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A Butsudan (佛壇 or 仏壇) is a family shrine kept in the Japanese family home at which one prays to and leaves offerings to one ancestors. Although the word “shrine” is commonly associated with the Japanese Shinto religion, the Butsudan is a Buddhist object. The Japanese joke goes at that you are born into the Shinto religion, married as a Christian and die a Buddhist.
The Butsudan typically has closing doors that are left open during religious observances and may contain a statue or mandala scroll, incense, candles, perhaps a memorial tablet or small platforms on which one may leave offerings.
Although these shrines and alters would once have been used (in India and Asia) as places in which to pray to Buddha and his teachings, they have taken on the character of personal possessions in Japan.
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