Case Study: Examining Religious and Social Factors in Asian Culture

This case study delves into the religious and social factors that shape Asian culture, primarily through an analysis of the Japanese film "Departures." The film portrays Japanese culture with a vivid sense of realism, focusing on religious and social elements related to death and tradition. The study examines how the film reflects Buddhist concepts of death and rebirth, as well as Shinto traditions and funeral practices. It discusses the historical context of death rituals in Japan, including burial customs and the significance of festivals. The case study also highlights the evolving attitudes towards death and the importance of maintaining dignity, respect, and comfort for the bereaved. Through this exploration, the study reveals the unique cultural perspectives on death in Japan, contrasting them with practices in other parts of the world.

Running head: ASIAN CULTURE
ASIAN CULTURE
Name of the Student – Arohi kochhar
Student id – a1730230
Workshop time -12:00-2:00 , Wednesday
Name of the University- The University of Adelaide
Author Note

1Running head: ASIAN CULTURE
Departures (2009) is a Japanese film directed by Yojiro Takita, which is about finding
what you are good at, even if the society or your loved ones think that it may not be right. The
film won the Academy Award for best foreign language film at the 2009 Oscars and it was
appreciated by film critics and audiences all around the world. The film portrays the Japanese
culture with a vivid sense and realism (Natuhara, 2013). The two key parts of the film are the
religious factors and the social factors. Daigo, its main character, is a cello player of
extraordinary devotion yet mediocre ability, an individual from a Tokyo symphony playing to
half-filled houses while he thinks beyond practical boundaries traditional dreams. The
considerations in the mind of Daigo (Masahiro Motoki) are peaceful as well. At the point when
the symphony falls on tough circumstances and Daigo winds up without an occupation, his
fantasies are the main thing to act. Stripped of everything, including his respect, he at long last
starts the excursion back home with his significant other, Mika (Ryoko Hirosue), coming back to
the house he grew up in. The memory of his mother lies there, however more effective still is the
ghost of his father who left when he was a kid. There are intense subjects in flights of
disappointment and lost fathers, however Japanese chief Yojiro Takita and screenwriter Kundo
Koyama handle them tenderly as well, making a Minimalist painting of a film that uses the broad
isolation of the wide open, the hot closeness of the general population and the lacking elbow
room of Daigo's home to give us a measure of his inclinations. Takita is honored with on-screen
characters who move daintily and smoothly inside this scene.

2Running head: ASIAN CULTURE
Before long Daigo is noting a promotion for an organization that has some expertise in
"Takeoffs." However, what he imagined as a movement office ends up being an organization tht
deals with a profession of completely different proportion. Death is the business here, with burial
service chief Sasaki, a brilliantly wry Tsutomu Yamazaki, responsible for the points of interest.
Their job is to provide proper burial service for those who have passed and be that as it may, it is
a chaotic business. We soon discover, as Sasaki starts to show Daigo precisely what they do, a
profession called the encoffiners (Iwabuchi, 2015). The principal exercise is an awkwardly
exacting one as Sasaki illustrates, well ordered, the indelicate procedure of setting up the body
for its last trip. In a preparation video, the cameras are rolling, a humiliated Daigo, bare aside
from a couple of grown-up diapers, is the hesitant model. What is a comic sham with Daigo
experiencing the examining and the stopping of his different holes, progresses toward becoming
something unique. With the excellence and accuracy of a tea service, Sasaki and Daigo perfect
and dress bodies as crushed, and regularly separated, families watch; repairing whatever harm
life has done in the way they can. While working with the bodies, at first it was difficult for him.
However with time, he became really adjusted and he was able to perform ceremonies with ease.

3Running head: ASIAN CULTURE
Though the sympathized with the members of the deceased but he never break down, and he
remained professional every time. The encoffiners genuine undertaking is to convey poise to
death, regard to the expired and comfort to the individuals who lament, and it is hard not to be
moved, not to envision what the demise of a friend or family member will feel like to a person
(Lowe, 2014). Passing, obviously, carries numerous disclosures with it; some cruel, some kind.
Also, "Takeoffs" has numerous for Daigo, Mika and the rest. En route Daigo finds the cello and
a stone-letter that his father has left for him when he was a kid. At last, demise is constantly
close, however trust is as well, as Daigo gets his bow, settles the little cello against him and
again starts to play.
At the end of the film, Diago learns that his father his father has passed away. After
hearing the news, he does not want to go and meet him because he abandoned Diago and his
mother when he was a child. However after getting convinced by Mika, he visits him. At first he
was not able to recognize his father however after finding the stone-letter he gave his father as a
child. He understand that his father kept it close to him all this time and he then gives a proper
ceremony to him.

4Running head: ASIAN CULTURE
The religious concept of the film shows that death is unavoidable, however, it is really
not the end, but rather a new start. The film shows death as a gateway to a new life. This
ideology reflects the theory of the Buddhist Moksha that believes death is a process of life and it
does not indicate that a person would just disappear forever after he or she dies, rather it will
repeat (Ganbote, A. and Dhone, 2013). Virtue and moral spirit are the forms of true human life
that exists and will continue to exists generation after generation. Today, numerous religions are
practiced in Japan, yet most Japanese take after a merge of Shintoism and Buddhism (Deneckere,
2014). In spite of the fact that religion does not assume a noteworthy part in the regular day to
day existence of the normal Japanese, they do have traditions and ceremonies that are seen on
uncommon events like birthdays, weddings, funerals, and religious occasions. Every culture has
its own rituals and drawings towards death, Japanese are no exception. Since the time of the Edo
period, the traditions of burials and the funerals are even followed to this very day (Brecher,
2014). Earlier in some parts of the country, the graves for the corpses were shallow and were

5Running head: ASIAN CULTURE
used over and over again mainly for the purpose of communal burial pits (Dirrigl and Perrotti,
2014). The Japanese called these ‘sutebaka’ which came from the two Japanese words ‘suteru’
which means to abandon and ‘haka’ which means grave. When the attitudes of the ancient
Japanese are considered, it should be understood that Shinto is less associated with the concept
of death in compared to Buddhism. Buddhism in Japan is the religion of funeral as most of the
customs reflects the Buddhist ideologies (Neelis, 2017). Humanity, during the early periods,
regarded death as an inevitable and necessary for survival, it was believed that in order for some
to continue to live, other had to die. It is said that once death has been observed as a natural
process that comes with aging, it was most likely around this time the primary religious
conclusions and otherworldly longings started to be felt (Craig, 2015). Surely the way of setting
them forward nearly recommends that the ethical approvals get their power from the religion in
spite of the fact that, as people contended, their undeniable need is past debate. It proposes that
man wished to comprehend the puzzle of living and biting the dust and to say something in
regards to it. It was at this phase rules started to be set down concerning the entombment of the
dead, in light of the useful need to discard bodies.

6Running head: ASIAN CULTURE
Numerous Japanese celebrations or ‘matsuri’ started from early Shinto customs. These
celebrations frequently symbolize seek after copious rice creation or profound wellbeing of the
person. The celebrations are frequently done inside a Shinto Shrine, to show some shape or
picture of a Shrine. A considerable lot of these celebrations can extend for more than a few days.
These, for the most part, incorporate parades that bear a picture of the nearby “Kami” or god
through swarmed boulevards to the sound of drums and woodwinds (Beardsley and Smith,
2013). The celebrations shift with the locals, however, they all have comparative highlights:
vitality, clamor, sustenance, and jubilee. Moeran, 2013. In Japanese funerals, close family
members are first keeps a night vigil, or wake, over the perished upon the arrival of death and by
and large holds the memorial service the next day. Members can go to either the wake or the
memorial service, or both. Amid the wake and memorial service administrations, members who
are not among the closest relative generally offer money to the deprived and incense to appeal to
God for the spirit of the expired at a sanctuary or other setting where a priest serenades sutras
before a sacred place. After the function, the perished is regularly conveyed in an elaborate
funeral car to a crematorium. After the incineration, the family and dear companions utilize
chopsticks to gather bone parts for a cinerary urn, which is customarily put in a family grave
inside 49 days after the burial service. Ceremonies can shift, contingent upon the branch of
Buddhism managing the perished. As of late, services have, for the most part, had a tendency to
end up less complex. It is standard for individuals to make a money related offering to those
holding functions, including funerals, to facilitate the monetary weight of such occasions. The
sum paid regularly relies upon how close the benefactor was to the expired and how old the
individual is. At the point when a partner passes away, the sum can go from ¥3,000 to ¥20,000
(Andreasen, Reader and Stefánsson, 2013). Whenever guardians passes away, relatives may pay

7Running head: ASIAN CULTURE
more. Some portion of the custom additionally involves an arrival thank-you present for the
offering, by and large an architect towel or dish of something valuable or what the person
actually like a lot.
From the above discussion it can be stated that the religious and cultural concepts
towards death in Japan is very different from other parts of the world. The formalization of death
ceremonies in their most crude structures likely additionally started more recently. This began
the types of entombment and related antiques of the neo-lithic age, alongside their related
imagery and creative articulation (Nucci et al. 2014). One other part of death in connection to
crude progress that has more noteworthy significance to later ages when history and society alike
were created, is the place demise held in human brain science. Nearby the social impression of
death as the regular end to life was additionally the view of death and the dead as objects of
dread. When it was found that death could be put off until the point that seniority, its utilization
became obsolete. The multifaceted nature of human demeanors towards death is additionally
underlined by the way the energy for executing was procured as a method for rising above life in
avowing amazingness over different individuals from the species.

8Running head: ASIAN CULTURE
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9Running head: ASIAN CULTURE
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