Japanese funeral customs: a Buddhist monk kneels before a coffin; mourners kneel behind him. Watercolour, ca. 1880 (?).

Left, the coffin is placed on a palanquin covered with a decorated canopy and flanked by containers of leafy plants; in front of it is a low table on which Buddhist ceremonial objects have been placed, including smouldering incense, a bowl of rice with chopsticks standing vertically and a green leafy plant in a vase. In the adjoining room a group of men is eating and drinking. The scene is illuminated by a number of ikarikei (flared Buddhist meditation candles), burning in tall candle-holders standing on the floor