That funeral in Japan where they wouldn't let women near the altar

I was in Kyoto for my coworker's grandmother's service last fall and the priest literally told my female boss to stay behind a rope, and I walked out right there, has anyone else seen this kind of gender rule at a ceremony in Asia?

2 comments

2 Comments

smith.jordan12d ago

Wow, I really have to push back on this one. You walked out over a rope at a foreign funeral in a culture you didn't grow up in. That's pretty disrespectful honestly. Japan has specific traditions for Buddhist funerals that go back centuries, and those gender roles are part of their religious practice, not some random rule to offend foreigners. Your boss being female doesn't override their customs. I lived in Tokyo for two years and learned the hard way that showing respect for local traditions goes a lot further than making a scene about what we think is fair. It's their ceremony, not ours.

milar4612d ago

and honestly @smith.jordan you nailed it because this is exactly the kind of thing that gets lost in translation when people act like their own values are universal. i lived in osaka for a bit and saw how deep those customs run, it's not about being sexist it's about following a religious practice that predates us by like a thousand years. walking out makes you the problem, not the tradition. if you can't respect the basic rules of someone's funeral you probably shouldn't be there at all.