Kegare

The concept of kegare from death still has considerable force within Japanese society, even during Buddhist funerals. Death and everything having to do with it are seen as a primary source of defilement. The family's kami must be protected as much as possible from contact with death, blood, and disease. A still common consequence of this is the habit to give up the traditional New Year visit (hatsumōde) to a Shinto shrine if a death in the family has occurred within the last year. Shinto priests are expected to pay particular attention to avoid this kind of kegare, and must be careful to deal correctly with death and disease. Given how important dealing with death is in religion, this strong death taboo cannot have been part of kami worship from the beginning. The exclusion of death from religious rites became for the first time possible when another religion, Buddhism, could take charge of it. == See also ==