Speculative design for a grief shrine and pilgrimage, including a ritual that turns the ashes of loved ones into obsidian rock, using the power of the sun.

Yamiyo Ishi (闇夜石) in Japanese literally translates to: “[light] stone of the dark night.”

Grieving a loved one is a universal human experience that almost everyone will undergo in their lifetime. While funerals are traditional rites, oftentimes the process of mourning is nonlinear.

Yamiyo Ishi attempts to create an additional support structure for this process: a ritual and place to go to, to help move one through the journey of loss.

Participants must undergo a brief pilgrimage in order to access the shrine, near the top of a mountain.

At the shrine, people will offer the ashes of a loved one into a vessel during peak hours of the day. The light from the sun is concentrated via a large fresnel lens to transmute the ashes into “light-forged” obsidian, leaving the visitor with a rock that they can carry with them.

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We are currently fundraising and exploring different sites for the installation of this piece.

Thank you to my collaborator Max, a very talented physicist and material scientist from MIT.