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Ubasute
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Old japan dying cave ubasute lylesbrother
Ubasute(姥捨て?, "abandoning an old woman", also called obasute and sometimes oyasute 親捨て "abandoning a parent") refers to the custom allegedly performed in Japan in the distant past, whereby an infirm or elderly relative was carried to a mountain, or some other remote, desolate place, and left there to die, either by dehydration, starvation, or exposure, as a form of euthanasia. The practice was allegedly most common during times of drought and famine, and was sometimes mandated by feudal officials. 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".
Ubasute has left its mark on Japanese folklore, where it forms the basis of many legends, poems, and koans. 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:
In popular culture
The practice is discussed in some detail in Radiolab episode #305 Mortality. Ubasute sometimes appears as a metaphor for contemporary Japan's treatment of the elderly, who are noted for their above-average suicide rates.
The characters of Christopher Buckley's 2007 novel Boomsday introduce the concept of 'Ubasute' as a political ploy to stave off the insolvency of social security as more and more of the aging US population reaches retirement age, angering the Religious Right and Baby Boomers.
The musical Pacific Overtures contains a reference to Ubasute. During the song 'Four Black Dragons' a city is being evacuated for fear of an American naval force lead by Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry. In the middle of the song, a panicked merchant is willing to abandon his aged mother during the evacuation, but the merchant is reminded that his son could do the same when the merchant is just as old. The merchant reluctantly picks up his mother and carries her on his back.
According to folklore, the Aokigahara forest at the base of Mount Fuji was once one of such sites, where its reputation as a suicide site might have originated.
