Buddhist Death Records (Kakocho)
Kakocho are what the Japanese call the Buddhist death registers which are used for the purpose of ancestor veneration.
The Japanese name kakocho means literally “book of the past.” When a person dies, a Buddhist priest assigns him a ceremonial name, which he records in the kakocho. Three different formats for the kakocho are:
- A chronological list arranged by death date.
- A list arranged by the day of the month when the ancestor died.
- A list arranged so that information is pulled together to represent household units. This third format is not as common, but when available, provides additional family information you can use to reconstruct the family pedigree.
In spite of its reliability, continuous coverage over an extended period of time, its including of a broad spectrum of the population, and the relatively large amounts of records still in existence, the kakocho have been largely ignored by serious scholars until quite recently.
Religious Inquisition Census Records (Shumoncho)
A Religious Inquisition Census was taken periodically to classify people according to their religion and to detect illegal Christians. The government required that everyone register at their religious affiliation temple or Shinto shrine. Temple priests were required to give this information to the local authorities. They do not include Samurai. Some kinds of census records are:
- Religious Inquisition Records
- Individual Surveillance Registers
- Registers of Five-household Units
Use these records to:
Find the name of the head of the household and family members. Because they were created before the time when surnames were used, they do not include surnames.
How to find these records:
Many of these records are on microfilm at the Family History Library (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints). These records are written in old Japanese, so being able to read and search them you will need a knowledge of written Japanese and as well as a good kanji dictionary that will be necessary to decipher them. In order to find these records in the FamilySearch.com Catalog, it will be necessary to use the language bar on the computer and type in the Japanese characters under the “Keyword” tab to locate these records in the catalog.
Pilgrimage Records (Dankaicho)
These are records of persons making pilgrimages to Buddhist temples between the years 1550 to about 1870.
Tombstone inscriptions
in manuscript or published form (1600-present).
Japan Calendars
roughly equivalent to feudal court records (1543-1867)
Christian Church Records
of baptisms, marriages, and deaths kept by church clergy (1873-present).
Passenger Lists
Emigrant Lists (1868-1940)
Immigration Records containing passenger lists and ship manifests (1890-1960)
Japanese Military Records
such as Enshrined Patriots list (Senshisha Meibo) of heroic soldiers and patriots who are honored and enshrined at various shrines and temples (1852-1945).
Village Records
may provide generational links, as well as names, places, and dates for village inhabitants (1600-1868).
