This is the little shrine from my old host mother's house.
Every morning, she would go to this, present a bowl of rice
or other food, and clap her hands, rub the beads together in her hand,
light some incense, etc. This is a Buddhist rite performed for the dead.
Her husband passed last May of cancer. These rituals are intended to
pacify the spirit of her husband, and allow him safe passage into whatever
is supposed to happen to him after death.