Spread of Cremation and Its Results : A Funeral with the Corpse in a Coffin or with the Ashes in an Urn : Increasing Demands for Repositories for the Bones of the Dead

1960年代以降，高度経済成長期（1955－1973）をへて，列島各地では土葬から火葬へと葬法が変化した。その後も1990年代までは旧来の葬儀を伝承し，比較的長く土葬が行われてきていた地域もあったが，それらも2000年以降，急速に火葬へと変化した。本論ではそれらの地域における火葬の普及とそれに伴う葬送墓制の変化について現地確認と分析とを試みるものである。論点は以下の通りである。第１，火葬化が民俗学にもたらしたのは「遺骨葬」と「遺骸葬」という２つの概念設定である。火葬化が全国規模で進んだ近年の葬送の儀式次第の中での火葬の位置には，Ａ「通夜→葬儀・告別式→火葬」タイプと，Ｂ「通夜→火葬→葬儀・告別式」タイプの２つがみられる。Ａは「遺骸葬」，Ｂは「遺骨葬」と呼ぶべき方式である。比較的長く土葬が行われてきていた地域，たとえば近畿地方の滋賀県や関東地方の栃木県などでは，葬儀で引導を渡して殻にしてから火葬をするというＡタイプが多く，東北地方の秋田県や九州地方の熊本県などでは先に火葬をしてから葬儀を行うというＢタイプが多い。第２，Ｂタイプの「遺骨葬」の受容は昭和30年代の東北地方や昭和50年代の九州地方等の事例があるが，注目されるのはいずれも土葬の頃と同じように墓地への野辺送りや霊魂送りの習俗が継承されていたという点である。しかし，2000年代以降のもう一つの大変化，「自宅葬」から「ホール葬」へという葬儀の場所の変化とともにそれらは消滅していった。第３，両墓制は民俗学が長年研究対象としてきた習俗であるが，土葬から火葬へと変化する中で消滅していきつつある。そして死穢忌避観念の希薄化が進み，集落近くや寺や従来の埋葬墓地などへ新たな石塔墓地を造成する動きが活発になっている。これまで無石塔墓制であった集落にも初めて石塔墓地造成がなされている。火葬が石塔その他の納骨施設を必須としたのである。第４，近代以降，旧来の極端な死穢忌避観念が希薄化し喪失へと向かっている動向が注目されているが，それを一気に加速させているのがこの土葬から火葬への変化といえる。旧来の土葬や野辺送りがなくなり，死穢忌避観念が希薄化もしくは喪失してきているのが2010年代の葬送の特徴である。

After the 1960s, triggered by the high economic growth from 1955 to 1973, funeral practices changed from inhumation to cremation all over Japan. Still, inhumation remained common for a relatively long time until the 1990s in some regions where traditional practices were transmitted, though since 2000, it has rapidly replaced by cremation. Focusing on these regions, this paper presents the results of the field survey and analysis of the spread of cremation and its attendant changes in funeral and burial practices, as shown below. First, from the viewpoint of folklore studies, cremation has introduced two distinctive concepts into funeral services: one with the corpse in a coffin and one with the ashes in an urn. In the former, cremation follows the vigil and funeral/ farewell services (pattern A), while in the latter, it is conducted between the vigil and funeral/farewell services (pattern B). These two patterns of funeral procedures have diverged recently as cremation was spreading all over Japan. In the regions where inhumation remained common for a relatively long time, such as Shiga Prefecture in the Kinki Region and Tochigi Prefecture in the Kanto Region, the pattern A is more common; cremation is conducted after the last words were addressed to the deceased at the funeral service. On the other hand, the pattern B, cremation followed by the funeral service, is more common in Akita Prefecture in the Tohoku Region and Kumamoto Prefecture in the Kyushu Region. Second, it is worth noting that even though the pattern B, a funeral service with the ashes in an urn, was accepted in the Tohoku Region in the late 1950s to the early 1960s and in the Kyusyu Region in the late 1970s to the early 1980s, people did not abandon traditional practices related to inhumation such as a funeral procession to the cemetery. These practices have disappeared since the 2000s in parallel with another drastic change: a shift in the funeral venue from homes to funeral halls. Third, the double-grave system, which has been studied by folklorists for years, is also diminishing with the replacement of inhumation by cremation. Moreover, while death is less and less disliked or regarded as impurity, more and more tombstone cemeteries are built near communities and in temples and conventional burial cemeteries. Tombstone cemeteries have been also introduced to communities where that custom did not exist. The background for this is that cremation has created demands for repositories for the bones of the dead such as tombstones. Fourth, as referred to by many researchers in the modern times, death is less and less disliked or regarded as impurity, and this trend has been further accelerated by the shift from inhumation to cremation. The funeral practices in the 2010s are characterized by this trend of the weakening and diminishing of people's dislike and disgust of death, driven by the abandonment of the funeral practices that make people consider death as impurity such as inhumation and funeral processions.