thepunkscribe:

Welcome to another Folklore Friday!

This Week’s Critter
Name: Onryō/怨霊/ おんりょう
Rough translation:  Vengeful ghost/grudge ghost
Place of Origin: Japan
Habitat:  throughout the country of Japan, they can haunt places or people
Diet:  None

Typical Depiction: Typically Japanese Ghosts are depicted wearing white as it is a color associated with death in Japan. The Onryo are ghosts that died in great rage often from betrayals, war, murder, suicide or some other catastrophe. Their forms still bear their wounds from death, clearly showing the haunted the means by which they died. Occasionally they are also born from great twisted romances where the person dies in great jealously. The Onryo are driven by vengeance upon those they have perceived to have hurt them in the past or those that ended their lives. They curse the people or places they haunt until placated or exorcised but more often than not the tales of the Onryo say that even after an Onryo moves on their curse stays until the lives the person they seek revenge on are ruined or until they are dead. Other tales tell that if someone helps an Onryo, that the spirit will feel indebted to them and try desperately to repay the kindness often until they become a nuisance. Pale, gruesome and violent the Onryo have been a popular horror icon due to “Ju-on” and its American made counterpart “The Grudge”. “The Ring” or “Ringu” series of films also seem to depict a form of Onryo.

In Popular Culture titles: Ju-On, The Grudge, The Ring, Ringu, The Cabin in the Woods, Ghost Hunt (anime), some say Hell Girl’s Enma Ai is loosely based on the Onryo

Bibliography: Encyclopedia of Spirits and Ghosts in World Mythology: By Theresa Bane, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to the Paranormal: By Nathan Robert Brown, Yokai.com

Image (1): by Kuniyoshi Utagawa
Image (2):  by Hokusai from Kinsei-Kaidan-Simoyonohoshi

Also you reading out there! Yes You! This punk scribe would like to hear what critters you want to see here on folklore Friday!  Send me a message and let me know!