Food and the Heart

2

For convenience, let us begin by describing the cases related to funerary rites. The connection between death and food naturally divides into two categories. One involves offerings given to the deceased, such as the “makura-meshi” (pillow rice) or “makura-dango” (pillow dumpling). The other includes various foods brought for the funeral service. Each household appears to observe customs related to the preparation of these foods, maintained as unwritten rules passed down through generations, although these practices have likely received little attention until now. The ingredients, forms of the dishes, and ways they are presented are all predetermined, each likely carrying a hidden significance, but uncovering these meanings is not an easy task today. When someone passes away, arrangements for the makura-meshi are prepared as quickly as possible. What seems significant is what to do with any leftover rice. Ideally, all the rice from a single pot is served in bowls, but if anything remains, someone must consume it. This is no simple matter.

for convenience......便宜上

deceased（名）死者

unwritten（形）不文律の

predetermined（形）あらかじめ決められた

significance（名）意義、意味

uncover（動）明らかにする

arrangement（名）用意

leftover（名）残り物

On regular days, it was customary for the family to gather and share a meal together. On days when a ceremony, or "sekku," took place, the meal was shared with the gods and ancestral spirits along with the host and their family. However, since it was believed that the deceased received new nutrients from the meal that had special effects, the food at the meal could not be freely distributed among those present. This is why people who came from the village's mutual aid association to help with funerals, or relatives and acquaintances who attended the funeral, could not be called guests. Guests had to eat the same food at the same time as the patriarch. Moreover, visitors from various places also had to follow the customary rules of communal dining and eat together. Consequently, a somewhat complicated method of distribution, which later varied by region, seemed to have emerged.

nutrient（名）栄養

relative（名）親戚

acquaintance（名）知り合い

patriarch（名）家長

The custom known as "Sotokamado" (outside stove) might be one of those manifestations. When someone died, people who helped with the funeral would immediately visit, mill rice, and set up a new kitchen outside the house to cook meals with a separate fire. In some areas, they would borrow the stove from a neighboring house to prepare all the food. The proverb "rice bales jump over the fence" didn’t necessarily imply wrongdoing, but it was natural that consuming rice, which was someone else’s burden, could be somewhat excessive if used freely. In Kii and Yamato, on days when there was a funeral, the entire village refraining from cooking was called "Kemuritayashi," (cessation of cooking smoke) likely a misunderstanding of the custom that the household holding the funeral didn't light their stove as usual. In any case, since it was a major issue for others to eat food cooked in the same pot as the "Makurameshi" prepared for the deceased, a separate kitchen was set up for visitors. This custom should be considered the second type of funeral meal.

manifestation（名）明示

mill（動）脱穀する

bale（名）俵

wrongdoing（名）不正行為

misunderstanding（名）誤解

However, even in such cases, there was a rule that required certain individuals with a specific connection to actively eat the same rice as the “makura-meshi.” These individuals included those responsible for assisting with the washing and laying out of the deceased, those called kubome or tokotori who prepared the gravesite, and caretakers of the crematorium hut in regions where cremation was practiced. This custom was not rooted in an irresponsible rationale that, since they would be inevitably defiled by impurity, they didn’t need to be cautious about food. Rather, these roles were taken on by those who traditionally belonged to the same collective group as the deceased. After the custom arose for those of lower status or individuals who owed a particular debt to the deceased to take on these roles, it was more common for individuals who entered the home in mourning and ate the dirty foods associated with death to fulfill these duties. There are regions where the sake offered to those performing the washing of the body is still called chikara-zake (strength sake). Alternatively, it is sometimes referred to as kiyome-zake (purifying sake), a term likely stemming from the sentiments of later generations. In some areas, the person drinking the sake must pour it themselves into a black wooden bowl, always limited to just one cup, and separately from the person pouring it. For the rice balls provided to laborers who dig the graves, there is generally a rule that they must be round in shape, or in some regions, they are made in a cylindrical form called yoko-nigiri (sideways rice ball). They seemed to avoid triangular rice balls at all costs. In Ōshima of Nagato, the term ui-musubi has been passed down, meaning a rice ball for those in mourning, which was not originally limited to food for the grave diggers alone.

gravesite（名）墓地

caretaker（名）管理人

crematorium（名）火葬場

cremation（名）火葬

irresponsible（形）無責任な

rationale（名）根拠

inevitably（副）必然的に

defile（動）汚す

impurity（名）不純物、不潔、穢れ

cautious（形）用心深い

debt（名）借り、恩

stem（動）起因する

The meal held before the coffin departs is called detachi-no-meshi in eastern Japan and tachiba in western Japan. Although this term sometimes refers to the food served to all attendees of the funeral, it appears that this meal originally symbolized a communal act of eating with the deceased. In some regions, the tradition of drinking just a single cup of sake was observed here as well, with round rice balls always being served. In Harima Province, there is a custom of offering dumplings called miyage-dango (souvenir dumplings) to the six Jizo statues located in cemeteries. In the town of Nobeji in Oshu, there is a dish called yautsuri-gayu, which likely once served as a euphemism for food intended for the deceased but now refers to a ceremonial red bean porridge fed to close relatives of the deceased at the time of encoffining.

coffin（名）棺

attendee（名）出席者

euphemism（名）婉曲語句

encoffin（動）納棺する

The custom of hi-no-meshi ("fire rice") on Iki Island serves as a particularly valuable reference. Only certain close relatives of the deceased partake in this meal, while others are strictly excluded from it. For this purpose alone, a small amount of rice is specially contributed by people. Here, "fire" in hi-no-meshi symbolizes the impurity of death. The fire was traditionally something to avoid in homes where a funeral was taking place, leading to terms like imibi or phrases such as "the fire is bad" or "the fire is clean," which have been long-standing customs across many regions. In Kyushu and other prefectures, the term hide is often used to refer to condolatory money. This refers to the "cost of the rice of death impurity" and likely originates from the practice of having this meal only for close family members.