Graveyard warden (onboo)

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Graveyard warden (onboo)

***** Location: Japan
***** Season: Non-seasonal Topic
***** Category: Humanity

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Explanation

onboo, omboo, ombô 隠坊 (おんぼう) graveyard warden
other kanji for Onbō
御亡; 御坊, 隠亡 , 熅房 , 煙亡, 隠墓

He was also responsible for the fire burial 火葬 of people.
During the Edo period, he became looked down upon as a lowly person (senmin 賤民, hinin 非人).

They were also called "earth masters" haji (はじ　土師).
Haji also produces haniwa statues.
A clan name was . Hajibe 土師部(はじべ) / 土部 Haji-Be .
and Haniwa 埴輪 clay figures


nobe okuri 野辺送り "leaving a dead body by the roadside"
burial service,

hitsugi, kan 棺 coffin

fuusoo, fūsō ふうそう　風葬 ”wind burial”

sanmai hijiri 三昧聖 "holy men"
they also worked as guards at graveyards


Bodies were disposed off at roadsides and along beaches. The "saltwater carrying girls" (shiokumi musume　塩組み娘) seemed to carry the smell of the dead too.
keburi, kemuri ... the smell of the dead at cemeteries.



. sooshiki 葬式 soshiki - funeral service in Edo .
- Introduction -

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An interesting discussion is here,
PMJS Google Groups, April 2009

Matsuo Basho and the mummies of the Fujiwara clan at Hiraizumi

Thirteenth century burials, coffins, urns, mounds, gravestones

Thirteenth century burials, continued


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quote
The term shinsōsai しんそうさい 【神葬祭】
refers to funeral rites conducted according to Shinto, as opposed to Buddhist, tradition. In the Edo period, by dictate of the Tokugawa shogunate, all Japanese families were required to be registered with a Buddhist temple as part of efforts to suppress Christianity; also as part of this policy, Buddhist funerals were likewise prescribed. Nevertheless, many Shinto clergy considered theirs to be the indigenous faith, and some petitioned the government for permission to conduct Shinto funerary rites, basing their appeal on the shogunate's own rules pertaining to the Shinto priesthood (Shosha negi-kannushi-sho-hatto). Thus, during the Edo Period, even Shinto funerals came to be performed in some localities.

The origin and development of Shinsōsai
..... rites performed for Amewakahiko, as recorded in the Kojiki: "They built a funeral house and had a river goose act as the bearer of the burial offerings, a heron the broom-bearer, a kingfisher the bearer of the food offerings, a sparrow the grinding woman, and a pheasant the weeping woman. Having done all of this, they sang and danced for eight days and eight nights." ...

Shinto Funeral Procedures

Read more HERE
source : eos.kokugakuin.ac.jp / Motegi Sadazumi



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Worldwide use

Kremator; Person, die Leichen einäschert


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Things found on the way


ware shinaba
yakuna uzumu na
no ni sutete
yasetaru inu no
hara o koyase yo

when i die
do not burn or bury me
leave me in the wilds
where the scrawny dogs
can fatten their bellies

Tachibana no Kachiko 橘嘉智子, wife of Emperor Saga and Empress (as Danrin Kōgō)
at her death at age 65 in 850.

quoted by David Pollack


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HAIKU


隠坊が門もそよそよ青柳ぞ
ombô ga kado mo soyo-soyo aoyagi zo

at the cemetery guard's
gate too...
a green willow rustles

Tr. David Lanoue



隠坊がけぶりも御代の青田哉
onboo ga keburi mo miyo no aota kana

「隠坊」は「墓守」または「死骸を焼く職の人」

. WKD : Kobayashi Issa 小林一茶 .



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Related words

***** Grave (haka)

***** Sokushinbutsu, the Living Mummies of Japan
Miira 即身仏のミイラ


***** . Hijiri　ひじり【聖】”holy men"　 .
mendicant monks

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