[ANON POST] Edo-period funeral sans body; back from the dead

[orange_fell]

I'm writing a story set in 1720s or 30s Edo, Japan. A group of commoners get very reliable news that their friend the ronin has been murdered, but there is no body. They do, however, get his swords. He has no family, so they want to memorialize him themselves. But without a body, how can they do this

Comments

[scribefigaro]

The class issues here would be extremely troublesome, although it's early enough that this would be less of a problem far enough from the Edo/Musashi region.

The commoners could not be given his daisho (given by whom?) as possession of a sword by heimin was generally punishable by death. If they came in possession of them by him dying in their presence, burying his swords and armor would be prudent. I can't determine a mechanism by which he would appear to be dead, but not really be dead, and his daisho would be given to commoners. The ronin would know that giving them to such people would be a horrible thing to do to them.

If he is in fact a ronin, his life or death is of no real consequence to the government, so if he should be declared dead and then reappear, it would be a complete non-event. Without an employer or land possessions or record at the grave of his ancestors or other legal entities affected by his death, there'd be nothing to change when he turns out to be alive.

As far as the actual mechanics of the funeral, one imagines the heimin are not associated with a Buddhist temple and are arranging their own Shinto-type ceremony, which is a heck of a lot more flexible, and (importantly) separates the memorial of a life from the disposition of the remains. One would also consider that this profoundly exceeds the rights of their station.

[lilacsigil]

I agree - this is all very complicated and there's not really enough information about the "death" to work around. The commoners could maybe pay a monk to pray for their friend? Not an official funeral or anything, but it would help his soul and wouldn't be such a huge overstepping of their station.

[scribefigaro]

My bad, I read 1620s. The era you set this in is way too late in the Edo era to fudge the class issues. Social structure was very well established at this point.

And, to be historically accurate, few if any samurai living had any real experience in warfare, and this was around the time the concept of "samurai" was crystallized. (Rather easy to pontificate on how the true samurai gave his life for his master without hesitation when, after nearly a century of peace, neither you nor your father nor your grandfather have ever been tested by this idea.) It was a time of some fantastic literature on the concept of being a samurai, but this same literature was an unrealistically romantic view of the life of a professional soldier that contemporary samurai knew about as well as you or I would know war if World War One was, in fact, the war that ended all wars.

[scribefigaro]

Thanks for the comment, even if it was a century earlier! There are lots of details I didn't include, because I don't want to talk (type?) your ear off, so I'm pretty sure I could fudge some details, and I'll sharply keep in mind the differences in station. Looks like I gotta nix the funeral totally as I envisioned it. It's really good to know he wouldn't have to do anything especial when he gets back (I'm assuming this part applies to the 1720s too, sounds plausible).

I'm not sure where the warfare part came from, he was "killed" travelling - but don't worry, I won't have samurai compulsively stabbing themselves when their master stubs a toe, or any other highly (melo)dramatic scenes. :-)

[scribefigaro]

Ah. Nevermind the warfare bit; I must've misread.

The seppuku you can certainly touch on - the practice of oibara had been banned for quite a while at that time, and regularly forbidden by the master to his retainers, but despite that (or more likely, because of it) it was not an uncommon practice. It held a similar legal and social weight as dueling did in Europe and the USA at around the same time.

The Hagakure was dictated right around this time, so if you haven't read it, it would certainly give you some insight into the mind of a samurai of the early 18th century. (No one would have read it yet, though.) As well, this is not long after the incident of the 47 ronin, which would be a major cultural touchstone in your setting.