Funeral Rites in Ezo

Execution

First, the body is laid to rest in a comfortable place with candles or a flame, known as the Final Flame. It is said these flames distract the spirits, who will dance in the flames until the body is purified. Salt is also poured at the doors and windows of the home to prevent the spirit from exiting.
Once a cleric can pass rites upon the deceased, the body is moved to where it is to be interned. This can vary widely due to the wishes of the deceased, the amount of money of the family, or the desired method of internment.

• The most customary method of funeral is cremation. The deceased is taken to an appropriate location, a fire is lit with the flames/candles that had been lit upon death, and the body is allowed to be turned to ash.

• Simple burial is also common. This is a simple affair of giving final words to the deceased, and then interning them in their tomb, or otherwise, the ground. This was usually only afforded to the rich, and plots in cemeteries were often quite expensive.

• Burial at sea was also common, particularly with fishing and whaling families. The body would be taken onto the sea in a formal boat for funerals. The deceased would be weighted down, and the person driving the boat would take the boat away from the coast. After casting some last rites, this person would tip the boat into the ocean, leaving the deceased to sink. The boat would be turned back and taken to shore. Sometimes a fisherman would be buried with his boat, and the boat would be made to sink wherever it was left in the ocean, with the body still on board.

Regardless of method, the deceased would be given money as a toll to the afterlife. At the end of the ceeremony, the candles/flames are finally snuffed out. If there was a cremation, the family is expected to take the bones of the deceased out of the pyre with chopsticks, and transfer them to an urn along with the ashes.

Components and tools

Candles or a flame of some type. Sometimes a boat, sometimes a pyre, oftentimes chopsticks.

Participants

A priest or cleric, witnesses, and maintainers of the Final Flames, and sometimes a ferryman.

Primary Related Location

Ezo

Related Ethnicities

• Yamato