The Declaration of Our Purpose in 1991

In contemporary Japan, people commonly place cremated remains of the dead in family graves. Conventionally, this is often considered the only way of treating the remains of the dead. However, historically speaking, Japanese people have not always built graves for the dead.

In the past, except for members of the elite upper class, people have customarily placed the remains of the dead in the sea or the mountains. Ancient Japan once saw the scattering of cremated remains at sea or in the mountains. Since the Edo Period, however, the general public started having their graves built. The graves for commoners emerged when the family parishioner system, created by the Edo Shougunate to rule the public, became fully developed. A family grave, which accommodates multiple members of the stem family (ie), became common much later-around the turn of the last century.

Other than burying the dead in cemeteries, foreign countries today allow a range of methods to deposit remains of the dead. Cremains of Jawaharlal Nehru (1889-1964) and Chou En-lai (1898-1976), former diplomat of USA Edwin O. Reischauer (1910-1990), and Albert Einstein (1879-1955) have been scattered in nature. In the state of California in the U.S., approximately thirty percent of the dead have their ashes scattered.

In practice, because of a persistent belief that scattering ashes is illegal, Japanese people are denied their rights to choose ways of depositing the remains of the dead.

In contemporary Japan, it is illegal to dispose of an uncremated body at sea or on a mountain. Yet, it is not illegal to scatter cremains at sea or mountain, as long as the people who conduct the scattering are considerate of others. Neither the legal code regulating the construction of cemeteries and burial nor the criminal law bans the scattering of cremains. Preconceptions and social conventions bind us; we limit our own freedom to choose mortuary practices.

The number of the living does not increase infinitely, but the number of the dead will only increase. As long as Japan limits itself to burial, cemeteries will shave away woods from mountains and take over empty lots, thereby destroying nature the living should enjoy. What a contradiction!

Our land is small, and a lack of cemeteries has become a serious social problem. Some municipal governments have banned the construction of cemetery plots in the mountains to prevent further environmental destruction. It typically costs between 3,000,000 and 4,000,000 yen to buy a typical grave. Buddhist temples and cemeteries reclaim the lots that cannot be passed onto the next generation and are thus reluctant to sell grave plots to couples without children and permanently single people. It will become increasingly difficult to obtain grave plots. Perhaps this contributes to a rising number of people who are interested in having their ashes scattered at sea or in the mountains.

We believe that people should freely choose ways of depositing remains by honoring the wills of the dead and their family members. Therefore, we promote shizensou not simply because we have environmental and social concerns. Nor do we deny people's rights to have graves built. We by no means encourage chaotic, inconsiderate scattering that leads to random disposal of cremains. We would like to call our way of scattering shizensou (returning cremains to nature)--a natural, environmentally sound way of treating the remains of the dead. By establishing the society, we aim to revive an ancient practice of shizensou and promote our freedom to choose shizensou.