JP 2700 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Butsudan
Document Summary
Japanese families with deceased relatives to remember usually have a. Buddhist altar (butsudan) in their home, although here too there has been change in the size of the sum families who are willing to spend on this sometimes extraordinarily elaborate item. Buddhist affiliations tend to be more on a household level rather than a community one. The physical remains of the family ancestors may be buried in a graveyard associated with the temple, or they may be stored in urns in a purpose-built no. Katsudo somewhere in the vicinity of their residence. Some families visit their temples to make offerings and to attend meetings at particular times of the year, particularly the spring and the autumn equinoxes and the new year, as well as the bon summer festival. But many more receive the priest at their homes, and then only for funerals and memorial services.
