Yūrei
Yūrei ( Japanese 幽 霊 , "dark spirit / soul") or Bōrei ( 亡 霊 , "departed spirit / soul ") are Japanese ghosts . As with their western counterparts, certain events during their lifetime or shortly thereafter prevent them from enjoying a peaceful life after death. This can result from either the lack of a proper burial or suicide.
Yūrei typically appear between midnight and sunrise, floating around to scare and torment those who did this to them, but without causing harm.
features
Traditionally, Yūrei are women in white kimono , the typical funeral clothing in ancient Japan. They have no legs (in plays they are shown using a very long kimono) and are often shown surrounded by a pair of floating flames or will- o'-the-wisps ( hi no tama ) in eerie colors such as blue, green and purple. These ghostly flames are separate parts rather than independent spirits. Yūrei often have a triangular piece of paper or clothing on their foreheads, the Hitai-Eboshi ( 額 烏 帽子 , " forehead cap") or Hitaikakushi ( 額 隠 , "forehead berger"). Some are depicted with long black hair. Like many monsters in Japanese mythology, evil Yūrei can be warded off with Ofuda ( 御札 ), sacred Shintō notes.
Vengeful spirits, on the other hand, called Onryō ( 怨 霊 ), seek revenge for something that was done to them during their lifetime. They are an example of the Japanese concept of urami ( 怨 み , "hatred, anger"). Yūrei also appear to punish the descendants or relatives of the deceased if the rituals for ancestor worship ( Tatari or Tataru ) are not properly performed.
Buddhist priests were hired to perform rituals on those whose unusual or unfortunate deaths would turn them into vengeful spirits - similar to exorcism . Sometimes these spirits were also deified to appease them.
Use in literature and film
Lafcadio Hearns Kwaidan shows examples of “classic” Japanese Yūrei and Yōkai stories. Japanese horror films since the 1990s, often called “J-Horror”, are examples of modern Yūrei narratives. The second season of the television series The Terror tells of the visitation of a Yūrei against the background of the internment of Japanese Americans during the Second World War .
See also
literature
- Elisabeth Scherer: Spooky woman's soul. Female spirits in Japanese film and their cultural and historical origins . transcript, Bielefeld 2011, ISBN 978-3-8376-1525-8 .
- Elisabeth Scherer (Ed.): Unheimlich prominent. Yōkai and yūrei in Japanese cultural history (= Düsseldorfer Japanstudien (DJAS) . Volume 4 ). 2012, ISSN 2194-8267 ( docserv.uni-duesseldorf.de ).