Ubasute (姥捨て, "abandoning an old woman", also calledobasute and sometimesoyasute親捨て "abandoning a parent") is a mythical practice ofsenicide inJapan, whereby an infirm orelderly relative was carried to a mountain, or some other remote, desolate place, and left there to die.[1]Kunio Yanagita concluded that the ubasute folklore comes fromIndia'sBuddhist mythology.[2] According to the Kodansha Illustrated Encyclopedia of Japan,ubasute "is the subject oflegend, but…does not seem ever to have been a common custom."[3]
In oneBuddhist 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 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
The practice is discussed in some detail inRadiolab episode #305, "Mortality". Ubasute sometimes appears as a metaphor for contemporary Japan's treatment of the elderly, who are noted forabove-average suicide rates.[4]
The characters ofChristopher Buckley's 2007 novelBoomsday introduce the concept of ubasute as a political ploy to stave off the insolvency ofsocial security as more and more of the aging US population reaches retirement age, angering the Religious Right and Baby Boomers.
In episode 103 ofDinosaurs they describe a ubasute-like dinosaur custom where elders are hurled off a cliff into a tar pit at the age of 72.
The musicalPacific Overtures contains a reference to ubasute. During the song "Four Black Dragons", as a city is being evacuated for fear of an American naval force, 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.[citation needed]
According to folklore, theAokigahara forest at the base of Mount Fuji was once such a site, where its reputation as asuicide site might have originated.[7]
