ew enlightened Japanese who
will defend the present system of cruelty to the afflicted, or who do
not long for some change, but so great is the force of conservatism in
this regard, so haunting the fear that any change may indicate a lack
of respect for the dead, that reform advances slowly.

Individual instances occur in which some of the worst features of these
customs are modified. A case in point is that of the late Mr. Fukuzawa,
a man whose life was devoted to the advancement of his countrymen in
modern ways, and who in his death continued his teaching. In his will he
provided that his body was to be buried, without washing, in the
clothing in which he died. This provision would seem in most countries
to be mere eccentricity, but when one has seen or heard of the gruesome
ceremony that follows immediately after death, and the burden of which
falls, not on the old and hardened, but on the young and tender,
suffering, in many cases, under the weight of a first and crushing
affliction, one can see that only through such means as this can the
burden ever be lifted from the shoulders of those who mourn. There are
young and enlightened mothers in Japan to-day who have felt, in minds
awakened to thought and action, the horrors of the system, and who will
not allow their children to suffer for them what they have suffered in
paying respect to their dead parents. Through this growing feeling and
the unselfishness of maternal affection may come in time the release
from these mournful ceremonies.

While the body remains in the house, a priest comes from time to time to
offer prayers, longer or shorter according to the wealth of the family
employing him; and when the funeral cortege sets out on its way to the
cemetery, the priests in their professional robes form an imposing part
of the spectacle. The day of the burial is selected with due respect to
the calendar, for, though there may be little good luck about a funeral,
there is a chance of extremely bad luck growing out of it unless every
precaution is taken. Just before the procession starts, a religious
ceremony is held at the house, which is attended by the friends of the
deceased, and which is substantially the same as that performed at the
cemetery. On the day of the burial, great bunches of natural flowers are
sent to the dead, each bunch so large as to require the services of one
man to carry it. Sometimes with the gift a man is sent to take part in
the procession,