Between the absentee and the duo body: mortuary appropriations

Abstract

This paper intends to analyze the appropriations of the photography in the Japanese religious culture focusing in its utilization in the butsudan – –, domestic Buddhist oratories linked to the realization of symbolical trades with the ancestors. It is suggested that, like other objects inserted in the oratory, the image assumes the role of double body, evocating theoretically the presence of spirit, whom must be reverenced materially through offerings, like water, sake and rice.