Rituals in Sakuma Shōzan’s Sōrei shisetsu : Focusing on the Sections of Chikan, Sakushu, Shiseki, and Bohi

Sōrei shisetsu was authored by Sakuma Shōzan (1811-1864), a renowned philosopher during the Bakumatsu period. When his mother passed away in 1861, Shōzan attempted to bury her according to the Confucian practices outlined in Zhu Xi’s Jiali but had to give in to the dominant Buddhist funeral traditions in the end. Shōzan took this opportunity to contemplate Japanese funeral rituals, arguing the importance of replacing Buddhist conventions with Confucian ones. In my previous works on Shōzan’s Sōrei shisetsu, I closely examined its structure and political resonance, as well as authorial intent. To supplement my earlier studies, in this paper, I focus on the sections related to Chikan 治棺, Sakushu 作主, Shiseki 誌石, and Bohi 墓碑. The research findings of this paper will shed light on social perceptions of Zhu Xi’s Jiali during the Edo period.