Tamaya

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A tamaya ( Japanese 霊 屋 , "ghost ledge "; also with the honorary prefix 御 霊 屋 otamaya / mitamaya , 祖 霊 舎 soreisha "ancestral spirit hostel " or 霊 廟 Reibyō " spirit temple ") is an altar in the ancestral cult of Shinto , which is dedicated to the memory of the dead. Usually there is a mirror or a blackboard ( tamashiro ) with a list of the deceased family members by name. Also for the family, not through consanguinity, but otherwise important people can be listed in the Tamaya and venerated as sorei . The mitama (souls) of those recorded in this way are considered to be inscribed in the tamaya.

Since the Buddhist burial rites dominate the religion in Japan , Tamaya are much less common in the homes of Japanese families than their Buddhist counterpart, the Butsudan . The Tamaya are mostly built up below the more venerated Kamidana .

The first Tamaya was built in 1599 in the Toyokuni Shrine ( 豊 国 神社 ) in Kyoto for Toyotomi Hideyoshi , but was later destroyed by the Tokugawa .

Later, the tamaya were generally established for Japanese nobles, military heroes, and other people of high standing on the grounds of Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines . This practice spread in the Edo period and later intensified by the Kokugaku movement and formed a central part of the Shinto funeral rituals ( 神 葬 祭 , shinsōsai ), in which a person's spirit is asked about the house or the house shortly before the burial to watch over the family. Sacrifices are made to the spirit for 50 days after the date of death and then its name is recorded on the tamashiro and stored in the tamaya .

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