Where the dead pause, and the Japanese say goodbye
Subtitle: a journey
By: Marie Mutsuki Mockett
Edition: First edition.
Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company
Published: 2015
Language: eng
Number of pages: 316
ISBN-13: 9780393063011; 9780393352290
Subjects: Social life and customs; Family; Zen Buddhism; Fukushima Nuclear Disaster, Japan, 2011; Grief; Rituals; Spiritual life; Consolation; Personal narratives; Religious life; Biography
Description: Seeking consolation after the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant disaster of 2011, Mockett is guided by a colorful cast of Zen priests and ordinary Japanese who perform rituals that disturb, haunt, and finally uplift her. Her journey leads her into the radiation zone in an intricate white hazmat suit; to Eiheiji, a school for Zen Buddhist monks; on a visit to a Crab Lady and Fuzzy-Headed Priests temple on Mount Doom; and into the 'thick dark' of the subterranean labyrinth under Kiyomizu temple, among other twists and turns.