
Under the ie system ancestor worship was commonly practiced at a household
altar such as a butsudon where tablets or objects symbolizing ancestral spirits were
installed. Therefbre, any change in ancestor worship may be manifest in the possible
increase in the number of nouseholds keeping no butsucian.
According to the comparative study of three areas we conducted in 196566, the
percentages of butsudon-keeping households were 92 % in an agricultural community
in Yamanashi Prefecture (92 households), 69% in a business area in Tokyo (103
households), and 45% in a white-collar workers' residential area in Tokyo (106
households). The variation among areas was in the same direction as anticipated.
We classified the households into two types; nuclear family households (without old
people) and extended family households (with old people). Almost 100% of the
extended family households keep a butsuclan regardless of rural-urban or occupational
diflkirences, as the following figures show: 98% in the Yamanashi farming village,
93% in the Tokyo business area, and 100% in the Tokyo residential area. In
contrast, among puclear family households, the percentages varied considerably:
83 % in the farming village, 51 % in the business area, and 31 % in the residential area.
In addition, the percentages of nuclear family households were 38% in the farming
village, 58 % in the business area and 80 % in the residential area, all contributing to
the regional variation mentioned above [MoRioKA 1975: 97-98].
In my 1967 research on a suburb of Tokyo, I observed the butsudon ownership
rate by dividing the sample into the local residents (54 households) and the new-
comers (65 households), and then subdividing them into extended family households
and nuclear family households. Although the difference was small among the
extended family households (97% for local families and 100% for newcomers), the
rates varied widely among nuclear family households (73 % fbr local families and 38 %
for newcomers). The result obtained was similar to the findings from the comparative
study ofthree areas [MoRioKA 1975: 99-100].
From these studies, it has become clear that the butsucian ownership rate was
lowest among nuclear family households of fu11-time workers. Since the number of
such households is assumed to have increased in postwar Japan, it is estimated that the
butsudon ownership rate has generally decreased.
According to a study of the middle-aged or the aged conducted in 1973 in Kake-
gawa City, the butsuclan ownership rate for nuclear fami}ies was as high as that for
extended families where two couples of successive generations were alive. In both
household types the butsudon ownership rate was significantly higher for the house-
holds of the aged (65-74 years old) than fbr the households of the middle-aged (55-64
years old). This suggests that the incentives to set up a butsucian accumulate as time
208 K. MoRIoKA

passes even in nuclear families, especially with the death of the senior generation.
Among extended families the butsudon ownership rate was significantly higher for
households with widows (91% )than for those with two couples intact (68%). The
reason for thi$ difference would be that the death of husbands of the semor generation
provided a decisive incentive to set up a butsudnn earlier for the households with
widows [TAKAHAsHi 1975].
The above 'mentioned Kakegawa study made it clear that the low butsudon
ownership rate for nuclear' family households reflected a moratorium phenomena in
butsudon ownership. Along with the increase in the number of nuclear family
households, however, it cannot be denied that those who never set up a butsudon
during their lifetime are also growing in number. The Kakegawa research also
revealed that some of those lacking a formal butsudun had a simplified altar resembling
it [TAKAHAsm 1975: 43]. Butsucian like equipment may indicate a stage prior to
setting up a formal butsudun or may be a relatively permanent altar for ancestor
worship. In short, fbrmerly it used to be normal as well as commonplace to set up an
ancestor altar such as a butsudun; nowadays, the norm has waned especially in large
cities. This is partly responsible for the great increase of non-butsuclan households
among nuclear families. Among them, some have an altar resembling a butsudon or
dispense with it for the time being, whereas others, it is estimated, do not set up a
butsudon throughout their lifetime. A public opinion poll conducted by the Asahi
Newspaper in 1981 revealed that the butsudon ownership rate reached 63%. This
suggests that a majority of the Japanese have a butsudon even today. I would like to
call attention to the fact that, however, a few patterns of non-ownership have
emerged.
Our next question is about the ways of worship. According to Smith's tablet
study in 1963, 457 households had ancestral tablets in their butsuclan. Of them, 63 %
worshipped ancestors on the day of Bon (Buddhist All Souls' Day); 62% practjced a
daily morning rite; 60% performed periodic anniversaries of death; 56% practiced
a monthly deathday rite. Only 21% observed all four rituals. Judging from the
above figures, ancestral tablets may have been almost neglected in about 30% of the
total households.
In the 196ZF65 comparative study of three areas, senior students of elementary
schools were asked whether they were told to worship ancestors at the butsudun by
their elder family members. The results were as fo11ows: among nuclear family
households, the butsudun ownership rate was as low as 48 %, out of which a worship-
demanding rate was 55% (26% of the total). In contrast, among extended family
households, the butsudon ownership rate amounted to 97 % and the wprship-demand-
ing rate was 66% of the butsudon owners (64% of the total). In the farming village,
the butsudon ownership rate was 92 %, among which the worship-demanding rate was
65% (60% of the totab; in the business area, the butsudan ownership rate was 69 %
out of which the worship demanding rate was 51% (35% of the total); and in the
residential area, the butsudun ownership rate was 45% among w.hich the worship-
demanding rate reached 71% (32% of the total). While the ranking order of
Ancestor' Worship 209

butsucian ownership rates was : first, the farming village; second, the business area; and
third, the residential area with a large difference. Worship-demanding rates were
highest in the residential area, then the farming village and finally the business area,
with small discrepancies. For the residential area, the butsudon ownership rate was
the lowest, whereas the worship-demanding rate was the' highest. This is presumably
because wives of white collar workers in that area were mostly fu11-time housekeepers,
and tended to be attentive to their children. On the contrary, in the farming and the
business hou.seholds, fbr which the butsudon ownership rate was high, farming or
business is assumed to have occupied too much time and energy of elders for them to
be attentive to the little ones [MoRioKA 1972]. This reasoning suggests that the
worship-demanding rate maY not exactly indicate the practice rate and that the practice
rates for farming and business households must be more or less greater than their
worship-demanding rates. Anyhow, it is estimated from these rates that'about 30%
ofbutsucian owning households perfbrm no ancestral rites, thus almost neglecting
their butsudun.
We should not hastily conclude a decline of ancestor worship from the above
observations. There are two reasons at least. First, comparative data for the
prewar period and for the period right after the war are lacking. Second, it is pos-
sible that the practice rate remains almost the same as before though a change has
occurred in the meaning of practice. For example, remember the extremely high
butsudon ownership rate for the extended family households with widows which the
Kakegawa study brought to our attention. For these households, the practice rate
must be also high. The meaning of the practice is assumed to lie in the function' of
consolation of worshippers themselves by means of warm remembrance of the dead,
comforting of their spirits, and spiritual contact of the living with the dead which was
kept latent in ancestor worship under the ie system.
The following remark by Smith [1974: 113] summarizes such a change in the
practice of ancestor worship :

.;.With the weakening influence ofinstitutionalized Buddhism, households no

longer need to be so concerned as they once were with the formally prescribed
occasions of worship. The household may now worship its ancestors in the
way it deems fitting and most eMcacious. This may well represent the ultimate
effect of the privatization of worship, for it is significant that no household
reporting the most common patterns of worship apparently feels constrained
to observe the seasonal, semipublic rites to the exclusion of all others...

The privatization of worship is nothing other than the increasing dominance of

personal functions in ancestor worship. It has broken down the preeminent and
orthodox pattern of worship, diversified the way of keeping a butsudon and helped to
create forms of worship which aire free from the constrains of sectarian and local
customs.
210 K. MoRIoKA

RELIGIOUS GROUP MEMBERSHIP AND ANCESTOR WORSHIP

Ancestor worship of the Japanese was combined with Buddhism fbr many
centuries. This was a characteristic ofboth Buddhism and ancestor worship in Japan
[TAKEDA 1981: 19]. In prewar Japan, every family belonged to a religious group,
mainly to a local Buddhist church, and a funeral ceremony and ancestral rites were
performed in the manner prescribed by the religious group and local customs. Postwar
economic growth, however, promoted regional migration and change of occupation,
and as a result population with no religious aMliation has increased in urban centers.
In the above mentioned 1967 Tokyo suburban study, we asked both local resi-
dents and newcomers whether their households had experienced a funeral as the chief
mourner, and, if not, whether they could think of any religious man to whom they
might apply for a service when a death would occur. The funeral experience rate was
89% for local extended families, 54% for local nuclear families, 43 % for newcomer
extended families and 9% for newcomer nuclear families. Among non-experience
households, the rate of respondents who had no idea about any religious man to
whom they might apply for a service was O% fbr local extended families, 12% fbr
local nuclear families, 43 % for newcomer extended families and 50% for newcomer
nuclear families. Among the local households, the funeral experience rates were
high, and for the non-experienced local households an aMliation with a religious group
was generally definite, whereas among newcomer households, as represented by
nuclear families, the funeral experience rates were strikingly low, and further, half of
the non-experienced newcomer households did not know which religious group to
ask for a service. They are called a "religiously floating population'.
The religious aMliation of the newcomers viewed from the kinds of the religious
bodies to which they would apply for a funeral service are: (1) established religions
(about 40%); (2) new religions (about'10%); and (3) undecided (about 50%). All
the households of the third category kept no butsudon. About 809/. of the first and
the second category had a butsucian. Among the butsudon-owning households, only
one third practiced the "Bon" rite. The practice rate for the newcomer households
in a Tokyo suburb was far lower than that in Smith's study. On the other hand,
among local households, about 90% were aMliated with established religions (1),
and the remaining 10% were new religion adherents (2) or had no definite affiliation
(3). All of the first category households, except those with living founders, kept a
butsucian, and 85% of them observed the Bon festival.
In short, those households as represented by local extended families are aMliated
with established religions, mostly own a butsucian and practice the Bon rite. On the
contrary, those as represented by newcomer nuclear families have neither religious
aMliation nor a butsudon. In between these two poles, there are households aMliated
with an established religion, keeping a butsudon, but lacking the Bon practice, and also
those with established religion orientation but without butsudon ownership, and so
forth. These instances are found more frequently among newcomer households
than among local resident households.
Ancestor Worship 211

Established religions, centering around the services for ancestor worship of the
household, meet the needs of an individual family to perfbrm rituals. Despite the
declining popularity of established religions, people remain firmly connected with
them in practicing ancestral rites. The ways to practice ancestor worship are largely
prescribed by the established religion to which people belong. On the other hand,
for those whose aMliation with an established religion has become tenuous because
of residential shifts or other reasons, a variety of forms tend to emerge in the way of
keeping a butsucian or of practicing ancestral rites.
Some of those who drifted away from the established religion to which they once
belonged have come to be affiliated with a new religion. Among those religions,
such sects as Sbka Gakkai and 7lenshO KOtai Jingakyo- do not make much of ancestor
worshiP; yet, a majority including Reiytikai set ancestor worship at the center of
their rituals. Reiytikai and ofllshoot sects from it conceive of ancestors bilaterally,
totally difTerent from the traditional concept of ancestor which was based on unilineal
descent. ' They expound that the anguish and agony one suffers at present are caused
by his dead ancestors unable to arrive at blissfu1 state and hence in distress; in this
respect, too, their concept of ancestor contrasts with that of ie, which emphasizes the
benefit and the protection affbrded by ancestOrs [K6MoTo 1978].
For about ten years in the wake of the last war, when the Japanese were suflering
from a serious economic shortage, the teaching that ancestor worship should relieve
people from distress was persuasive ; however, after rapid economic development took
place and the living conditions･of the people improved markedly, the notion of
suffering ancestors has lost its appeal. Yet the concept of bilateral ancestor has
become much more acceptable for the Japanese with the increasingpopularity of
nuclear family households.
The Japanese view of ancestor has been fundamentally conditioned by the way of
household life and its change, but also influenced by the doctrine of the religious group
to which the family belongs. Established Buddhism, once having been assured its
infiuence by the feudal powers, had controlled the pattern of ancestor worship and,
being supported by local customs, it continued to regulate ancestor worship even after
the Meiji Restoration. H. owever, it has now lost such an influence because the local
custom which buttressed ancestor worship has collapsed under the impact of rapid
social change. Thus, a variety of forms have appeared including a total absence of
ancestor worship and partial or fragmental performance of the ritual. The weakened
influence of established religions has led to the increase of the chances of people
accepting a new religion, and as a result, the concept of ancestor and the ways of
worship expounded by new religions have also expanded their infiuence.

CONCLUSION
AIong with the change of ie after the Second World War a striking change has
occurred in ancestor worship which had been supported by the ie. In the concept of
ancestor, a shift has been observed from a unilineal descent to a bilateral orientation.
212 K. MoRIOKA

This has been reinfbrced by the concept of ancestor expounded by some new religions
and has been accelerated by the general acceptance of a nuclear family form. As
to the function of ancestor worship, jural functions such as to legitimize one's social
status have weakened, and the personal functions such as to recall one's dead parents
warmly and to console their spirits have been strengthened. The butsudon, the central
object for the practice, is still kept by a majority of Japanese households, although
various alternatives such as a temporary delay in setting up a butsudun, no ownership
through one's life, or the equipment of a shelf resembling a butsudan, have emerged.
Even among those keeping a butsudnn, the worship practice rates are not always high
and variations are also found in the ways of practice. This tendency is connected
with the increasing significance of the personal function.
If ancestor worship of the Japanese has changed in this way, it must be said that
the emerging forms are not ancestor worship as defined at the beginning of this
chapter. If we call the traditional one `classical ancestor worship', the emergmg one
which is bilateral kin centered and personal function oriented, free from the pre-
scribed patterns of established religions, may be called `modified ancestor worship'.
Both the view of ancestor and rites of worship have been modified. In present-
day Japan, classical ancestor worship is kept not only in farming villages but also
among local households in cities, whereas the modified form has been accepted by
newcomer households in cities or in suburbs. We may add that even modified
ancestor worship hardly occurs among some newcomer nuclear family households.
The above tendencies coincide with the variety found in continuity, change and
breakdown of the traditional household in present-day Japan.
Although I emphasized a shift in ancestor worship among the Japanese, I do not
deny that the modified ancestor worship existed already in former days side-by-side
with the classical one. The latter was the norm claiming to be legitimate and proper,
whereas the fbrmer was regarded as deviant and hence kept latent, After the war
classical ancestor worship has virtually ceased to be the norm. It may remain only a
norm, but no longer the sole norm. The modified one also has gained an infbrmal
legitimacy. If we can look at the shift from this perspective, we are in a posMon to

treat both continuity arid change impartially. ' '

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