Cosplay company creates fantasy RPG-style memorial altars for the ashes of your ancestors【Photos】

Takumi Armory helps you give family members a resting place and sendoff fit for a hero.

Takumi Armory is a Hyogo Prefecture-based company that specializes in replica cosplay weaponry with a decidedly fantasy anime/video game-style flair. Their latest creation, showing a sword embedded into a rock in a tranquil forest, looks like a hero’s final resting place, and in fact, that’s what it is, but not in the way you might expect at first glance.

Called Tabidachi (meaning “Departure” in Japanese), this isn’t a display diorama, but an altar for the ashes of your ancestors.

Many Japanese homes have what’s called a butsudan, a Buddhist memorial altar. Placed inside the butsudan are an urn containing the ashes of deceased family members, along with an incense burner and a small bell to ring when offering prayers.

▼ A typical butsudan, next to the family’s living room TV

Takumi Armory, though, has partnered with local butsudan maker Soshin to create a butsudan with different aesthetics crafted from wood, PVC and other materials. Takumi says it was approached by Soshin to help design an object to expand the concept of a prayer space beyond just traditional butsudan, which led to the Fantasy Butsudan Prayer Spot Tabidachi, to use the item’s full name.

▼ The altar with its doors closed

As for why they decided to call it Tabidachi, the word directly translates to “journey’s beginning,” and the intended emotion isn’t a loved one’s existence has come to an end, but that “We hope they are starting a new adventure in the world beyond,” Takumi Armory explains.

Being important interior fixtures with expectations of high quality, butsudan aren’t cheap, and the Tabidachi is priced at 880,000 yen (US$7,650) (urns and bell must be purchased separately). For those that are interested in giving their ancestors such a heroic-looking place of honor, though, it’s available through Takumi Armory’s website here.

Source: Takumi Armory via Hachima Kiko
Top image: Takumi Armory
Insert images: Takumi Armory, SoraNews24
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