Sotouba - grave tablets

At the same time I was with shooting team, we were building the set of Asano family grave yard.
In them there were lots of sotouba I had to make.

The word of sotouba came from stupa, the container or a small tower storing Buddha's bones. There is small stone tower called five ring tower which represents five main elements - Sky, Wind, Fire, Water and Earth.
Those stone tower became wooden plank
meaning the same but as the cheaper version of stone ones.

Descendants pay temples to make them and give those to their family members of dead to repose them.

Each sector would have different wording on them but Asano family's sector should have five letters and their after  death name on one side and a Sanskrit letter on the back. →

Many wooden plank were made, I made lettering on them with black emulsion and the painter painted to make them look older afterwards.

Others we prepared for the scene were stone incense burner, vases and the stands for the sotoubas. We often goes to family grave yards but I hardly remember the details of things should look familiar. How uncertain the human memories are. Or maybe only mine...

Graves

There are two major religions in Japan, Buddhist and Shinto. Many things to do with death, ceremony will be done with Buddhist way. Right is the ancestor's family tablet for Asano family.
Main thing came from Japan, sprayed in gold and I did the lettering on top. These names are for mortals, especially given by monks and they are different from your living name.
The tablets became a symbol of each individuals, normally in the potable shrine in the house, so that their descendants can have a pray to those. We often give them a cup of fresh water or a tiny bowl of rice and a incense.

This is a proper grave stone (of Kira's ancestor). It looks real but made with plaster. I went down to their studio, directly wrote his mortal name on it with just a water. They carved it within my drawn lines and painted afterwards.
Looks top heavy now,,,,








This is a copy of Asano's grave stone which is in a temple in Tokyo. We've got a right to copy exactly. I wrote his mortal names (which is one of the longest names in Japanese history) on paper and gave a data to carver. The day before the shooting I went to dress this set, found it has a mirror letters.... Of course but still surprisingly no one noticed until I did.
They made an another one just in time for the shoot.







Dressing people put some green stuff so that making it looks like mossed. I liked that set, looks quite genuine.

These wooden sticks, too. Eight of them at first stage but then ended up more than twenty I've done in the end. With lovely plastic cherry blossoms.






That was inside of temple, almost everything came from Japan astonishingly but some made in here. Here you can see the golden tablet and wooden pieces on back.






Also some rustic country way side prayer points. They were their but nothing important. No wasting time to research and make it right but I did the dressing just because I would know what are they like. Some satsumas and sweets or a cup of water. We don't see this often now in the town but I think would be nice to have some. You can still see those some in Kyoto or Nara.