Spatial Structure on Enshrining Ashes and Chanting Sutras at Otani Mausoleum by Followers of Jodo Shinshu Hongwanji-ha

Abstract

This paper reveals the spatial structure on the religious practice of enshrining ashes and chanting sutras at the Jodo Shinshu Hongwanji-ha head temple graveyard. Hongwanji-ha is one denomination of Jodo Shinshu, which was founded by Shinran, and is also the largest traditional Japanese Buddhist denomination. Previous geographical studies on Japanese Buddhist denominations discussed the distribution of denominational influence based on the locations of temples. However, as in Shinto or mountain worship, variations in the religious practices of followers associated with a head temple that functions as a religious center occurs even in Buddhism. We obtained data on applications and requests for noukotsu, literally translated as “enshrining bones of the deceased in tombs after cremation,” and dokyou, or chanting sutras, at Otani Mausoleum, the graveyard of the Hongwanji-ha head temple. The data contain around 900,000 records of applications to enshrine ashes and chant sutras from April 2000 to March 2012.

Analysis of the application data showed that many people living in the Tokyo and Keihanshin metropolitan areas had applied to enshrine ashes in Sodan, where Shinran’s ashes are enshrined and followers’ ashes are mixed with others. Meanwhile, many residents of nonmetropolitan areas applied to enshrine ashes in Muryoujudou, a columbarium. In terms of Hongwanji-ha followers who moved to metropolitan areas from other parts of the country after World War II, many applied to keep ashes in Muryoujudou. They therefore inherited the attributes of followers currently living in nonmetropolitan areas where they or their families once resided. On the other hand, many people who live in metropolitan areas and belong to temples there applied to enshrine ashes in Sodan. This finding appears to result from a number of temples lacking lots in Muryoujudou and relatively high acceptability of enshrining ashes in Sodan in metropolitan areas. Finally, people in the two metropolitan areas more frequently applied to chant sutras for each deceased person compared with those in nonmetropolitan areas. We explain this geographical difference as due to the accessibility to Otani Mausoleum rather than to the characteristics of the religious practice of enshrining ashes.