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The Material Culture of Death in Medieval Japan by Karen Margaret Gerhart is a religious work available to read on EtoBox.

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This study is the first in the English language to explore the ways medieval Japanese sought to overcome their sense of powerlessness over death. By attending to both religious practice and ritual objects used in funerals in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, it seeks to provide a new understanding of the relationship between the two. Karen Gerhart looks at how these special objects and rituals functioned by analyzing case studies culled from written records, diaries, and illustrated handscrolls, and by examining surviving funerary structures and painted and sculpted images.The work is divided into two parts, beginning with compelling depictions of funerary and memorial rites of several members of the aristocracy and military elite. The second part addresses the material culture of death and analyzes objects meant to sequester the dead from the living: screens, shrouds, coffins, carriages, wooden fences. This is followed by an examination of implements (banners, canopies, censers, musical instruments, offering vessels) used in memorial rituals. The final chapter discusses the various types of and uses for portraits of the deceased, focusing on the manner of their display, the

Who reads The Material Culture of Death in Medieval Japan?

Author

Karen Margaret Gerhart

Publisher

University of Hawai'i Press

Published

2009

Language

EN

ISBN

9780824837556

Category

religious

Subjects

History, Religion, Science

Rating

5 / 5 (3 ratings)

Updated

2026-03-14