Domestic oratories: Memory places for Japanese immigrants in Santa Maria / RS

This study aims to present what is Butsudan, as a place of memory and intangible heritage of a group of Japanese immigrants living in Santa Maria, where today resides fourteen of the 25 families who came to the city in 1958. It was the first immigration regulated by Rio Grande do Sul, which makes the oratory even more important for the group in order to keep alive the memory of the homeland and their descendants. It is an intimate space of the house serves as a place to relive the memory of the ancestors, the country of origin and the transience of life, is an oratory where they make offerings and worship of ancestors. A Butsudan is a wooden cabinet with openings that enclose and enshrine a religious icon, a sculpture or painting of a Buddha. They are domestic altars, family or intimate worship, widespread among Japanese immigrants.