Bones of Contention: Animals and Religion in Contemporary Japan

281 Pages·2012·22.6 MB·English

by  Barbara R. Ambros

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barbara r. ambros
bones of contention
b o n e s o f c o n t e n t i o n
b o n e s o f c o n t e n t i o n
Animals and Religion
in Contemporary Japan
Barbara R. Ambros
University of Hawai‘i Press | Honolulu
© 2012 University of Hawai‘i Press
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
17 16 15 14 13 12 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Ambros, Barbara.
Bones of contention : animals and religion in contemporary
Japan / Barbara R. Ambros.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
978-0-8248-3626-9 (hardcover : alk. paper)
978-0-8248-3674-0 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Pets — Death — Religious aspects — Buddhism. 2. Pets —
Funeral customs and rites — Japan. 3. Buddhist memorial rites
and ceremonies — Japan. 4. Human-animal relationships —
Japan. I. Title
BQ5030.D4 2012 2012019669
University of Hawai‘i Press books are printed on acid-free
paper and meet the guidelines for permanence and durability
of the Council on Library Resources.
Designed by April Leidig
Printed by Sheridan Books, Inc.
Contents

List of Illustrations vii
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
one Order, Karma, and Kinship:
Animals in Japanese History and Culture 17
two Masking Commodification and Sacralizing Consumption:
The Emergence of Animal Memorial Rites 51
t hree Pets, Death, and Taxes:
The Legal Boundaries of Religion 90
four Embodying Hybridity:
The Necrogeography of Pet Memorial Spaces 124
five Vengeful Spirits or Loving Spiritual Companions?
Changing Views of Pet Spirits 156
Epilogue 187
Notes 195
Glossary 223
Bibliography 231
Index 257

Illustrations
1. Segaki service at Kōsaiji 2
2. Whale memorial rite at Ryūshōin 61
3. Setting afloat offerings at Ryūshōin 62
4. Military horse memorial at Yasukuni Shrine 69
5. Memorial to blowfish at the Shinobazu Benten Hall 78
6. Memorial to sushi at the Namiyoke Inari Shrine 78
7. Map of Jimyōin’s temple precinct 97
8. Pet columbarium at Jimyōin 97
9. Individual pet graves at Jimyōin 98
10. Collective pet ossuary at Jimyōin 98
11. Map of Ekōin’s temple precinct 106
12. Ekōin’s Batō Kannon Hall 106
13. Diagram of a Japanese Buddhist altar 133
14. Pet memorial tablet 134
15. Map of Hōtokuji 144
16. Map of Izumi Memorial Park 148
17. Family grave in the cemetery of Chōfukuji 150
18. Daihiden at Jikei’in 152
19. Segaki service at Jikei’in 157
20. Pet grave at Sekai Dōbutsu Tomo no Kai 176
21. Main altar at Pet World Rikugien 176
22. Rainbow Bridge Memorial Stone at Sōhakuji 179
23. Ueno Eisaburō’s grave at Aoyama Cemetery 188
24. Statue of “Loyal Hachikō” at Shibuya Station 189
25. Urn with Hachikō’s remains at Sekai Dōbutsu Tomo no Kai 192

Acknowledgments
I would like to acknowledge my colleagues, students, friends, and family
who have assisted me in the completion of this book. First and foremost,
I need to thank all my informants who shared their experiences with me.
Without their stories and gracious cooperation this book would not have
been possible.
I would also like to express my gratitude to my colleagues at the Uni-
versity of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and at Duke University. Tom
Tweed, Laurie Maffly-Kipp, Randall Styers, Jonathan Boyarin, and Rich-
ard Jaffe provided valuable feedback in the early stages of the project.
Other colleagues with whom I have had the opportunity to discuss the
project include Alice Kuzniar, Elizabeth Kenney, Fabienne Duteil-Ogata,
Chris Ives, Stephen Covell, Ben Dorman, John Knight, Suzuki Masataka,
Shimazono Susumu, and Tamamuro Fumio. Special thanks are due to col-
leagues who provided additional food for thought and resources: Andrew
Bernstein (who also suggested the clever title “Bones of Contention”— a
vast improvement from my clunky “Contested Bones”), Hank Glassman,
John Nelson, Mark Mullins, Dani Botsman, Paul Hansen, Ian Miller, and
Rob Gierka.
I am indebted to Helen Hardacre, Ryan Overbey, Chris Nelson, Simon
Partner, Morgan Pitelka, and Duncan Williams for creating opportunities
for me to present sections of this project at various stages — at the Harvard
Buddhist Studies Forum, the Triangle Japan Forum, and the Tracing Japa-
nese Buddhism Symposium at University of California, Berkeley. I would
also like to extend my thanks to Jan Bardsley for her enthusiastic support
and for allowing me to organize the Triangle East Asia Colloquium on
the topic of “Animals in East Asian History and Culture.” This gave me
the chance to discuss this topic with the conference participants who were
mutually interested in human-animal relationships. I am thankful to all
my students who took various incarnations of “Animals in Japanese Myth,
Folklore, and Religions” for providing a forum that allowed me to think