Onryo
The Onryō ( Japanese 怨 霊 , to dt. "Vengeful Spirit" or "Angry Spirit") is a fictional spirit creature of Japanese mythology . He belongs to the group of Yūrei and is considered to be malicious.
description
Onryō be as the souls described deceased that a particularly slow and painful, often by death or illness induced death died. The feeling of injustice and the resulting urge for vengeance is so strong at the moment of death that the mind is caught in this spiral of anger and restlessness and cannot (or will not) pass into the hereafter . The onryō is usually shapeless, but can take on the appearance of the deceased from whom it escaped and even become palpable. But he can also control his own, former body like a puppet . Some Onryō are so strong that they can take possession of other living people and then usually drive them to suicide . Various poltergeist activities , such as shattering glass and flying furniture, can also be typical for the presence of an onryō . Through an elaborate ceremony called Chinkon-sai ( 鎮 魂 祭 , in English "funeral mass") and the construction of a shrine , it should be possible to purify and appease a vengeful spirit . It then transforms into a so-called Goryō ( 御 霊 , to dt. " Illuminated Spirit of the Dead "), which is now a graduated form of the Onryō and after its purification is raised to the group of Kami .
tradition
The belief in the existence of Onryō stems from traditional Shintoism and can be traced back to the Heian period (794–1185). Today young people in particular believe in Onryō and its dangerous powers.
One of the best-known traditions of an Onryō is that of the Kitano Tenman-gū shrine of the court nobleman Sugawara no Michizane (845-903) in Heian-kyō ( Kyōto ). Michizane, also known by the nickname Tenjin ( 天神 ), is said to have been banished from the imperial court through an intrigue. Michizane died before the misjudgment against him could be overturned. Soon after, Michizane is said to have returned as Onryō in the form of a horned thunder god and punished the court with natural disasters and unusual deaths. Thereupon the Kyoto people erected a shrine to appease Michizane and posthumously awarded him all honors and court rank titles that had been denied to him during his lifetime. Today, in addition to Kyōto, there is also a so-called Tenjin shrine in Kyūshū .
In Chinese mythology , "vengeful spirits", called Guī shā ( Chinese 鬼 煞 ), are also represented. According to Chinese popular belief , these arise from the absence or deliberate omission of a dignified burial of the deceased. They should appear as Jīangshī ( Chinese 僵尸 - " revenant ").
Modern
Onryō are a frequently themed and popular motif in Japanese mangas , anime and especially horror films . Well-known examples of this include Ju-on , Ringū and Dark Water . In these films, Onryō are portrayed as women in long, white clothes and knee-length, jet-black hair. After a violent and unjust death, women return as spirits of revenge and pursue their victims until they die themselves.
literature
- Roger Goodman, Kirsten Refsing: Ideology and Practice in Modern Japan. Reprinted edition. Routeledge, London et al. 2003, ISBN 0-415-06102-4 , p. 91.
- Allan G. Grapard: Religious Practices. Dealing with the forces of nature. In: Donald H. Shively, William H. McCullough (eds.): Heian Japan (= The Cambridge History of Japan. Vol. 2). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1999, ISBN 0-521-22353-9 , pp. 547-564, here pp. 558-564.
- Hori Ichiro: Folk Religion in Japan. Continuity and Change (= The Haskell Lectures on History of Religions. NS Vol. 1). Edited by Joseph M. Kitagawa and Alan L. Miller. Paperback edition, 4th printing. University of Chicago Press, Chicago IL et al. 1994, ISBN 0-226-35334-6 , pp. 43-51.
- Kuroda Toshio: The World of Spirit Pacification. Issues of State and Religion. In: Japanese Journal of Religious Studies. Vol. 23, No. 3/4, 1996, ISSN 0304-1042 , pp. 321-351, digital version (PDF; 756 kB) .
- Stanca Scholz: Aspects of medieval syncretism in the image of Tenman Tenjin in the Nô (= Munich East Asian Studies , vol. 59). Steiner, Stuttgart 1991, ISBN 3-515-05623-8 , pp. 7-9 & 18-20, (at the same time: Munich, University, dissertation, 1989).