Bones! Not just any bones, today I’ll be talking about Kotsuage and Bunkotsu, traditional Japanese crematorial rituals.
This ritual has 20 stages and 20+ procedures, including Kotsuage (the gathering of a person’s ashes), and Bunkotsu (that distribution of those ashes). Startin like any other crematory ritual, the body is placed into the retort (crematory chamber) as the family watches. This process can take anywhere from 2-3 hours, so the family is allowed to leave and come back. Once the ashes are removed and cooled, they are placed on a long tray and spread out.
Here’s where bones come into play. Cremated remains don’t automatically form ashes; they have to be placed into what’s basically a bone blender and ground into ashes. In this ritual, the family takes chopsticks and removes the large bone fragments into an urn. They start at the feet and move upward, as they don’t want the person to be upside down. This urn stays at the family’s shrine for 35 days, then taken to a graveyard.
Fun fact! The most sacred bone in the human body is the hyoid bone, located in the neck. It’s believed to be due to the connection of the brain, soul, and body.
