You may see images of paper お札 placed on the rooms or houses in Japan. These お札 are blessed by a Shinto shrine and placed on the house for protection from the ghost, much like how a cross is used in exorcisms in the West.
A common utterance from 幽霊 is「 恨めしや~!(うらめしや~!)」 which means that the spirit intends to get its revenge!īefore going any further, let’s discuss how to protect oneself from any malevolent spirits that you might encounter. These spirits haunt the physical world in a state of purgatory, and usually are haunting or trying to resolve a conflict. Another term that is used are 亡霊 (ぼうれい) which are ruined spirits.
Another term for 妖怪 is 物の怪 (もののけ) which is part of the title of a famous movie from Studio Ghibli, “もののけ姫” or “Princess Mononoke.” And if you’re into manga, “ゲゲゲの鬼太郎” (げげげの きたろう) popularized 妖怪 and created new ones that are now as well known as the old folklore, and the series has also been adapted into an anime.
Ghosts arise when someone dies and their spirit cannot move on to the afterlife, either because the funeral rites weren’t completed or because the person died violently or with unfinished business.Ī successful spirit is believed to join its ancestors in the afterlife to watch over their remaining living family. Japanese stories featuring ghosts are firmly rooted in the belief in the spirit world.
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Thanks to some popular movies, Japan is world-renowned for its seriously creepy ghosts and monsters.įun fact: Ghost stories are apropos of October in the West, but in Japan ghost stories tend to be told in the summer.Įven so, in the spirit of Halloween, let’s take a look at some scary ghost stories from Japan and see if they make you slam your laptop closed and run away in fear.ĭownload: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that youĬan take anywhere. Japanese mythology is full of things that’ll give you the creeps.ĭid you get a chill seeing waterlogged Samara crawl through televisions in “The Ring”? Or hearing that freaky cat-boy meow in “The Grudge”? This ghost gives you no choice: Learn the correct Japanese answer to her odd question or die. If you met Japan’s Slit-Mouthed Woman in a dark Tokyo alley, would you know what to do? By MLE Japanese Lessons from the Crypt: 13 Scary Stories That Teach Language and Culture