March 21, 2003
Cemetery II
Nearby our tombstone, we passed a very old looking one. Much more humble looking, but also rather uncared for. Upon inspection, we found it was from the Meiji era.
At the exit of the cemetery, there are 2 public tombstones - one for miscarriages, and one for unidentified people. It's touching because everyone always pays their respect to these and leaves little food items or flowers.
Posted by Mie at March 21, 2003 06:07 PM | TrackBackwhat does it say on the second pic?
the kamon looks like the one for hisamatsu, togashi, maeda or tsutsui family. which one is it?
Posted by: paburo at March 22, 2003 11:20 AMMie, what happens to tombstones when there are no ancestors left to care for it? Are there custodians that do so? These cemetery pics are intriguing; it's a fascination of mine.
Posted by: Eric at March 24, 2003 05:29 AMOops I meant descendants, not ancestors :-)
Posted by: Eric at March 25, 2003 12:15 AMHmmm. Good questions. Regarding reading family names, I give up. Especially old ones. They seem to alwasy throw me off. Sorry.
About custodians, the temple takes care of them. Each family usually has a long history with the temple. Nowadays, with the shift to modern nuclear families and the break in these ties, I think (my guess) is that eventually if the temple can't locate any family living family members, they would move the inside (bones) to the temple's general care and let someone else have the spot. Not sure though...
Posted by: Mie at March 26, 2003 12:57 PM