Description:
Tree burial has become highly popular, and is a highly-effective means of promoting the rehabilitation of Japanese forestland critically damaged by post-war government mismanagement. This book, based on extensive original research, explores the phenomenon of tree burial, tracing its development, discussing the factors which motivate Japanese people to choose tree burial, and examining the impact of tree burial on traditional views of death, memorialisation, and the afterlife.
Review Quotes:
"By examining innovative forms of burial and the embedded and sometimes competing and contradictory notions of the self, death, the natural world, and the world beyond, Penmellen Boret shows that innovative burial practices in contemporary Japan reveal and contribute to important transformations in Japanese society as a whole. I trust that Tree Burial will find a wide and appreciative audience." - Mark McGuire (John Abbott College) H-Shukyo, H-Net Reviews. August, 2015
"This is a rich and multi-faceted book, which explores several important social issues...Japanese Tree Burial is an interesting book, which provides fascinating ethnographic data and brings together several important topics that are not usually associated with each other. It offers some important new insights on the relationship between environmental practices, social change, and notions of death. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in contemporary Japanese society, religion, and environmental issues." - Aike P. Rots, University of Oslo, Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 42/2 (2015)