Abstract
In the case of the temporary housing for disaster relief in Natori-city, Miyagi, various measures are being carried out at the level of the residents' association to combat the problems of alcoholism and "lonely death" syndrome in light of the lessons learned from the Hanshin-Awaji earthquake disaster. When these actions are grouped together, what is observed is in one sense "excessive" community administration at the hands of the residents' association. However, differing from the Hanshin-Awaji earthquake disaster in which numerous victims were literally crushed to death in an inland earthquake, we can understand this excessive community administration to be a socio-cultural device to deal with the "wandering spirits" (of those dead or missing) produced by and peculiar to tsunami. In this paper, using an approach different from that of folklore or religious studies, I investigate the sociological role of the community toward the regrettable loss of life resulting from a large-scale disaster.
