Bosan: The Grave Honoring App for iPhone

Bosan App

Japanese culture has traditionally placed a great deal of importance on visiting and honoring the graves of loved ones and family members.  In today’s busy global world, though, it is often difficult to find the time, or to be in the right place to physically meet this obligation.  

Devotional and audio options

In a previous post, I shared news of an innovative cemetery in Japan where the cremated remains of loved ones were brought to central shrines like an elaborate vending machine, in response to family members swiping magnetic cards.  Now, thanks to iPhone apps, one no longer even needs to be on the same continent to honor and visit a loved one.

The grave receives a virtual ritual washing

Bosan, which in Japanese means grave honoring, is a newly released iPhone app from KnowledgEx which allows you to register information about and carry photos of a loved one’s grave, as well as photos of the deceased.   Whenever you want and where ever you are in your busy schedule, you can virtually honor the grave of your loved one with a prayer, along with offerings of incense, flowers, food and water.  This app also gives you a choice of audio tracks, such as the rustle of leaves, the chirp of birds or crickets, bells or water flowing, to accompany this devotion.

Registration forms and selection menus are all in Japanese

Although the app is available all over the world, so far the only instructions are in Japanese language.  Where there is an opportunity, an app will soon follow, so look out for an English Language version soon, or ask a Japanese friend to help you with Bosan, as I have! 

For more information (in Japanese) about the app, visit iTunes

My thanks to Photographer Mayu Kanamori for brining this app to my attention!
Please visit my post on her project, 'In Repose'

In Repose: A requiem for Japanese immigrants buried in Australia
To view a post on another death related app, visit:

Vanitas: Memento Mori in the Digital Age

In Repose: A requiem for Japanese immigrants buried in Australia

‘In Repose’ is a collaborative, multi-disciplined art project inspired by Japanese graves in Australia. Essentially, it is a requiem: a work of kuyo, which is a Japanese term describing an act of ceremonial prayer or offering to respect. The kuyo is an effort to honor and calm the spirits of the departed.

The exhibition and performance will run from April 1 through to May 14 this year at the Japan Foundation Gallery in Sydney. The project aims to reveal insights into the thoughts of a Japanese-Australian through time, introducing viewers to a realm of sacredness and spirituality, and allowing space for reflection.

In the project, photography is merged with dance, koto music, visual projection, soundscapes and installation; and together, it is an artistic homage to the deceased. It explores the migrant’s connection to their adopted land, lost memories and the relationships that have developed since. It is a tribute specifically dedicated to the Japanese immigrants who are buried away from their native homeland and the local Australian communities who are looking after their graves until this day.

The collaborative team of artists is composed of Mayu Kanamori, a Japanese-Australian photographer with a background in journalism; Wakako Asano a Japanese born contemporary dancer and choreographer based in Sydney; Vic McEwan, a sound designer, musician, writer, and production manager; and Satsuki Odamura, a master of the koto.

The In Repose initiative began in 2006 with some of the artists travelling to remote locations around Australia such as Townsville, Broome and Thursday Island, creating site specific art to Japanese graveyards. The video below is from a performance on Thursday Island.

“Everything returns to earth and it was good to share art and ceremony with local communities. I think we brought back from our journey a deeper understanding: that the ground in which we walk and build our homes upon, and the sea and rivers which connect our lands are all made up of many ancestors… we all live on a sacred site,” explains Mayu.

Mayu Kanamori

For more information, please visit http://www.mayu.com.au/folio/inrepose

For a related post from October about Foreign and Japanese Cemeteries, visit http://www.dailyundertaker.com/2009/10/foreign-cemetery-far-from-home.html

Technology Facilitates Ritual at Japanese Cemetery

In Japan, a novel solution has been found for overcrowded cemeteries - high rise columbarium condos with a high tech vending machine style retrieval system. Families insert a card at an altar and the urn of their loved one is brought to them for a visit.

This innovation shows that when something is important enough, we can find ways to facilitate it. For other posts on cemetery crowding and solutions, visit:

• Sharing a Grave: Urban Cemetery Solutions
• Japanese Cemeteries Fill Up While American Cemeteries Become Irrelevant
• Zoned Out
• Making Cemeteries Relevant: Innovation in Toronto