Alex Quinn's Japan Journal

10/20/2004, Funeral of my co-worker, Kubota-san

On Monday, October 18, my co-worker, Kubota-san passed away at the age of 48.  She had a form of anemia where the body doesn't reproduce blood cells as it should.  In Japanese, it's called saiseifuryouhinketsu.  She had recently had a tooth pulled, and there were complicatoins relating to that.  I didn't know her well, but we talked a few times and she was always quite friendly and nice with everybody.  She was a kind of lab assistant at the school.  She helped science teachers prepare for the labs.

We got the phone call on Monday.  The teachers were surprised, but didn't seem very affected at first.  On Tuesday, there was a 15 minute all school assembly to announce the news.

Today, I went to her funeral.  I just want to write down a few of the interesting things I saw.  They asked me to where all black.  When I showed up in a brown tie, they had mixed opinions.  Some thought it was unacceptable or dame.  I borrowed a black tie from a teacher.  The entire faculty and staff attended the funeral, along with some students and parents.  When I got to the temple, I was terrified of doing something socially unacceptable.  They asked me to write my name in a register.  Some people offered fancy envelopes of cash for the family.  In return, the family had prepared wrapped gifts as instant reciprocation gifts.  So, the people who had offered money to the family were all carrying around these gifts.  I'm told the monks get between ¥100,000 and ¥400,000 (≈$1000 to $4000) for performing the 45 minute ceremony.  The monks started the ceremony by chanting some sutras for a few minutes.  There were times when we were asked to put our hands together as if to pray.  Many people carried strings of beads which were a part of the praying.  At the front of the room was an alter with a picture of Kubota-san, flowers, and fruit.  There were about 12 huge bouquets of flowers with signs next to them, identifying donors.  Two were from the school PTA.  There was some speaking.  The school's deputy vice principal went up to the front and gave a speech from a piece of paper, with his back to the audience, facing the altar.  The monks chanted more sutras.  Then, we all walked up to the front, made a little 10 second prayer facing the altar, standing in front of some burning powdered incense (special stuff for funerals).  Then, we walked away, made a deep, respectful bow to two family members (father and brother, I believe) individually.  At the end, Kubuta-san's father made a tearful speech to the group, leaving me feeling a little watery-eyed.  Then, we waited for about 10 minutes in the entrance to the funeral.  Eventually, some people came through, carrying Kubota-san in her casket.  They put her into a hearse.  Before leaving, the hearse honked its horn for a few seconds.

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