The Art of Japanese Funeral Flowers

October 4, 2018 9:03 PM

The lavish display of funeral flower arrangements is only 30 years old. But it's become really big business. A lot of money is spent on funeral flowers in Japan. In fact, in 2006 Beauty Kadan became the first publicly traded Japanese company specializing in funeral flowers when it listed itself on the Mother’s section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Youkaen, a general flower company that entered the funeral flower business in 1972 now says that roughly 75% of their 50 billion yen in sales (roughly $44 mm USD) comes from their funeral flower segment.

Note: "altar" is consistently misspelled as "alter" in this article.

posted by MovableBookLady (14 comments total)

It may be extravagant, but those are also really beautiful.

As for the alter thing, (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻
(altar flip)
posted by Athanassiel at 10:28 PM on October 4, 2018 [8 favorites]

Wow. Those are really fascinating and gorgeous.
posted by mightshould at 2:25 AM on October 5, 2018

I remember seeing these at the one funeral I’ve been to in Japan, and sort of wondering how they became a thing. Somehow “it started in the eighties or so” feels like a perfect explanation in and of itself.
posted by DoctorFedora at 2:37 AM on October 5, 2018

TIL - Mothers section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange stands for "Market of the high-growth and emerging stocks" - not a sub-section of stocks aimed specifically at mothers.
posted by thecjm at 5:41 AM on October 5, 2018 [13 favorites]

I love how in some of the arrangements, as your eye travels along the path of the wave, the flowers go from buds to full bloom.
posted by kimberussell at 6:00 AM on October 5, 2018 [2 favorites]

These are so beautiful, but I have to wonder how the additional expense and stress of procuring just the 'right' arrangement tells on families during a difficult time. I suppose it's no worse than the pressures put on people to upgrade to fancier coffins, and it certainly is an opportunity for a florist to really put on a show.
posted by DSime at 8:36 AM on October 5, 2018 [1 favorite]

My grandpa's funeral was quick and a little dreary, so this would be really pretty. I'm guessing the person who passed chose these as part of their before death arrangements.
posted by yueliang at 9:26 AM on October 5, 2018

It was ungodly expensive, for sure, but the funeral home where my father-in-law's funeral was held was very neat and organized and had relatively non-overwhelming menus for everything (would you like food option A, B, or C?). Also, my husband's family opted not to collect cash at the funeral (yes, it's a thing), but people made contributions in the form of sending money for flower arrangements - so there were lots of matching flower arrangements and a board showing who sent them. One from my family, one from his brothers, three from the golf club, six from various divisions of my husband's company, and so on. The room was breathtaking with all of them set up. They used the white/blue/purple color scheme you see in some of the photos.

The thing that I thought was an interesting and lovely ritual was that just before we loaded up the bus to go off to the crematorium, the family gathered around the casket, the funeral directors put a few arrangements aside for us to take home, and then they cut the flowers off the rest of them and brought them to us on trays and we all stood there and slowly packed the coffin with the cut flowers and a few good-bye gifts. It sounds strange, for sure, but it was a really intimate and beautiful way to say good-bye.
posted by telepanda at 9:47 AM on October 5, 2018 [15 favorites]

telepanda, wow. I didn't realise that the displays could be used as part of the ceremony to aid in a ritual of saying farewell. That sounds like a really beautiful way to feel connected to the person who passed, and certainly makes the cost of the arrangements seem less predatory. I actually would have loved to have the opportunity to do such a thing at my father's funeral. I think everyone there wished for some sort of symbolic gesture, beyond just looking on while the priest spoke.
posted by DSime at 11:16 AM on October 5, 2018 [2 favorites]

I suppose they are beautiful but since my FIL's funeral they just remind me of death.
posted by JamesBay at 11:27 AM on October 5, 2018

I wonder how much an arrangement like that costs. I wished the article went into that.
posted by koucha at 7:08 PM on October 5, 2018

TIL - Mothers section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange stands for "Market of the high-growth and emerging stocks" - not a sub-section of stocks aimed specifically at mothers.

I am so disappointed. I was having daydreams where the TSE was organized like a department store. Outdoors, second floor. Electronics and appliances, third floor.
posted by q*ben at 7:09 AM on October 6, 2018 [1 favorite]

Such lavishness for funerals would make me sad (in a non-mourning way) and a little angry, and detract from the occasion. I'd bet most families in Japan don't go in for displays as ostentatious as those pictured in the article.
posted by dancing leaves

Why? Wastefulness? I mean, I want there to be ungodly amounts of flowers at my funeral. Sometimes the ritual is important even if it's not practical.
posted by fiercecupcake at 2:52 PM on October 8, 2018

Oh, because someone asked about it, this page suggests that a large display like one of these would cost somewhere in the vicinity of ¥600,000 (currently about $5,300 US), all-inclusive (altar, large portrait of the deceased, etc.).
posted by DoctorFedora at 6:07 PM on October 8, 2018