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sinnesspiel) wrote2013-09-01 07:42 am
sinnesspiel) wrote2013-09-01 07:42 am
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Shiki Novel Translations 3.0 and notes
As we get to the deaths, it would seem prudent to prep readers for the upcoming onslaught of Japanese funeral rituals. I've decided to take a cue from Hirosawa's spaced out explanations and will put general notes not necessarily relevant early on into chapter sections like this so that opening readers needn't just take in a huge info-dump or feel intimidated by how many cultural details the novel may require. Thoughts, readers?
Links to Chapter 3
Chapter 3 - 1
Chapter 3 - 2
Chapter 3 - 3
Chapter 3 - 4
Chapter 3 - 5
Chapter 3 - 6
Chapter 3 - 7
Chapter 3 - 8
Chapter 3 Translation Notes
General
Household/Family Shrines - Come in Shinto and Buddhist flavors:
Japanese Funerals - A Brief Summary
The Family Altar is closed for 49 days. This is so that any other deceased family members may be included in the mourning, going without offerings until the deceased joins them, though offerings are left here for the deceased during that period. 49 days is said to be the amount of time it takes for the dead to cross to The Other Shore, with trials every 7 days they must overcome to release themselves and their ego and move onto a higher plane of existence. The Family Shrine is closed until the funeral is over.
A posthumous name is given for the dead to use in the afterlife, so that they can further disassociate from their former existence. This name is based on their accomplishments and karma in life.
If the deceased died at home they're brought before the Family Altar where the readings and prayers take place. If the family wishes, this can still be done even if they don't die at home, even if it's not just immediately after the death as the normal bedside Sutras are. This is not quite the same thing as a wake, but it's functionally quite similar.
If the deceased dies out of the home, generally the medical staff (either at the hospital or who come to assess the body) will take care of preparing the bodies for the funeral. In other cases this is done by funeral home staff, morticians, monks, or others depending on the situation. The dead are dressed in traditional white kimonos, though sometimes men are put in black suits.
At the wake, the family is offered donations by guests, and each guest receives a gift for their attendance proportional to their donation (about 1/4th). Prayers, incense, and more Sutras. An all night vigil is held where the immediate family stays up all night, presumably being visited by the deceased who is saying goodbye to their favorite places and people in this world.
Then there's the funeral. More prayers, more Sutras, and they are often buried with money to cross the river to the other side, snacks, cigarettes, precious objects, etc then transported off to be cremated or, more unusually but definitively the case in Sotoba, buried.
After the 49 days, the gifts are sent to the mourners who gave donations, and mourning is basically finished, aside from memorial services held on specifically numbered years after the deceased's death. popular years are the 3rd, 5th, 7th, and 13th anniversary of deaths. Incidentally we're told in Seishin's essay that in Sotoba, mourning services cease after the 33rd year, when even their plot is no longer a plot, but a place where a fir is placed. These elements vary depending on the specifics of the faith, like many other details. The elements described here are the bare-bones basics that are generally universal.
The family does not celebrate the Shinto celebrations for the rest of the year and do not send or receive New Years greeting cards. Astute readers and purveyors of Japanese culture will notice that Buddhism seems to be the religion of choice for death rituals, and Shintoism for most festivals and celebrations. A sharp teacher of mine in Japan remarked, in an extension of a common Japanese saying only involving Shintoism and Buddhism originally, that in Japan you are born Shinto, marry Christian, and die Buddhist. Shintoism is the religion of new lives and spirituality, Christianity is mostly opted for the stylish chapel weddings by those who may never care to read a page of a Christian bible in their life, and Buddhism focuses heavily on rebirth or not really being quite gone so much as journeying, making it particularly appealing for those struggling with a death in the family.
In case you're wondering what the Mourning Crew and Koike are doing in all of this, here is a handy checklist of all the tasks that must be performed for a funeral. Most of the more daunting ones are universal issues for most culture's funerals. They are essentially making these arrangements.
Juzu - Prayer Beads used in Japanese Buddhism, their use is similar to a Catholic rosary with beads meant to keep track of counting the sutras while they are chanted. There is also the belief that the good karma leaking off from the chanting of sutras may reside in the juzu. Sutras are typically chanted 108 times as there are believed to be 108 attachments or afflictions that plague man. If more than 108 are to be chanted, some sects start going backwards around the ring of beads to signify breaking the cycle of death and rebirth. The shapes vary between sects as do the appropriate ways of holding them when in use. The formal, larger ones with 108 beads are typically two-ringed, with or without two to four smaller beads dispersed between them. Informal ones may have fewer than 108, are a single ring, and have between 18 and 45 beads usually in some number that divides evenly into 108. Men's informal juzu tend to have larger but fewer beads, women more but smaller. The tassels also come in forms ranging from loose to braided to balled; the tassel style is largely a matter of taste. The appropriate way to hold them between the hands, over one hand, over both, beneath the thumbs, etc. varies by sect.
Examples of men and women's informal juzu from http://www.butsudanya.co.jp
Examples of holding/use styles by sect from Echo Sekizai.
Chapter 3 - 1
Equinoctial Week - The aforementioned Higan or other shore was said in Buddhist lore to be set in the far west. At the Vernal (spring) and Autumn Equinox, the sun sets due west, and at these times they were said to be able to cross over from the other shore, and festivities or rituals similar to the aforementioned Bon are held throughout the week, honoring the dead's burial plots and family Buddhist family altars, leaving food and drink offerings to the dead and reading Buddhist sutras at grave sites. As these celebrations are a week long each time, they have those equinoxes at the center of the assigned weeks; March 21st and September 23rd. These times are right before the seasons change in Japan, making it very hot right after the March one and cold after the September one.
Chapter 3 - 4
Of course, back then they didn't quite have last names, but... - Hirosawa mentioned that there were no last names in the Edo period (1600s - late 1868). In the Meiji Restoration (1868) commoners were ordered to take on last names written with an approved set of kanji, but before that, they were the prerogative of samurai and aristocracy. Commoners were referred to with a descriptor of where they were from or what they did instead of their last names, with the particle "no" for "of", for example Maeda no Motoko, (Mae - before, da - field) would be "The Motoko who lives in front of the fields." Even with nobles, referring to them with their last name, the possessive no particle, and then their first name was common, coming out as "Taira no Munemori" to use the example of our previously mentioned Saitou Sanemori's master, which would be "Taira's Munemori." This is used in Shiki on occasion due to there being so many head families and branch families that it's simple to refer to people by their household, and it's translated in that style. Later you'll notice characters referring to Toshio as "Doctor of the Ozaki's." He's being called Ozaki no Sensei there, rather than Ozaki Sensei as usual.
Temples and Shrines Part II - Village Administration (Murakata) and Parish Guilds (Miyaza)
The bakufu are the shogun's government. Shoguns were military generals who were supposed to be a representative of the Holy (under Shintoism) Emperor over the territories they maintained, but in practice the Shoguns truly did run things until the Meiji Restoration, which was the restoration of the Emperor to true power
Under the the bakufu there were those assigned to govern each village. These leaders were the Village Administration. The shogunate were strong supporters of and strongly supported by Buddhism, due to varying reasons for each end of the partnership. The Village Administrators assigned their roles were often Buddhist intellectuals of high social status (not priests or the like, though many Buddhist priests also had political status). Assignment varied throughout the ages from being bakufu appointed to village elections.
Buddhist temples were often co-opted as government institutions before the Meiji Restoration. When the Emperor was returned to power (as opposed to being mostly ceremonial while military generals and shoguns were the true rulers) it was with the help of powerful Shintoists and Shintoist intellectuals, whom viewed the Emperor's line as sacred and his rule divine right. Thus Shintoism was instated as the national religion again and the Village Administrations' leaders who were previously in charge of Buddhist religious matters were superseded by Shintoists, called the Parish Guild or the Miyaza. They were the ones privileged to engage in Shrine rituals directly;at times,if there were no Shinto priest, they would be the ones to handle the holy relics or go into the areas lay people were not allowed in. Different roles were open to different people, by birth, by election, by status, etc. here as well. In some areas, the Village Administration's government control remained more or less unchanged beyond this, being more or at least as much a government institution as a Buddhist one. In some areas, the Parish Guilds took on more political power, owning land and businesses whose proceeds went to the temple, or to the Parish Guild in the name of the temple. The degree of coexistence, blending, or contest betwixt the groups varied as well as which prevailed.
Chapter 3 - 5
Shouji - Sliding wood framed doors with paper rather than solid wood or other materials. If you've ever seen a traditional Japanese setting in a movie, anime, manga, etc., you've seen them, but here's a note in case you didn't know what they were called. Example from Wikimedia Commons.
Tatami - Straw wound floor mats. Similarly, you've probably seen them, they're the most common Japanese home setting's flooring but in case you don't know what they're called, now you do. It's common to give room size descriptors by how many tatami mats it fits, with the standard tatami length being twice the width, Example from Wikimedia Commons.
Chapter 3 - 6
Hashimoto's Disease - An autoimmune disease where the patient's own immune system attacks their thyroid, leading to hypothyrodism with bouts of hyperthyroidism. Generally treated with hormones replacing those the thyroid can't produce.
Ozaki is going to throw out a lot of medical terms throughout this series and right now I don't tend to translation note them all as they're not exactly a cultural matter unless you count medical culture, but Hashimoto's disease sounds terribly Japanese, even if it's not more particularly prevalent in Japan than anywhere else. If readers want me to summarize them rather than having to slog through a potentially technical Wikipedia article, I probably can, but I'll be sticking with technical terms in the text to the extent Japanese technical terms are used (it's usually him talking to other medical professionals). Despite how uneducated I seem, I am, at least in theory, involved in the investigation of crimes in medical facilities, so I'm unusually familiar with basic medical terminology for a blithering idiot otaku
Links to Chapter 3
Chapter 3 - 1
Chapter 3 - 2
Chapter 3 - 3
Chapter 3 - 4
Chapter 3 - 5
Chapter 3 - 6
Chapter 3 - 7
Chapter 3 - 8
Chapter 3 Translation Notes
General
Household/Family Shrines - Come in Shinto and Buddhist flavors:
Family Shrines - Kamidama - Not just limited to roadsides, homes often have Shinto shrines meant to house gods as well. Charms known as Ofuda are stored in them and prayers are said at the house-bound shrine where offerings of food and drink are to be set out. An example of a household shrine from Yosokan Dojo, with the mirror being the object housing the god.
Family Altars - Butsudan - Much like the Shinto Family Shrine, the Buddhist Family Altar often has a stand-in object such as a Jizou or painting or scroll inside, and offerings are made to this one as well. While Family Shrines are hung like a high shelf, the Family Altars are more like cabinets, complete with doors. Also similar to the Family Shrines are that offerings are made here. Family Altars tend to have a bell that can be rang during litanies. An example from www.butudan.co.jp. Covering the main bits: #12 is where the tablets honoring the dead are seen, and #13 is the death register where the posthumous name, common name, and year of death are written. #14 is where offerings are set.
Many homes have both. They're more common in rural areas than cities.
Family Altars - Butsudan - Much like the Shinto Family Shrine, the Buddhist Family Altar often has a stand-in object such as a Jizou or painting or scroll inside, and offerings are made to this one as well. While Family Shrines are hung like a high shelf, the Family Altars are more like cabinets, complete with doors. Also similar to the Family Shrines are that offerings are made here. Family Altars tend to have a bell that can be rang during litanies. An example from www.butudan.co.jp. Covering the main bits: #12 is where the tablets honoring the dead are seen, and #13 is the death register where the posthumous name, common name, and year of death are written. #14 is where offerings are set.
Many homes have both. They're more common in rural areas than cities.
Japanese Funerals - A Brief Summary
The Family Altar is closed for 49 days. This is so that any other deceased family members may be included in the mourning, going without offerings until the deceased joins them, though offerings are left here for the deceased during that period. 49 days is said to be the amount of time it takes for the dead to cross to The Other Shore, with trials every 7 days they must overcome to release themselves and their ego and move onto a higher plane of existence. The Family Shrine is closed until the funeral is over.
A posthumous name is given for the dead to use in the afterlife, so that they can further disassociate from their former existence. This name is based on their accomplishments and karma in life.
If the deceased died at home they're brought before the Family Altar where the readings and prayers take place. If the family wishes, this can still be done even if they don't die at home, even if it's not just immediately after the death as the normal bedside Sutras are. This is not quite the same thing as a wake, but it's functionally quite similar.
If the deceased dies out of the home, generally the medical staff (either at the hospital or who come to assess the body) will take care of preparing the bodies for the funeral. In other cases this is done by funeral home staff, morticians, monks, or others depending on the situation. The dead are dressed in traditional white kimonos, though sometimes men are put in black suits.
At the wake, the family is offered donations by guests, and each guest receives a gift for their attendance proportional to their donation (about 1/4th). Prayers, incense, and more Sutras. An all night vigil is held where the immediate family stays up all night, presumably being visited by the deceased who is saying goodbye to their favorite places and people in this world.
Then there's the funeral. More prayers, more Sutras, and they are often buried with money to cross the river to the other side, snacks, cigarettes, precious objects, etc then transported off to be cremated or, more unusually but definitively the case in Sotoba, buried.
After the 49 days, the gifts are sent to the mourners who gave donations, and mourning is basically finished, aside from memorial services held on specifically numbered years after the deceased's death. popular years are the 3rd, 5th, 7th, and 13th anniversary of deaths. Incidentally we're told in Seishin's essay that in Sotoba, mourning services cease after the 33rd year, when even their plot is no longer a plot, but a place where a fir is placed. These elements vary depending on the specifics of the faith, like many other details. The elements described here are the bare-bones basics that are generally universal.
The family does not celebrate the Shinto celebrations for the rest of the year and do not send or receive New Years greeting cards. Astute readers and purveyors of Japanese culture will notice that Buddhism seems to be the religion of choice for death rituals, and Shintoism for most festivals and celebrations. A sharp teacher of mine in Japan remarked, in an extension of a common Japanese saying only involving Shintoism and Buddhism originally, that in Japan you are born Shinto, marry Christian, and die Buddhist. Shintoism is the religion of new lives and spirituality, Christianity is mostly opted for the stylish chapel weddings by those who may never care to read a page of a Christian bible in their life, and Buddhism focuses heavily on rebirth or not really being quite gone so much as journeying, making it particularly appealing for those struggling with a death in the family.
In case you're wondering what the Mourning Crew and Koike are doing in all of this, here is a handy checklist of all the tasks that must be performed for a funeral. Most of the more daunting ones are universal issues for most culture's funerals. They are essentially making these arrangements.
Juzu - Prayer Beads used in Japanese Buddhism, their use is similar to a Catholic rosary with beads meant to keep track of counting the sutras while they are chanted. There is also the belief that the good karma leaking off from the chanting of sutras may reside in the juzu. Sutras are typically chanted 108 times as there are believed to be 108 attachments or afflictions that plague man. If more than 108 are to be chanted, some sects start going backwards around the ring of beads to signify breaking the cycle of death and rebirth. The shapes vary between sects as do the appropriate ways of holding them when in use. The formal, larger ones with 108 beads are typically two-ringed, with or without two to four smaller beads dispersed between them. Informal ones may have fewer than 108, are a single ring, and have between 18 and 45 beads usually in some number that divides evenly into 108. Men's informal juzu tend to have larger but fewer beads, women more but smaller. The tassels also come in forms ranging from loose to braided to balled; the tassel style is largely a matter of taste. The appropriate way to hold them between the hands, over one hand, over both, beneath the thumbs, etc. varies by sect.
Examples of men and women's informal juzu from http://www.butsudanya.co.jp
Examples of holding/use styles by sect from Echo Sekizai.
Chapter 3 - 1
Equinoctial Week - The aforementioned Higan or other shore was said in Buddhist lore to be set in the far west. At the Vernal (spring) and Autumn Equinox, the sun sets due west, and at these times they were said to be able to cross over from the other shore, and festivities or rituals similar to the aforementioned Bon are held throughout the week, honoring the dead's burial plots and family Buddhist family altars, leaving food and drink offerings to the dead and reading Buddhist sutras at grave sites. As these celebrations are a week long each time, they have those equinoxes at the center of the assigned weeks; March 21st and September 23rd. These times are right before the seasons change in Japan, making it very hot right after the March one and cold after the September one.
Chapter 3 - 4
Of course, back then they didn't quite have last names, but... - Hirosawa mentioned that there were no last names in the Edo period (1600s - late 1868). In the Meiji Restoration (1868) commoners were ordered to take on last names written with an approved set of kanji, but before that, they were the prerogative of samurai and aristocracy. Commoners were referred to with a descriptor of where they were from or what they did instead of their last names, with the particle "no" for "of", for example Maeda no Motoko, (Mae - before, da - field) would be "The Motoko who lives in front of the fields." Even with nobles, referring to them with their last name, the possessive no particle, and then their first name was common, coming out as "Taira no Munemori" to use the example of our previously mentioned Saitou Sanemori's master, which would be "Taira's Munemori." This is used in Shiki on occasion due to there being so many head families and branch families that it's simple to refer to people by their household, and it's translated in that style. Later you'll notice characters referring to Toshio as "Doctor of the Ozaki's." He's being called Ozaki no Sensei there, rather than Ozaki Sensei as usual.
Temples and Shrines Part II - Village Administration (Murakata) and Parish Guilds (Miyaza)
The bakufu are the shogun's government. Shoguns were military generals who were supposed to be a representative of the Holy (under Shintoism) Emperor over the territories they maintained, but in practice the Shoguns truly did run things until the Meiji Restoration, which was the restoration of the Emperor to true power
Under the the bakufu there were those assigned to govern each village. These leaders were the Village Administration. The shogunate were strong supporters of and strongly supported by Buddhism, due to varying reasons for each end of the partnership. The Village Administrators assigned their roles were often Buddhist intellectuals of high social status (not priests or the like, though many Buddhist priests also had political status). Assignment varied throughout the ages from being bakufu appointed to village elections.
Buddhist temples were often co-opted as government institutions before the Meiji Restoration. When the Emperor was returned to power (as opposed to being mostly ceremonial while military generals and shoguns were the true rulers) it was with the help of powerful Shintoists and Shintoist intellectuals, whom viewed the Emperor's line as sacred and his rule divine right. Thus Shintoism was instated as the national religion again and the Village Administrations' leaders who were previously in charge of Buddhist religious matters were superseded by Shintoists, called the Parish Guild or the Miyaza. They were the ones privileged to engage in Shrine rituals directly;at times,if there were no Shinto priest, they would be the ones to handle the holy relics or go into the areas lay people were not allowed in. Different roles were open to different people, by birth, by election, by status, etc. here as well. In some areas, the Village Administration's government control remained more or less unchanged beyond this, being more or at least as much a government institution as a Buddhist one. In some areas, the Parish Guilds took on more political power, owning land and businesses whose proceeds went to the temple, or to the Parish Guild in the name of the temple. The degree of coexistence, blending, or contest betwixt the groups varied as well as which prevailed.
Chapter 3 - 5
Shouji - Sliding wood framed doors with paper rather than solid wood or other materials. If you've ever seen a traditional Japanese setting in a movie, anime, manga, etc., you've seen them, but here's a note in case you didn't know what they were called. Example from Wikimedia Commons.
Tatami - Straw wound floor mats. Similarly, you've probably seen them, they're the most common Japanese home setting's flooring but in case you don't know what they're called, now you do. It's common to give room size descriptors by how many tatami mats it fits, with the standard tatami length being twice the width, Example from Wikimedia Commons.
Chapter 3 - 6
Hashimoto's Disease - An autoimmune disease where the patient's own immune system attacks their thyroid, leading to hypothyrodism with bouts of hyperthyroidism. Generally treated with hormones replacing those the thyroid can't produce.
Ozaki is going to throw out a lot of medical terms throughout this series and right now I don't tend to translation note them all as they're not exactly a cultural matter unless you count medical culture, but Hashimoto's disease sounds terribly Japanese, even if it's not more particularly prevalent in Japan than anywhere else. If readers want me to summarize them rather than having to slog through a potentially technical Wikipedia article, I probably can, but I'll be sticking with technical terms in the text to the extent Japanese technical terms are used (it's usually him talking to other medical professionals). Despite how uneducated I seem, I am, at least in theory, involved in the investigation of crimes in medical facilities, so I'm unusually familiar with basic medical terminology for a blithering idiot otaku