Visiting the Family Grave in Heavy Rain

In Japan, the weeks around the spring and autumn equinoxes are known as Higan, a traditional time for visiting family graves and remembering our ancestors. This year, however, the autumn season seems to have arrived in an unusual way. Endless rain has continued, and now a typhoon is approaching the Kanto region. Despite the heavy rain, I took my mother to visit our family grave today, as we had planned.

I often write on this blog about the Japanese saying, “Neither heat nor cold lasts beyond Higan.”

Usually, Higan arrives, the weather becomes a little cooler, and then the long autumn rains begin. This year, however, the rain seems endless, and now a typhoon has joined in. Before I knew it, autumn seems to have arrived.

We had planned to visit our family grave today during this year’s autumn Higan.

A typhoon is heading straight toward the Kanto region, but we thought we would still be all right today, so I took my mother and managed to complete our visit safely.

It was pouring when I went to pick her up at the station, but fortunately, by the time we arrived at the cemetery, the rain had almost stopped.

At this time of year, the cemetery is usually filled with flowers placed on the graves, but today there were only a few here and there.

It was a rather lonely Higan.

For some reason, I never feel quite settled until I have visited the family grave, so I am glad that we managed to do it again this year.

Tomorrow, I probably will not be able to step outside at all, so I will shut myself in at home.

I suppose I will simply have to stay put.

Incidentally, I looked into why Japanese people visit family graves during Higan.

In Buddhist thought, higan, or “the other shore,” represents the world of enlightenment, while shigan, or “this shore,” represents the world in which we live. Around the spring and autumn equinoxes, the sun rises almost exactly in the east and sets almost exactly in the west. Because the Pure Land of Amida Buddha was believed to lie in the west, this became a time to think of the Western Pure Land and to honor one’s ancestors.

Higan was not originally a Buddhist observance from India but developed as a distinctly Japanese tradition. The spring and autumn equinoxes are regarded as the central days of Higan, with the three days before and the three days after each equinox making a seven-day period.

Even in the pouring rain, visiting the family grave somehow brings a sense of peace.

 

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family grave — 一族・家族のお墓。日本の「○○家之墓」のような墓を表すのに自然な表現。
pouring — 土砂降りの。It was pouring. で「土砂降りだった」。
cemetery — 墓地。grave は個々のお墓、cemetery は墓地全体。
here and there — あちらこちらに、ぽつぽつと。
feel settled — 気持ちが落ち着く。I never feel quite settled until... は「〜するまで何となく落ち着かない」。
stay put — その場にじっとしている、動かずにいる。
equinox — 春分・秋分。spring equinox は春分、autumn equinox は秋分。
the Pure Land — 極楽浄土、浄土。
honor one’s ancestors — 先祖を敬い、供養する。
observance — 宗教的・伝統的な行事、慣習。

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