Ubasute

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Mythical practice of senicide in Japan

title: "Ubasute" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["japanese-folklore", "senicide", "death-in-japan", "old-age-in-japan"] description: "Mythical practice of senicide in Japan" topic_path: "geography/japan" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubasute" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Mythical practice of senicide in Japan ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/69/Yoshitoshi_-100_Aspects_of_the_Moon-_97.jpg" caption="''Ubasute no tsuki'' (The Moon of Ubasute), one of the 100 works in the series ''[[One Hundred Aspects of the Moon]]'', by [[Tsukioka Yoshitoshi"] ::

is a mythical practice of senicide in Japan, whereby an infirm or elderly relative was carried to a mountain, or some other remote, desolate place, and left there to die. Kunio Yanagita concluded that the ubasute folklore comes from India's Buddhist mythology. According to the Kodansha Illustrated Encyclopedia of Japan, ubasute "is the subject of legend, but…does not seem ever to have been a common custom."

Folklore

In one Buddhist allegory, a son carries his mother up a mountain on his back. During the journey, she stretches out her arms, catching the twigs and scattering them in their wake, so that her son will be able to find the way home.

A poem commemorates the story:

::quote

In the depths of the mountains, Whom was it for the aged mother snapped One twig after another? Heedless of herself She did so For the sake of her son

In popular culture

The practice of ubasute is explored at length in the Japanese novel The Ballad of Narayama (1956) by Shichirō Fukazawa. The novel was the basis for three films: Keisuke Kinoshita's The Ballad of Narayama (1958), Korean director Kim Ki-young's Goryeojang (1963), and Shohei Imamura's The Ballad of Narayama, which won the Palme d'Or in 1983.
Ubasute is mentioned in the 2016 American horror film The Forest, as an explanation for why locals believe that the Aokigahara forest is haunted by vengeful wraiths (yūrei).

Places

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/72/Kamuriki_Yama_2012_01_06.JPG" caption="Ubasute Mountain"] ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d0/ObasuteYama_20050424.JPG" caption="Ubasute Mountain"] ::

Ubasute-yama is the common name of Kamuriki-yama, a mountain (1252 m) in Chikuma, Nagano, Japan.
Obasute Station, Chikuma, Nagano Prefecture, Japan
According to folklore, the Aokigahara forest at the base of Mount Fuji was once such a site, where its reputation as a suicide site might have originated.

References

(September 12, 2010). "Aging through the ages". The Japan Times.
Kunio, Yanagita. (1991). "Tōno Monogatari (遠野物語)". [[Shueisha]].
(1993). "Japan, An Illustrated Encyclopedia". Kodansha.
Hoffman
"冠着山".
(January 30, 2016). "Suicide in Japan: Deep in the woods: Fewer Japanese are killing themselves". [[The Economist]].

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