Ashes to Ashes

Date of events depicted: 30 June – 1 July 2010

Two Crazy Chicks Productions, in association with WorldWildPhotoGraphics and What Am I Going to Tell Your Mother? Productions, is proud to present episode 1 of The Adventures of Yumiko and Eden in Japan III...

“Don’t forget Dad,” Eden says as the train pulls into Omiya Station. She places the box holding Hisato Ishida’s ashes* on the seat beside Cathy and Honor. “See you at the inn.”

Eden and Yumiko grab their luggage, wave goodbye to Yumiko’s sister and mother, and step out into the muggy Tokyo afternoon. Weaving through throngs of people, they make their way to another platform and board the Shinkansen.

The bullet train speeds northwest toward Niigata Prefecture. Our intrepid heroines disembark at Echigo-Yuzawa and catch a bus to Kiyotsu-kyo, a small mountain town along the Kiyotsu River.

Not long after they check into the ryokan (traditional Japanese inn), Cathy, Honor, and Kensei (Cathy and Yumiko’s first cousin once removed) pull in. They have made the journey from Tokyo by car.

The five of them have come to this part of Japan to inter the remains of Yumiko and Cathy’s father. Famous for its rice and sake, this area is also known for the copious quantity of snow that falls annually. For months following Hisato’s death, that snow buried the cemetery where his ancestors lie, making it impossible to access the family vault.

Now, however, it is summer, and the countryside is lush and verdant, redolent of damp earth.

It is surprisingly warm the next day when the five travelers squeeze into Kensei’s Toyota and drive to the small cemetery in Tsunan. They are joined by Kensei’s brother Hiroshi and Hiroshi’s wife, who organically farm 12 hectares nearby.

The family has elected to perform the interment in an informal manner. There is no priest or monk present and there is no ritual or ceremony. Hiroshi and Kensei slide open the vault while Cathy removes the jar of ashes from the box and opens it. As the rest of the family looks on, she pours the bone fragments into the vault so that they mingle with those who have died before.

Kensei and Hiroshi slide the stone lid back into position. Honor, Cathy, and Yumiko place sticks of lit incense before the family grave markers and bow respectfully as the smoke rises in lazy, aromatic circles before dissipating in the mountain air.

© Eden Feuer

*In Japan, the bone fragments that remain after cremation are not pulverized into “ashes” as they typically are in most other parts of the world.