Grieving relatives post letters to the dead at Japan’s ‘entrance to the underworld’
- At Yomotsu Hirasaka in western Japan is a postbox for sending letters to deceased loved ones, which helps many people deal with their loss
In a place described in an ancient Japanese chronicle of myths and legends as a boundary between this world and the next, there is a postbox for sending letters addressed to deceased loved ones.
The place – Yomotsu Hirasaka – in Matsue, in western Japan’s Shimane prefecture, holds a ceremony every June to ritually dedicate the “Letters to Heaven” to their intended deceased recipients in a bonfire.
As many as 12,000 letters were received over the past year at the site in the city’s Iya district, reputed to be the “entrance to the underworld”.
In Japan, the number of places that accept such letters to the deceased is spreading to various regions of the country, with grief experts explaining that the writing and sending of such letters helps heal bereavement.
I thought we’d be going home as just the two of us again
At Yomotsu Hirasaka, mentioned in the early parts of the Kojiki – or “Record of Ancient Matters”, which dates back to the eighth century – a handmade postbox stands in a secluded spot at the top of the hill on a forest road.
