Japanese ghosts, Yurei

Japan often claims to be one of the most haunted places in the world, and has a vast amount of ghost stories, legends and many documented ghosts/spirits, demons and other entities etc.
Yurei are the souls of the dead, and so were once ordinary people.

"More specifically, yurei are the ghosts of those who at the moment of death were deprived of the time to repose themselves. Quietness is necessary to achieve the spiritual calm required for attainment of Buddhahood, and the most common cause of ending up as a yurei is sudden death by murder, slaying in battle, or rash suicide. The soul of the Japanese person cut off too soon is left to mope through a sorry existence until it is properly laid to rest, but it will never allow itself to be laid to rest until its purpose for remaining among the living (usually revenge) has been fulfilled. Most yurei ultimately avenge themselves and rise to a better state of being, but this may take centuries--and some are never quite appeased. It is rumored that Oiwa, Japan's most famous yurei, who obtained vengeance for her husband's cruel deeds over three hundred years ago, still haunts the area around her grave.

In general, yurei do not roam arbitrarily, but stick to familiar locales--such as the place marking their untimely death. A late-night sojourner (specifically one traveling between the hours of 2:00 and 3:00 AM, when yurei are apt to appear) who unwittingly crosses a field where someone once took her own life, or who traverses a bridge spanning a river in which a body was once left to float, may well encounter a yurei. Rising up from the darkness, yurei reanimate themselves with the flame of their passion. This makes them partially human again, reinvested with their original mind and something of their former bodies to--scars, blood and all. But unlike a living person, yurei are utterly concentrated on a single goal. Retribution or clearing their name occupies their entire being, and so they lack the roundedness of a mortal. A yurei is a purpose."

"Many yurei are female ghosts who suffered badly in life from the vagaries of love, and whose powerful emotions of jealousy, sorrow, regret, or spite at their time of death has brought them to seek revenge on whomever it was who caused their suffering. Male yurei are less common, and less likely to be seeking revenge; a common type is the warrior who was killed in battle and so has no personal grudge (since to die was part of his profession), but cannot pull himself away from the historical events in which he figured. This type of yurei figures often in Noh plays, and he is often indistinguishable at first sight from a real person. He hangs around ancient battlefields or moss-covered temple precincts waiting for a kindly person to come along who will listen to his story of what took place there in the past. A record is set straight, a smeared reputation untarnished, a name cleared. Such ghosts let out the secrets of history, and are bent only on letting the truth be known. The matters in which they had been involved in life are too long past for the struggles to be rekindled.";

See more here;

www.mangajin.com...

Check out this japanese ghost on YouTube;

www.youtube.com...

I guess something like that could be faked with a projecter or something, but the guys got a lot of interesting ghost video's none the less.
Anyone here ever experienced anything spooky/paranormal while abroad?

Interesting info, thanks for posting

I have lived in Japan for a year now and can say I have never been as on edge as I have been since being here. I can't say exactly what it is that makes me feel the way I do but I am constantly aware of my surroundings, especially in our house.
Although it is a fairly modern Japanese house for our area, I sometimes get the feeling of being watched. I am usually up late after hubby's gone to bed as I am experiencing insomnia for the first time in my life (I have been very well known for loving my rest lol) but I just can't seem to relax in this house.

The main reason I posted is because it's not just the strange noises I hear (sometimes I hear wht sounds like footsteps upstairs possibly from the bedroom thinking that hubby has gotten up only to find him sound asleep when I go check ... freaky indeed) or that feeling of being watched that is really freaking me out, it's the shadows/movements I see out the corner of my eye sometimes that unnerve me the most.

Just last night while showering (at 2am) I saw a shadow move quickly outside the shower door and almost had heart failure

Not sure if the house may be haunted or if I am just imagining things and scaring myself. But who knows. I am just trying to teach myself to be calm about it if it is indeed a ghost, not to disturb it and respect that it is here.

I can't wait to leave though I'm just waiting to hear it whisper "get out!" and I'll be on my merry way lol



[edit on 5-1-2007 by ImJaded]

I know what you mean ImJaded about the feeling of being intently stared at even when no one is there or the experience of seeing a figure/s out of the corner of your eye only for it to not be there when you properly look at it. I've also had disturbed sleeping patterns from countless experiences like that in my last place (see the thread "Some of my experiences at The Flat..."), the only way i escaped it was by moving place.

To be honest though i wouldn't be suprised if Japan was stacked full of ghosts, it has so many turbulent or harsh and cruel parts to its history. In the olden days (mainly later Edo period i think?) a man practically owned his wife like a peice of property (wasn't much different from over here i suppose during our olden days).
I saw an episode of an anime (i think it was Samurai Champloo) which did a story in one of its episodes about a husband who was a drunken gambler who lost all of his money so he sold his wife to a brothel so she could earn back some money for him to gamble more. This kind of stuff was not uncommon in Japan in the olden days- i'm sure if such a women died while living such a cruel fate, she would turn into a very unhappy spirit. The other thing was that holding funerals and cleansing the house and all that after the dead costed a lot of money, there were a lot of people who simply couldn't afford it.




edit: ImJaded according to this article (which strongly recommend reading, full of all sorts of info and links on the paranormal in Japan);

en.wikipedia.org...

"Yūrei often fall under the general umbrella term of obake, derived from the verb bakeru, meaning "to change"; thus obake are preternatural beings who have undergone some sort of change, from the natural realm to the supernatural.

However, Kunio Yanagita, one of Japan's earliest and foremost folklorists, made a clear distinction between yūrei and obake in his seminal "Yokaidangi (Lectures on Monsters)." He claimed that yūrei haunt a particular person, while obake haunt a particular place.

When looking at typical kaidan, this does not appear to be true. Yūrei, such as Okiku haunt a particular place, in Okiku's case the well where she died, and continue to do so long after the person who killed them has died."

So its posible that according to Kunio Yanagita that you have an okake in your house.
If the house is unsettling you a lot, it may be an idea to get a Buddhist priest to exorcise it- it may not be keeping with your personal beliefs, but it may put the spirit/s to rest .

[edit on 5-1-2007 by Tokis Phoenix]

I've been studying Japan for quite some time now, and It dosen't surprise me that is would be considered one of the world's most haunted places.

I've also heard of a great deal of other Japanese Obake (Bakemono) besides Yuurei, such as various Youkai:
Oni :demons or ogres.
Kappa: curious creatures that live on land and water.
Rokurokubi: Female monsters with long, flexible necks in-which the extend at night.
Yuki Onna: A snow women the appears in a white kimono on a stormy night.
Hitotsume-Kozou: A one-eyed goblin.
Tengu: Mythical mountain goblin.
Shinigami: And who could forget the world-renowned Death God?
Youkai arn't as plausible as Yurei, but interesting non-the-less.

But back to Yurei, it would be interesting if they conducted reserch in Japan specificly looking for Yurei. Kind of like a Japanese Ghost Hunters.

ImJaded, your situation seems fairly interesting. I would wait to see if your ghost is hostile or not before taking any "drastic measures". In many cases, it may not even know your there. I guess it depends on what kind of haunting it is (asuming that Japanese ghosts are similar to American/European ghosts). So I wouldn't get up and move right away, for co-habitaitng with a "friendly" ghost isn't harmful. But again, establish what kind of haunting it is before making a decision.

[edit on 5-1-2007 by ApolloAlchemist]

I also find it interesting that japan has a lot of spirits and other entities that share a lot in common with the one's found over in places like England- it can't just be coincendence that many people are experiencing the same sort of paranormal experiences world wide, and over hundreds (if not thousands) of years..

I think some of the more bizarre or unusual monsters/demons/ghost etc originated from specific events like a big famine in the Edo period which sparked the legend of Yama-uba. Yama-uba is an old crone/hag who lives in the wild (often in forests) and preys on travellers who get lost in her area (there are many stories about this) and is often blamed for missing children.

"Some scholars place Yama-uba's origin in the Edo period when a great famine caused Japanese villagers to cast their elderly out into the woods for lack of food (others say they ate the elderly). Yama-uba was thus born out of the psychological undercurrent from such actions.
Legends of Yama-uba have existed since at least the Heian period. At this time, a village named Sabane built the Nenbutsu Toge bypass around a cave that was thought to house the witch."

en.wikipedia.org...

She is very similar to many other similar old hag women charcters in other parts of the world like Baba Yaga.

Other legends and monsters/demons/ghosts were created as part of buddhist tales, many of the entities are involved in a story with people where something bad or tragic happens and people are made to learn a lesson from their mistakes.

Hyakumonogatari Kaidankai (a ghost story game in japan) created a strong demand for newer and scarier ghost stories, while theatre like noh and kabuki created a strong need to have ghosts/demons/monsters which had a more specific appearance so they could be easily recognised in plays.

None the less though, i am positive there are a lot of true ghosts/demons/monsters etc out there in Japan, there is so much that cannot be explained in this world and can only be put down to the paranormal...But its also interesting finding out where some of the myths and legends are born from too.

Check out this japanese ghost on YouTube;

www.youtube.com...

I guess something like that could be faked with a projecter or something, but the guys got a lot of interesting ghost video's none the less.
Anyone here ever experienced anything spooky/paranormal while abroad?

I think it's a fake, I mean why would they film themselves in that way?

Japan land of ghosts, interesting.

I have for some time believed that some of our so called spiritual senses are either induced or caused by low frequencies, like the way binaural sounds synchronise the brain and aid sleeping, meditation and as some would believe spiritual awareness.

I note that the construction of traditional Japanese homes came about due to the Earthquake activity there. Earthquakes are a very low frequency energies and who knows what low frequency waves they are throwing out?

Just a thought..

Two cents done.

SS out.