IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/h/elg/eechap/21003_8.html
   My bibliography  Save this book chapter

Mechanical grievability: urban graves for the solo dead in Japan

In: New Perspectives on Urban Deathscapes

Author

Listed:
  • Anne Allison

Abstract

Urban columbaria that store cremated remains in a warehouse and deliver them by automation to a grave (only) upon visitation are one of the newest innovations in mortuary deathscapes in Japan. Conserving the space needed for a cemetery and the time required for grave visitation, such delivery-style columbaria embody convenience. Yet they also provide a technological solution to the social precarity facing many Japanese today of being solo in death. With a high aging population, declining rates of both marriage and childbirth, and more citizens living and dying alone, what was once conventional – a family grave to enter with a successor to tend to one’s spirit after that – is becoming a thing of the past. Yet, without a grave, the deceased become “disconnected souls.” That the automated columbarium offers a home of sorts and grievability of a kind with a prosthetics of sociality is what this essay proposes.

Suggested Citation

  • Anne Allison, 2023. "Mechanical grievability: urban graves for the solo dead in Japan," Chapters, in: Danielle House & Mariske Westendorp (ed.), New Perspectives on Urban Deathscapes, chapter 8, pages 145-161, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    • Handle: RePEc:elg:eechap:21003_8
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.elgaronline.com/view/edcoll/9781802202397/9781802202397.00016.xml
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:elg:eechap:21003_8. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Darrel McCalla (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.e-elgar.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.