The Japanese word ‘sorei’ (祖霊) refers to the spirits of ancestors.Specifically it refers to the spirits of those ancestors that have been thetarget of special memorial services that have been held for them at certainfixed times after their death. The dates and the frequencies of these servicesvary widely depending on the region of Japan. Suitable occasions may for example be 33 and 50 years after death. A special belief connected with sorei is the notion that the memorialservices result in the ancestral spirit successively losing its individuality,eventually becoming an entirely deindividualized part of the collective ofsorei. However, depending on the region peoplemay think that these services are merely aimed at properly disposing orpacifying the ancestral spirit. The folklorist Yanagita Kunio has asserted that the rituals andideas around sorei could be fitted into a general scheme wherebyancestors become not only protectors, but kami or ujigami.However, while it is possible that in the distant past such a development withregard to certain ancestors has occurred, according to other scholars thatcannot be proven. Contemporary Japanese may, in relation to their recently dead, not think about the ancient notion of ujigami at all, but they do have a notion about the spirits of the dead becomingsome sort of enlightened being. Indeed, another word for the departed soul isin Japanese hotoke, which also means Buddha.

Leer el artículo completo en Wikipedia · CC-BY-SA