Obake
Obake ( Japanese お 化 け ), also Bakemono ( 化 け 物 ), are the traditional spirits, goblins and monsters of Japanese folk beliefs. The term includes Yōkai (monsters and goblins) and Yūrei (spirits of the deceased). The term "Obake" is derived from the Japanese verb bakeru ( to transform ). Obakes are therefore supernatural beings who went through some form of change and got from the natural into a supernatural world.
Obake range from animals that can change their shape (e.g. kitsune , tanuki or mujina ) to mythological beings and inanimate objects that have come to life ( tsukumogami ). Well-known representatives of the Obake are:
- Kitsune , foxes who are masters of transformation;
- Karakasa , an umbrella, a type of tsukumogami;
- Kappa , aquatic frog-like creatures that drown people and animals, as well
- Tengu , long-nosed mountain goblins who are skilled in the martial arts and have wings and sometimes a bird's beak.
Obake also include Yūrei, the spirits of the deceased who died in great anger or grief. Her mind remains in the physical world until her last wish has been fulfilled. This can be revenge on the person who killed them, or that someone takes care of their children, as in many Ubume stories.
Stories and legends of these Japanese apparitions have also been carried over to other languages and cultures, such as the pidgin of the indigenous people of Hawaii . In Hawaii, some of the original sagas about Obake changed or were misunderstood. The most common example is the mujina, originally a tanuki-like shape shifter. He was confused in Hawaiian with the Noppera-bō , a faceless human appearance. The source of this confusion was the story of Mujina by Lafcadio Hearn . Hearn gave no explanation for his title, namely that in Japan Mujina transform into the faceless Noppera-bō.
literature
- Siegbert Hummel: The ghostly in Japanese art (Bakemono) (= research on the peoples dynamics of Central and East Asia. Issue 4, ZDB -ID 521621-7 ). Otto Harrassowitz, Leipzig 1949.
Web links
- Tim Screech: Japanese Ghosts (English)
- The Obakemono Project ( Memento from November 12, 2013 in the Internet Archive )