Abstract
East Asian Megacities accommodate a large share of the ageing population and this share is expected to increase further, leading to a relatively high death rate. These cities are also highly compact and their land markets are host to competition from multiple usages, including housing for the visible and invisible population. Moreover, cultural forces emphasise physical traces of the ancestors’ corpses. In this context, Invisible Population: The Place of the Dead in East Asian Megacities explores the contemporary issue of funeral practices and industries in a historical context with due consideration to the transformation of service as an industry and emerging challenges in three mega cities: Tokyo (Japan), Shanghai (China) and Seoul (South Korea). This edited book has nine chapters, in addition to an introduction and a concluding section, with contributions by many of the best-known and respected scholars in the field. Three chapters are dedicated to each country’s funeral practices and their dynamics.
In chapter 1, editor Natacha Aveline-Dubach reviews the history of graves and funerary services in urban Japan in economic and spatial dimensions. This chapter provides an overview of the funeral system, the restructuring of the stakeholders system from a Buddhist monopoly to private cemetery developers and undertakers, and the role of private prayers both in cremation and the creation of funerary sites. She concludes that the shattering of the family grave system in Japan evolved due to individualisation and dematerialisation. In chapter 2, Katsumi Shimane summarises trends in funeral practices and industry in Japan’s urban society. The major differences between traditional and contemporary funerals have emerged as a result of the change in death venue (from home to hospital), the method of disposing of corpses (burial to cremation) and a change of funeral venue (from home to funeral parlours). Nevertheless, the fundamental structure of the traditional funerals remains the same: pre-burial rituals, funeral procession and post-mortem rituals. Earlier practices, although costly, had a high sense of social bonding among communities, which has deteriorated over time. In chapter 3, Fabienne Duteil-Ogata overviews emerging burial spaces and rituals, although a small segment, but of great prospect in urban Japan. Emerging styles have challenged traditional Buddhist practices and provide alternatives such as Shintoism, “Soka Gakkai” or “society for the creation of values”. Meanwhile, the disintegration of the traditional family has also given rise to new types of graves—communal eternal memorial graves, man and pet graves, and tree burial, among others like graveless burial systems.
In chapter 4, the editor presents Shanghai's dynamic aspects of the funeral industry, reflecting the ambitions of Chinese modernity, which has been compromised with market forces. Her analyses reveal that Shanghai’s funeral practices are more or less an ideal model for urban Chinese funeral practices. The author traces the history of the funeral industry through the intersection of political, economic and social changes in three distinctive periods: the age of the foreign concessions, the moist era and the era of the Cultural Revolution. Maylis Bellocq presents anecdotes of ‘dealing with the dead’ in contemporary Shanghai at each stage—pre-burial, funeral procession and post-burial—in chapter 5. The funeral reforms in China took place due to four reasons: the spatial and environmental constraints; the intention to destroy the traditional family structure; the struggle against feudal superstitions; and tight controls on the customs of the population. She meticulously shows how funeral reforms have been successful in urban China using the case of Shanghai; however, these reforms did not influence much in rural China. This is also echoed by Yukihira Kawaguchi, in chapter 6, using a case study of a village in the suburbs of Guangzhou, which reveals that even now the funeral practices in rural China remain similar to those of imperial China in many aspects. Chapter 6 sheds light on funerary rites under imperial rule, the communist party regime and contemporary China, focusing on the dynamics in funeral practices. The gap between official policy and actual mortuary practice in rural areas did not narrow, since the observance of funeral rituals is an integral part of the identity of the Chinese people.
In chapter 7, Elise Prebin analyses the underpinnings of the shift from burial to cremation and highlights the debate in pre-modern and modern Korea over adopting cremation from different religious beliefs mainly—Buddhist, Confucian and Christianity. It also highlights the rising cost of cremation, now costing anywhere between US$1000 to US$7000 depending upon the social and economical status of the family. In chapter 8, Ryohei Takamura presents grave regulation dynamics in a historical context. Traditional Korean funerary rites emerged under the Joseon dynasty (1392–1910) and were based on neo-Confucianism principles. Significant changes in practice occurred during Korea’s annexation to Japan and post-war regimes. In chapter 9, Shi-Dug Kim provides an overview of contemporary Korean funeral practices, including related business practices, which incorporate strong cultural dimensions with manufacturing and service activities. This chapter provides separate estimates of the costs of funeral services and grave plots, costing on average between five and seven months’ salary. In summary, the analyses reveal a buoyant future for South Korea’s funeral industry. In addition, the links between the funeral market and the insurance industry, and the growth of the pre-paid funeral market are noteworthy.
The strength of the book lies in the concluding section, where the editor overviews the funeral systems and compares city-specific cases in a historical context. This section highlights key points and presents the way forward in funeral practices and the funeral industry. As of now, cremation practices have risen dramatically through socio-cultural and political developments, despite cultural forces that emphasise the physical traces of corpses. In spite of a high proportion of cremation practices, the grave is still the dominant model through ossuaries. Surprisingly, this sector also faces a high degree of inequality, like many other commodities, most notably in China. Despite land constraints, an appropriate share of land for graves can be secured through adequate policy interventions and the involvement of private prayers, with verticalising and miniaturising graves (for ossuaries) and reducing the length of usage right, from perpetuity to just a few decades, as witnessed in Tokyo. This also leads to a reduction in the ecological footprint. Overall, Japanese cities show innovative services and burial solutions in comparison with their Chinese and Korean counterparts—perhaps due to the great challenges they face. This section also highlights the transformation of the funeral industry towards professionalism and certification programmes from earlier limited community-based services.
Data from these studies support preference for cremation over burial to reduce the spatial footprint, but the authors fail to provide any data on the effect of various funeral practices on the carbon footprint. Since this book covers the sustainability of funeral practices, the issue of carbon footprints should have also been explored empirically. Definitely, the natural decomposition of corpses without any permanent grave marker (limiting the usage right to a few years) will reduce both the carbon footprint and the spatial footprint, as prevails in some religions such as Islam and Judaism, and provide sustainable urban futures. In addition, each country should have been given a brief introduction and summary that could be useful for readers. Despite these shortcomings, the book covers remarkably well the issues of funeral practices in East Asian cities with considerable breadth and depth. It is indeed a timely and important contribution to the current literature on the invisible population, which is little discussed among spatial planners and municipal officers. This book is not only useful to anthropologists and sociologists, but is equally useful for urban planners and policy-makers.