Sunday, July 5, 2009

二十三回忌(nijyusan kaiki)

In Japan if you are a Buddhist, after somebody's death there are memorial services in one year later (isshuki:一周忌), two years later (san kaiki:三回忌), seven years later (nana kaiki:七回忌), thirteen years later (jyusan kaiki:十三回忌), seventeen years later (jyunana kaiki:十七回忌), twenty-three years later (nijyusan kaiki:二十三回忌), twenty-seven years later (nijyunana kaiki:二十七回忌), thirty-three years later (sanjyusan kaiki:三十三回忌), thirty-seven years later (sanjyunana kaiki:三十七回忌), fifty years later (gojyu kaiki:五十回忌), and one hundred years later (hyakkai ki:百回忌).
Today there was the biggest nijyusan kaiki (二十三回忌), twenty-third death anniversary in the Yoyogi National Stadium in Tokyo. The deceased is the most popular actor of Showa(昭和) era, Ishihara Yujiro (石原裕次郎), who is the younger brother of the Governor of Tokyo, Ishihara Shintaro (石原慎太郎). He died of liver cancer on July 17, 1987 at the age of 52. In his thirteenth death anniversary, there gathered more than 250,000 fans to the nearest station of his grave temple. To prevent the inconvenience of the neigborhood, his company Ishihara Pro decided to hold the ceremony at the National Stadium which capacity is more than 60,000 people. Inside the stadium they built the temple of 17 meters high by 50 meters long with 78 meters table of offering flowers. There attended 160 priests. From 6:40 AM to 10:00 PM there came more than 116,862 fans.

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