Yoshitoshi - 100 Aspects of the Moon - 97

is a mythical practice of

senicide Senicide, or geronticide, is the killing of the elderly, or their abandonment to death. Philosophical views Pythagorean doctrine held that all creatures were being punished by the gods who imprisoned the creatures' souls in a body. Thus, any ...

in Japan, whereby an infirm or elderly relative was carried to a mountain, or some other remote, desolate place, and left there to die.

Kunio Yanagita Kunio Yanagita (柳田國男, Yanagita Kunio, July 31, 1875 – August 8, 1962) was a Japanese author, scholar, and folklorist. He began his career as a bureaucrat, but developed an interest in rural Japan and its folk traditions. This led to a ...

concluded that the ubasute folklore comes from India’s Buddhist mythology. According to the Kodansha Illustrated Encyclopedia of Japan, ''ubasute'' "is the subject of

legend A legend is a genre of folklore that consists of a narrative featuring human actions, believed or perceived, both by teller and listeners, to have taken place in human history. Narratives in this genre may demonstrate human values, and possess ...

, but…does not seem ever to have been a common custom.".

Folklore

In one

Buddhist Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...

allegory, a son carries his mother up a mountain on his back. During the journey, she stretches out her arms, catching the twigs and scattering them in their wake, so that her son will be able to find the way home. A poem commemorates the story:

In popular culture

* The practice is discussed in some detail in

Radiolab ''Radiolab'' is a radio program produced by WNYC, a public radio station in New York City, and broadcast on public radio stations in the United States. The show is nationally syndicated and is available as a podcast. Live shows were first off ...

episode #305 Mortality. Ubasute sometimes appears as a metaphor for contemporary Japan's treatment of the elderly, who are noted for above-average suicide rates. * The practice of ubasute is explored at length in the Japanese novel ''The Ballad of Narayama'' (1956) by

Shichirō Fukazawa was a Japanese author and guitarist whose 1960 short story ''Fūryū mutan'' ("Tale of an Elegant Dream") caused a nationwide uproar and led to an attempt by an ultranationalist to assassinate the president of the magazine that published it. B ...

. The novel was the basis for three films: Keisuke Kinoshita's '' The Ballad of Narayama'' (1958), Korean director

Kim Ki-young Kim Ki-young (October 10, 1919According to official documents, Kim was born in 1919. However, Kim insisted he was actually born in 1922. – February 5, 1998) was a South Korean film director, known for his intensely psychosexual and melod ...

's '' Goryeojang'' (1963), and Shohei Imamura's '' The Ballad of Narayama'', which won the

Palme d'Or The Palme d'Or (; en, Golden Palm) is the highest prize awarded at the Cannes Film Festival. It was introduced in 1955 by the festival's organizing committee. Previously, from 1939 to 1954, the festival's highest prize was the Grand Prix du Fe ...

1983 The year 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to TCP/IP is officially completed (this is considered to be the beginning ...

. * ''

The Old Law ''The Old Law, or A New Way to Please You'' is a seventeenth-century tragicomedy written by Thomas Middleton, William Rowley, and Philip Massinger. It was first published in 1656, but is generally thought to have been written about four decades e ...

'', a 17th-century

tragicomedy Tragicomedy is a literary genre that blends aspects of both tragic and comic forms. Most often seen in dramatic literature, the term can describe either a tragic play which contains enough comic elements to lighten the overall mood or a seriou ...

written by

Thomas Middleton Thomas Middleton (baptised 18 April 1580 – July 1627; also spelt ''Midleton'') was an English Jacobean playwright and poet. He, with John Fletcher and Ben Jonson, was among the most successful and prolific of playwrights at work in the Jac ...

William Rowley William Rowley (c. 1585 – February 1626) was an English Jacobean dramatist, best known for works written in collaboration with more successful writers. His date of birth is estimated to have been c. 1585; he was buried on 11 February 1626 in ...

, and

Philip Massinger Philip Massinger (1583 – 17 March 1640) was an English dramatist. His finely plotted plays, including '' A New Way to Pay Old Debts'', ''The City Madam'', and ''The Roman Actor'', are noted for their satire and realism, and their polit ...

, as well as Anthony Trollope's 1882 dystopian novel '' The Fixed Period'' both explore the concept of ubasute in a Western context. * The characters of Christopher Buckley's 2007 novel '' Boomsday'' introduce the concept of ubasute as a political ploy to stave off the insolvency of

social security Welfare, or commonly social welfare, is a type of government support intended to ensure that members of a society can meet basic human needs such as food and shelter. Social security may either be synonymous with welfare, or refer specifical ...

as more and more of the aging US population reaches retirement age, angering the Religious Right and Baby Boomers. * The concept of ubasute forms the basis of the storyline for the '' Star Trek: The Next Generation'' episode " Half a Life". * In episode 103 of '' Dinosaurs'' they describe a ubasute-like dinosaur custom where elders are hurled off a cliff into a tar pit at the age of 72. * The musical ''

Pacific Overtures ''Pacific Overtures'' is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, and a book by John Weidman, with "additional material by" Hugh Wheeler. Set in 19th-century Japan, it tells the story of the country's westernization starting in 185 ...

'' contains a reference to ubasute. During the song 'Four Black Dragons', as a city is being evacuated for fear of an American naval force, a panicked merchant is willing to abandon his aged mother during the evacuation, but the merchant is reminded that his son could do the same when the merchant is just as old. The merchant reluctantly picks up his mother and carries her on his back. * Episode 19 of '' Folktales from Japan'' depicts this tale. * The Decemberists song "I Don't Mind" has a depiction of ubasute – "So here's you with your mom on your back, going into the woods..."

Places

* is the common name of , a mountain () in

Chikuma, Nagano is a city located in Nagano Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 59,381 in 22,018 households, and a population density of 500 persons per km². The total area of the city was . Geography Chikuma is located in the Chikum ...

, Japan.Hoffman * Obasute Station, Chikuma, Nagano Prefecture, Japan * According to folklore, the Aokigahara forest at the base of Mount Fuji was once one of such sites, where its reputation as a suicide site might have originated.

Similar practice in other cultures

Senicide Senicide, or geronticide, is the killing of the elderly, or their abandonment to death. Philosophical views Pythagorean doctrine held that all creatures were being punished by the gods who imprisoned the creatures' souls in a body. Thus, any ...

* Granny dumping * Lapot * %C3%84ttestupa

References

External links

What Japan can Offer to International Bioethics

in

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...