An ethnographic look at grieving, giving, and growing older.

click image to order from Rutgers University Press.Available January, 2015 — click image to order from Rutgers University Press.
Available January, 2015

"Aging and Loss is a mournful book that treats loss as both a space of emptiness and a temporality of creativity. Achingly beautiful about aging and death in a country where both are rising today."

Anne Allison, author of Precarious Japan (Duke University Press 2013)

"Jason Danely’s book represents an excellent contribution to our understanding of aging in Japan and provides an important exploration of the intersection of religion and aging."

John W. Traphagan, Professor of Religious Studies, University of Texas Austin, Author of Rethinking Autonomy: A Critique of Principlism in Biomedical Ethics (SUNY 2013)

Based on nearly a decade of research, Aging and Loss examines how the landscape of aging is felt, understood, and embodied by older adults themselves. In detailed portraits, anthropologist Jason Danely delves into the everyday lives of older Japanese adults as they construct narratives through acts of reminiscence, social engagement and ritual practice, and reveals the pervasive cultural aesthetic of loss, burden, abandonment, and hope.
This is the first volume in the new series, Global Perspectives on Aging, edited by Sarah Lamb (Brandeis) and published by Rutgers University Press.

One out of four over 65, and rising...

Over the course of the last sixty years, Japan has undergone one of the most rapid population shifts of any place in the world, and the population is expected to continue shrinking and ageing for another fifty years. (diagram from The Economist, 2014)

The fieldsite

Kyoto, the ancient capital of Japan (794 CE-1868) is home to over 1.4 million people. As Kyoto strives to retain its reputation as an important historical and cultural city, it is a good place to look at how people think about both the past and the future.

The participants

The people I spoke with came from a variety of backgrounds, with a mean age of 74. They could be considered the 'young-old,' enjoying modern social support (like the community center pictured) but concerned about the baby-boomers who were just beginning to retire.

Obasute

In the 15c., Zeami Atsumori wrote Obasute, based on a folk tale originating in India, of a son abandoning his mother in old age. This mask would be used in performances of the play, and remains a potent image of aging in contemporary Japan.

Abandon the old in Tokyo

Over the years, the Obasute tale has been reinterpreted in new forms. In 1970, manga artist Yoshihiro Tatsumi published this modern version, showing the skyscrapers transforming into the wooded mountain of the old tale.

Who will support the old?

Are the old to be abandoned to make way for the young as Obasute suggests? If not, who will support them as their burden on families and the Japanese state continues to increase?

Watch over our family...

For many older people, making offerings to or talking with the spirits of the family ancestors is a means of lightening the feeling of burden. They provide hope for those who feel abandoned.

The butsudan

The importance of the ancestors can be seen in the care of the household altar, where the memorial plaques (ihai) for the spirits often overwhelm the Buddhist statue in the center. Many older people make small offerings here daily

Memorial

The ihai are inscribed with the Buddhist names of the dead, and considered the most precious objects in the home. When a spouse dies, the living spouse may choose to have their name inscribed at the same time, waiting for reunion.

Aging as practice

Many older people take up religious practices with enthusiasm in old age. Most religious pilgrims are over 60, some, like the man pictured here, take up special religious training to cultivate their heart.

Compassion

Kannon is the Bodhisattva of Compassion, an enlightened being who extends her mercy to those who suffer in this world. In recent years, she eases the suffering of the old, and those anxious about their own aging (photo Jason Danely)

Boke

Boke means "being out of it," and this Kabocha shaped talisman (omamori) was purchased at a Buddhist temple dedicated to helping older people with cognitive decline that might lead to dependence and social abandonment

"Muen"

"There are a lot of muen-san here!" said a grounds keeper watching me take photos of abandoned graves. "Children move away, or just don't take care of the graves anymore." Muen means "without connection," the abandonment of the dead that foreshadows more widespread social distance.

From the reviewers

"Devoid of academic jargon, Aging and Loss addresses several key theoretical questions in anthropology today. Its elegant prose makes it accessible to wider audiences, attesting to the power of ethnographic storytelling as a form of knowledge-making."

--Shunsuke Nozawa, University of Tokyo, writing in Anthropological Quarterly

" A gracious, observant, and sensitive ethnography. Jason Danely contemplates the experience of aging, mourning, and memorialization in Japan. Danely is interested in capturing the texture of these experiences: the space that loss creates, incompleteness, transience, hope, giving things up, and finding new clarity. This aesthetics of loss has its context in the broad repercussions of Japan's declining population—closed, vacant schools; inadequate welfare support; and the loss of traditional values."

--Amy Borovoy, Princeton University, writing in American Ethnologist

"Aging and Loss is a beautifully written piece of work that could be enjoyed from multiple perspectives beyond the lenses of anthropology or Asian studies. The fact that the stories took place in Kyoto - an ancient capital and the heart of Japanese traditional arts and culture - will further instill interest among those curious about the rich culture, nature, and changes challenging the city."

--Leng Leng Thang, University of Singapore, writing in American Anthropologist

"The in-depth stories and analyses of this interweave with theoretical reflections resulted in a rich ‘‘story,’’ which is both an academic study and a piece of fine art"

--Els-Marie Anbäcken, Malardelen University (Sweden) writing in the International Journal of Aging and Later Life

"Danely tackles the complex topic of aging and loss with a great sense of tact and sensitivity. He addresses the topic by employing a skillful analysis of folk stories, films, and delicately conducted interviews … Far from being dry ethnography, this book is written in a poetic and emotive voice. Yet the pictures of aging in Japan are far from overly optimistic."

--Ilana Maymind, Chapman University writing in New Asia Books

“Danely (2014) eloquently outlines how one can age amidst the environment around us, our past and reminiscing, and our struggles and anxieties. All of these components can help us in our own journey through aging or in supporting older adults in creating a meaningful narrative.”

—Grace Sandblom, Baylor University, writing in the Journal of Religion, Spirituality, and Aging