| You can see the sotouba sitting behing the O-haka, and it looks like the family (kazoku) has been to visit the relative, as there are some fresh flowers. It is customary to visit the haka and replace the flowers, and clean it off of any dirt or dust, and keep it looking nice and clean. |
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| This is quite a typical shape for a Haka, but looking below you can see that there is quite a diversity of shapes and sizes. You may have noticed by now, that there are lots of sotouba around the O-Haka. |
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It really is quite the industry.Only the Monks can make these, so just because you have practiced up on your shodou, don't think you can BYO, as this is the sole preserve of the Monk (Bouzu). When you think about it, is important for the Monks to have some income, no matter how much they are on the path to renounciation of the sins of the flesh, they still need to power the Airconditioner in the shukubou, and of course that costs money. So with the Temple grounds as the main source of income, they need to have some way of finding the money to pay the rent. At about 5,000 yen for the service of painting the name of the relative who has passed on, you can see that from a single source of income, we can pay for the new Mercedes in no time.... |
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| Now, if you think that I'm being biased against a religion here, well I'm sorry, I have not really had the time or inclination to go into how the Catholic Church has been a successful Business, not to mention held sway over none too few major European political situations, but then this is a page on Japan, so make of my opinions what you will. As I've said, just email me, I'm happy to enter into discussions on philosophy. |
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| As well as the O-Haka, there are the jizo, these are icons for protection, and are placed near the O-Haka. We can sometimes see these up in the Mountains as well, around small shrines. |
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As I mentioned, relatives come to the O-Haka to cleanse, and put in fresh flowers (and burn some insence), so the temple provides some buckets and ladels called oke and hishyaku to cleanse the O-Haka with. There is (of course) a meaning in using this to cleanse the O-Haka, and tiping the water (or sometimes Sake) onto the O-Haka has signifigance for renewing the relative who is "traveling" in the afterlife Of course the well to do, couldn't just use the same oke as the common folk, so they have their own, with their family names on them, kept and maintained by the monks, at a fee .... of course |
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| Of course, while out washing the O-Haka, you may find some of Uncle Fred who wasn't completely burned up at the cremation, helping the garden grow |
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