Many Western set to Japan pass been struck by the ample cemeteries for aborted fetuses, which are characterized by throngs of images of the Bodhisattva Jizo, ordinarily clothed in red beloved aprons or other beloved apparel, and each stanch to an form fetus. Abortion is patronize in Japan and as a mass one of the generally performed rituals in Japanese Buddhism is mizuko-kuyo, a overhaul for aborted and miscarried fetuses. Frozen the subsequent to forty time, mizuko-kuyo has with time come to America, in which it has been appropriated by non-Buddhists as well as Buddhist practitioners.
In this book, Jeff Wilson examines how and why Americans of be level with backgrounds pass brought knowledge and comport yourself of this Japanese overhaul to the Associate States. Picture on his own striking fieldwork in Japan and the U.S., as well as the literature in each Japanese and English, Wilson shows that the meaning and situation of the ritual pass untouched very in the American context. In Japan, mizuko-kuyo is performed to rescue the potentially unstable spirit of the irritated fetus. In America, however, it has come to be seen as a way for the mother to cry and discover salve for her loss. Many American women who learn about mizuko-kuyo are struck by the lack of such a overhaul and see it as cheerful a very lofty not have. Ceremonies are now performed even for dead that took place repeated time ago. Wilson's well-written study not on your own contributes to the greater than ever literature on American Buddhism, but sheds light on a register of groovy issues in Buddhist studies, interreligious pat, women's studies, and even bioethics.
