In Okinawa, these tombs are found all over the island in all kinds of unexpected places, including residential, commercial, rural and military areas. Generations of family members are placed in these tombs to decompose. Every few years, the women of the family enter the tombs and scrape the tissue off the bones of the decomposing family member. Only the women are allowed in. Ultimately, the bones decompose and/or are cremated and are then placed into urns and set on shelves within the tombs, to take their place with previous generational urns.

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