Japanese funeral

After a death

In the past, relatives gave a few drops of water to the lips of someone expected to die. The same act, matsugo-no-mizu, is now done just after death. The body is washed, and cotton or gauze is used to close its openings. A woman is dressed in a white kimono, a man in a suit or a kimono, and makeup may be applied. In a few rural places a professional nōkansha carries out the old encoffining rite, dressing the body and laying it in the coffin. The coffin holds the body on dry ice, with a white headband, sandals, coins and small favourite things for the journey. Beside the bed stands a little table with flowers, incense and a candle.

The wake

A wake, tsuya, is held as soon as it can be arranged, sometimes on the same day. Guests dress in black. Some carry juzu, a string of prayer beads. Each brings condolence money in a black-and-silver envelope, and later receives a gift in return. Close relatives sit nearest the front. A priest chants from a sutra. The family offers incense three times at the urn in front of the body, and the other guests do the same at a second stand. When the chanting ends the wake is over, though the closest relatives may sit up all night with the dead.

The funeral and the name

The funeral itself, kokubetsu-shiki, usually comes the day after the wake, and follows much the same pattern, with a priest chanting and incense offered again. What sets it apart is the kaimyō, a new Buddhist name in kanji given to the dead. People say it stops the dead person from being called back by their old name. A long or fine name may be read as a mark of the person's life, or of how much the family gave the temple, and the charges for these names are argued over in Japan. At the end, flowers are laid around the head and shoulders, and the coffin is closed. In some regions mourners drive the lid shut with a stone.

Cremation and bones

The family goes to the crematorium and watches the coffin pass into the chamber. The burning takes about two hours, and they return at a set time. The bones are then lifted from the ash with long chopsticks and laid in an urn. Two relatives may hold one bone at the same moment, or pass a bone from one pair of chopsticks to another. This is the only occasion in Japan when two people share a single thing with chopsticks, and at any other time it would be a serious social mistake. Foot bones come first and head bones last, so the person rests the right way up in the urn. The nodobotoke, the second bone of the neck, is the most important of all.

Graves and remembrance

A family grave, haka, is a stone monument with a place in front for flowers, incense and water, and a chamber below for the ashes. The names of the dead are often cut into the front, and a husband or wife who dies first may have the spouse's name cut there too, painted red until that spouse is buried and the red is wiped away. Wooden boards called sotōba stand beside the grave. Where land is costly, graves are stacked in buildings or take the form of small lockers. Mourning runs to the forty-ninth day, when the urn is placed in the grave, and services follow on Obon and on later anniversaries.

How Japanese funeral is kept

A death is announced, a certificate is issued, and the eldest son usually makes the arrangements. The body is washed and dressed. Guests gather for the wake in black, bring condolence money and offer incense while a priest chants. The funeral follows, often the next day, when the dead person receives a Buddhist name and flowers are laid in the coffin. The coffin goes to the crematorium. Relatives lift the bones into an urn with chopsticks. The urn stays at home or goes to the family grave, and memorial services are held on set days afterwards.

When and where

There is no set date. The wake is arranged as soon as possible after a death, and the funeral normally follows the next day. Families consult an old six-day cycle to avoid unlucky days, especially tomobiki, the second day, which is thought to pull friends along with the dead. Memorial services fall on the seventh and forty-ninth days, on Obon, and on later anniversaries.

Kept all over Japan, in towns and villages and among Japanese families abroad. It is strongest where a household keeps an altar and a temple, and where there is a family grave to return to. On the Ryukyu Islands an older way survived: the body rested in a family tomb for some years, and after the flesh had gone the washed bones were put in an urn.

What Japanese funeral means

The rites mark a passage and keep the living in order. White paper goes over the kamidana, the small Shinto shelf in the home, and it stays unused while the family mourns, so that death does not reach it. The body is laid facing north, or west towards the Pure Land that Buddhists place in that direction. The new Buddhist name is meant to stop the dead from being called back. Lifting the bones together, two people to a single bone, makes the loss something shared.

Days Japanese funeral is marked

Questions people ask about Japanese funeral

See also

Rite of passageA ceremony that marks leaving one group and entering another, with a new statusWakeA gathering before a funeral, where family and friends keep watch over the deadHalloweenAn annual observance on 31 October marking the eve of All Saints' Day, rooted in Christian tradition and Celtic heritageWater lanternSmall lamps floated on water to honour the dead and ask for good fortune

Good reading and sources

• Japanese funeral on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• More photos on Wikimedia CommonsPhotos and video
• Wikidata recordOpen data

It may contain mistakes. Traditions differ from one family, village and community to the next, and the people who keep them know them best. If something is wrong, tell us. Last refreshed 2026-10-05.