Behind the main hall of Myorakuji temple, located at the foot of Mount Nebiki in Toyota, Aichi Prefecture, lies a mysterious site that locals refer to as “the graveyard for graves.”

Thousands of stones appear to be arranged on the slopes of the mountain without any space between them. And they are indeed gravestones.

There are more than 20,000 large and small Buddhist and Christian stone markers and unmarked graves of war dead, as well as a giant statue of Kannon, the goddess of mercy in Japanese Buddhism, which stands more than 4 meters high and weighs 7.5 tons.

Around 40 years ago, Myorakuji, a Jodo Shinshu temple, began accepting unmarked gravestones and statues for memorial services, regardless of religion.

“In the beginning, only a dozen or so were brought in each year, and many of them came from nearby cemeteries and abandoned temples,” said Masahiko Suzuki, 63, the temple’s chief priest.

But since the beginning of the Heisei Era (1989-2019), the number increased and they came from all over the prefecture and even from as far as Gifu, Shizuoka and Mie prefectures, Suzuki said. “Even now, 350 to 400 are brought in annually, and sometimes from Hokkaido and Osaka.”

NOBODY TO PASS ON TRADITION

Keiko Nakane, 85, brought 68 stone statues, including the giant Kannon statue, in 2006.

“I asked the temple to take them and hold a memorial service because I am not a registered Buddhist monk and it is difficult to pass them on to my children,” she said.

The giant Kannon statue was created 57 years ago by Nakane’s parents with help from a local police station. They were concerned about an increase in traffic accidents in the neighborhood and decided the statue would help with traffic safety. It was built with donations from the local community.

Nakane’s mother was a registered Buddhist monk and erected many more Kannon statues at her home. Her parents died one after the other, so Nakane notified the donors by letter and moved the statue to the temple.

DISMANTLING FAMILY GRAVES

Suzuki said, “I believe that the number of abandoned temples and graves, as well as ‘hakajimai,’ will continue to increase due to the lack of successors.”

Hakajimai, or “closing a grave,” refers to a practice of relocating grave markers to new locations or removing gravestones. It sometimes involves exhuming remains, often after a certain number of years, and moving them to a shared grave, thus ending the family’s responsibility for the grave’s maintenance.

The number of such practices in fiscal 2022 reached a record 151,076 nationwide. It marked an increase of 32,101 cases over the previous year.

In 3,414 of those cases, local governments removed “unattended graves” where there was no one left to care for them.

This is due to an increase in the number of options that does not involve a grave, such as tree burials, ossuaries and scattering of ashes.

In anticipation of the growing number of people who do not want to leave the “burden of grave-keeping” to their descendants, there is a burgeoning movement to allow mourning and memorial services to be held in virtual spaces.

VIRTUAL TEMPLES

Taisho University in Tokyo’s Toshima Ward has a department of Buddhism, as well as 16,000 temples of five sects throughout Japan.

The university will create virtual temples on the internet starting this fall.

This is the first attempt in Japan for a university to collectively manage and operate a nationwide network of virtual temples.

Masahiro Kashiwagi, 72, chairman of the university’s board of trustees, said more and more graves are being closed in rural areas, along with a growing number of temples.

“All (temples) are becoming exhausted,” he said. “The number of people who visit their family temples is dropping, too, and the community function that temples originally had is being lost.”

Half of the priests at 16,000 temples nationwide are graduates of the university.

In light of this, the university plans to serve as a base to help each temple create a website and software for a virtual presence, thereby strengthening their functions through digital technology.

The purpose of creating virtual temples is to use digital technology to distribute learning content related to mental and physical health and other topics as well as providing an opportunity for local people to gather at temples and interact with priests. They also provide lifelong learning and Buddhist-related content to those who cannot visit “real” temples.

Calling it “Terakoya Net,” the university hopes to make it a network in which all temples associated with the university can freely participate.

The university plans to collaborate with a company that operates a “virtual perpetual memorial service” that allows people to visit graves anytime, anywhere via computer or cellphone if they register as a member.

METAVERSE CEMETERY

Another new way to visit a grave will become available in September.

Alpha Club Musashino, a Saitama-based company that operates a mutual aid association for weddings and funerals, will introduce a service called “Metaverse cemetery Kazenorei.”

The service will allow users to access a cemetery in a virtual space from a computer or smartphone and use their own avatar to attend a memorial service for the deceased or to donate flowers.

Makoto Ogawa, director of the company, said, “It is possible to have a digital ‘conversation’ with the deceased using a chat-type generative AI, once you convert a photo into 3D, have the AI learn how to form a personality, and use the voice of the deceased as the sound source to create a synthesized voice.”

While the space for mourning may change, the spirit of remembering the deceased will not, Ogawa said.

The company will continue to seek new forms of mourning and memorial services, he added.