The Social History Related to Graves in Postwar Japan: Focusing on the Marketing Strategy of Gravestone Shops

Abstract

Using a historical approach, this study examines the transformation of graves from a material perspective, specifically the marketing strategy of gravestone shops. First, I reveal the relationship between the construction of graves for people who flowed into urban areas during the period of high economic growth and the commercialization of graves through advertising with its purpose of maintaining extended reproduction of these shops. Second, I demonstrate that, with the changes in the economic structure since the 1990s, gravestone shops have contributed to the social expansion of funeral and grave systems that do not require inheritance.