Individual choice but not individualism: new mortuary rites in Japan

Reviewed publication:
Kawano, Satsuki. 2010
Nature’s Embrace: Japan’s Aging Urbanites and New Death Rites. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press. 221 pages, ISBN 9780824833725 (hardback)

Every society faces the problem of death and the concrete issues of body disposal, funerary rites and commemorative practices. Satsuki Kawano’s volume focuses on one example for dealing with death that has emerged in contemporary Japan. Her book examines the renewed custom of scattering the ashes of the dead after cremation.

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