Visiting the grave of Obon is “on behalf of” It changes with the new corona 11:52 on August 13th

While some people are refraining from returning home during the Bon Festival in August due to the spread of new coronavirus infection, in Utsunomiya City, the staff of the stone shop visits the cemetery in the city on behalf of people who can not return home We have received twice as many requests.

The representative of the grave visit is a stone shop in Utsunomiya, where gravestones are handled.

On the 13th of August when the Bon Festival entered, the staff of the stone shop visited the cemetery in the city on behalf of the person who was planning to return home due to the spread of the new coronavirus.

The staff first mowed the weeds around the requested grave. He then wiped the dirt on the tombstone carefully, cleaned it, offered flowers, raised incense, and put his hands together. The cleaned grave is to take a picture of it and send it to the client by e-mail.

With the aging of the company, this company started this service about five years ago, and it is said that there are about 10 requests every year during the Obon season, but this time I will return home from outside Tochigi prefecture such as Tokyo. There are many people who refrain, and we are receiving about 20 requests, which is twice the usual amount.

Osamu Yatabe, president of Yatabe Stone Sales Co., Ltd., who provides agency services, said, "I will work with the feeling of telling my ancestors the feelings of our customers, including the feelings of those who can not go to the grave. I am talking."

Taxi companies can act for you

With the new coronavirus making it harder for people to return home to Obon, a new service for taxi companies to visit graves has begun.

Instead of visiting the grave, the ``Daiichi Kotsu Group,'' which operates taxis nationwide, is visited by a taxi driver on the 13th at the request of a woman living in Niigata City at the cemetery in Chikusa Ward, Nagoya City. It was.

The driver put his hand on the tomb and wiped the tombstone with a cloth or provided an incense stick.

Every year, a woman returned home to her husband's parents' house in Nagoya during the Obon holidays and visited the grave, but this time she refused to return home to prevent infection with the new coronavirus and asked for a visit to the grave. That is.

The service charge is the one-way charge from the destination grave to the nearest sales office plus 5000 yen, and it costs extra when offering flowers.

Eiichi Iwama, a taxi driver, said, “I felt that it would be lonely to not be able to visit the grave, so I visited with all my heart. I think that the new coronavirus will keep refraining from moving, so this year's equinox and New Year holidays I want to continue the service."

The state of visiting the grave is that the driver will take a picture and send it to the person who requested it at a later date.