Why Some Japanese Families Keep a Buddhist Altar at Home

In many Japanese homes there is a small cabinet or shelf, often near the living room, where the family remembers its dead. It is called a butsudan. This article explains what it holds, where it came from, and how it is changing.

What is a butsudan?

A Buddhist home altar. Encyclopaedia Britannica says it generally contains memorial tablets for dead ancestors and, depending on the family’s sect, images of various Buddhist divinities. The altar is a place for daily remembrance. Funeral.com’s summary of Britannica says it is tended with incense, candles, and flowers at simple daily services, and describes small offerings of food or tea.

What is an ihai?

A memorial tablet carrying a name given after death. The University of Pittsburgh’s Japan glossary explains that when someone dies, the Buddhist priest gives the person a new name, which is inscribed on an ihai and placed on the butsudan. Unseen Japan says the tablet was a custom imported from China. JAANUS, a Japanese art reference, notes that the practice of placing tablets on the altar is believed to come from Confucian influence.

How old is the custom?

Old, but it became widespread later. Unseen Japan says the roots of the Buddhist altar go back at least 700 years, but it spread as a common custom in the Edo period. JAANUS reports that by the Edo period the main purpose of the home butsudan was to give a place for offerings to the spirits of dead parents and ancestors. It adds that by the end of that period it was an almost universal fixture in ordinary houses, with exceptions such as Kagoshima. Tofugu adds that in the Edo period the government created a system in which Buddhist temples certified people as members of their temple.

What happens at Obon?

Families welcome their ancestors home. The New World Encyclopedia says Obon is a Buddhist custom to honor the spirits of ancestors. It adds that during its three days the ancestors’ spirits are believed to return to visit their relatives. A “spirit altar” is set up in front of the butsudan, with offerings such as fruit, incense, and flowers, and lanterns guide the spirits home. Kanpai Japan says Obon was documented on the 14th and 15th days of the seventh month of the old lunar calendar at least from the 17th century. It adds that people tidy the graves and clean the butsudan beforehand.

Is the custom changing?

Yes. Unseen Japan reports that surveys show the custom of keeping a butsudan is slowly dying out, and cites one survey in which only about 40 percent of households had one. For related customs, see Japanese Funeral and Memorial Customs and Ancestor Veneration Around the World.