So I’ve rewatched the series a few times and I’m always left thinking about the beach scene when they honor their father/grandfather (Hotaka). Is there some link to why Taki uses the stones in the ceremony and write his name on it and then wash it off? Also curious as to the plants and bottle of booze next to the shrine before they walked away. Just looking to see if anybody has more insight into what that ceremony might be closely linked to.
https://www.reddit.com/r/japan/comments/16hh8i1/giri_haji_episode_6_question_義理_恥/
2 comments
I assume you don’t live in Japan to know the answer so I am going to try my best.
I’ve quickly scrolled that episode on Netflix as I didn’t know about the series to get an idea. If I understood correctly, there were 2 ceremonies for the same dead person happening in different places. One is the traditional funeral that happens at the home of the family of the deceased and the other at some beach.
Your question was about the ritual happening at the beach I assume. This is what I believe the ritual in the beach symbolized: an easy way of performing the ritual away from a distant place away from home where the actual funeral was taking place. The other thing you have to understand is that even though religion in Japan is a complex topic, most Japanese people follow Japanese Buddhism traditions for funerals. One of them is that once the ashes are comitted to the tombstone, the tombstone gets the name of the person written in it. I believe the 3 stones and one of them with the name HOTAKA symbolizes the tombstone. The other thing is pouring of water on the stone. Washing away the name has, IMO, no symbology at all (it’s just that the person there wrote with some chalk or whatever so obviously got washed away). Pouring of water has many meanings from just purely keeping the tombstone clean to more deep meaning in Japanese Buddhism where they believe the soul is immortal and that, wherever the deceased may be, they may need water to keep hydrated. The same goes for the booze: most likely the deceased liked booze and that particular bottle/brand.
For comparison, there is a big holiday in Japan called Obon. During this time, Japanese believe the deceased sort of come to the realm of the living and therefore you will see all sorts of things like oranges, booze and whatnot next to tombstones and even at home.
gif gif : why did you f * ck me? me : because i just had a shit load of sheet