In China's general practice, the posthumous photo is mostly selected from the photo of the deceased, most of which is an ID card or ID photo, and few people will take a photo of themselves before dying, because this is "unlucky". However, in Japan, the number of elderly people taking photos before their deaths has gradually increased, and it seems that it has become a "popular" among the elderly. Why do they prepare in advance? What are the reasons for treating different views of life and death? This article will take you to see the "alternative popularity" of the elderly in Japan.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > take posthumous photos to commemorate their 70s</h1>
In Nakano-ku, Tokyo, there is a place called Sue-yankan, which is headed by a 71-year-old man named Nozu Kishiro House. This place is actually a "photo studio", but this photo studio is different from other photo studios, and it is a photo studio that specializes in photographing posthumous photos.
Most of the customers here are elderly people, and Mr. and Mrs. Tanaka are one of their customers. Tanaka and his wife were originally working as civil servants in the Tokyo area, but after the couple turned 70 years old, they wanted to take "posthumous photos" of themselves while they were still alive. In response to why they take posthumous photos now, Tanaka and his wife said this: The photos taken when they were young are more like themselves. For example, at the age of 90, even if you are healthy, you want a slightly younger image. The face when the mind and body are still healthy will not give others more sense of violation.
In fact, when Tanaka and his parents died, the photos of their parents were not the best, and there were some regrets. Their mother died suddenly, and then their father died, and when the photos of the two were placed together, they always felt a little contradictory, after all, it was not a photo taken in the same period, and the remains of the two old people did not look so compatible, which became one of the regrets of tanaka and his wife.
Mr. Nozu has opened a photo studio dedicated to photographing his posthumous photos for some reasons.
Photograph of Mr. Nozu's parents
"When my father-in-law died, I didn't take a few good pictures, and I still do photography, which is really regrettable. After that, I took pictures of my parents. He also told his father that if something happened, I would use this picture as a posthumous portrait. Mr. Nozu pointed to the picture on the wall and said so.
After the death of his parents, using the photos taken at that time, Mr. Nozu suddenly realized that the photos were a reflection on his relatives and a consolation for those who were still alive, so why not take a good picture of a portrait?
In fact, there are some unwritten rules for Japanese photos, and in the general Japanese impression, the portraits are mostly black and white photos without expression. Synthetic techniques are often used, in which the avatar is synthesized with the costume of the kimono. But the popularity of "posthumous photographs" in Japan has changed this tradition. The person who took the shoot can wear makeup or shoot it as a kind of "souvenir", just like the Tanaka couple in the previous article.
A survey of 60-74-year-olds in 2019 by a Japanese women's magazine showed that 5.7% of men and 14.3% of women "prepared portraits for themselves" showed that women were 2.5 times more women than men.
Hideyuki Tanaka (66), director of the Japan Photo Museum Association, believes that in recent years, the photography business for middle-aged and elderly people has gradually developed, and the reason is that middle-aged and elderly people are not used to mobile phone shooting. In the modern era of digital cameras and mobile phones, many young people take selfies and upload them online to share. But the elderly are not good at doing such things, and the understanding of "photography" itself is not the same as that of young people, so no one will take selfies.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > why "posthumous photographs" arise in Japan</h1>
I personally still agree with the posthumous photo, after all, you can take a photo you like as your own portrait, for the elderly, it is also a kind of respect. Many Japanese people also think that there are two main reasons for the rise of posthumous photographs in Japan.
You can choose your favorite photo as a posthumous portrait
After death, the posthumous portrait is often prepared by relatives in a hurry, in this case, it may be difficult to find a photo that the owner is satisfied with, after all, the person has no choice in what photo to use. In particular, some people, before they did not leave too many photos, with ID photos, you need to process, the pixel will drop a lot, so that people who look at it will have a certain sense of violation. If you use photos from your youth, it is also a bit untrue. If you take a picture of the portrait before you die, you can avoid the above things in advance. Moreover, when shooting, I still have the right to choose, and I can choose a photo I like as a posthumous photo, so that I can at least do "die without regrets". The posthumous photo is also a kind of miss for his family, so why not pin this thought on his proudest side?
Lighten the burden on the surviving family
When a loved one dies, the surviving family will hold a funeral for the loved one. Many people may not care about the choice of posthumous photos, but when the real choice is made, they will find that there are still many opinions. In China, there are often people who can't find the photos of the deceased before they die, and take the ID card and avatar to replace it, although this is also a method, but the effect is not satisfactory I have seen several brothers and sisters, because of the matter of the parents' photos, the things that make people unhappy. If you can choose your own portrait in advance, it will reduce the burden on your relatives and reduce the things that your relatives choose when preparing for the funeral.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > the Japanese view of life and death</h1>
In fact, many people have a kind of resistance to "taking photos", thinking that the shooting itself seems to have a "premonition" of their own death, which is just a psychological burden. Maybe we can choose a suitable time to take a few photos of our elderly selves on the grounds of "commemorating" something.
I have worked with many elderly People in Japan, but in their eyes, life and death are just a natural law. Many people I know, while they are still alive, think about what happens after they die, and in their eyes this is nothing more than a responsibility. Not only for yourself, but also for your own family and friends who know you.
In Japanese, there is a word for "life and death as it is" (しょうじいちにょ), one of the words that evolved from Buddhism. But it is about the so-called concept of life and death, which means something like "life and death go hand in hand", that is, life and death are originally consequential things, and there must be life and death.
This kind of "Buddhist" thinking is very common in Japan, and the Japanese originally have a strong "concept of nature". So when it comes to talking about life and death, they don't have much taboo.
< h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > concluding remarks</h1>
Personally, I think that the rise of photography in Japan may be something that everyone can think about.
We often think about how to live, but how many people will think about how to die with dignity?