~Urban legends of Japan~

Onryō

In Japanese traditional beliefs and literature, onryō (怨霊, lit. 'vengeful spirit', sometimes rendered "wrathful spirits", "hatred spirits", "resentful spirits", "ruthless spirits", "envious spirits", "dark spirits", "fallen spirits", or "downcast spirits") are a type of ghost (yūrei) believed to be capable of causing harm in the world of the living, injuring or killing enemies, or even causing natural disasters to exact vengeance to "redress" the wrongs it received while alive, then taking their spirits from their dying bodies. Onryō are often depicted as wronged women, who are traumatized, envied, disappointed, bitter, or just furious by what happened during life and exact revenge in death. These kinds of ghosts appear extremely vengeful, ruthless, heartless, brutal, cruel, deranged, egotistical, selfish, bloodthirsty, and cold-hearted.

Emperor Sutoku, Taira no Masakado, and Sugawara no Michizane are called the Three Great Onryō of Japan (日本三大怨霊, Nihon Sandai Onryō) because they are considered to be the most powerful and revered onryō in Japanese history. After they died with resentment and anger, there was a series of deaths of political opponents, natural disasters, and wars, and the rulers enshrined them as kami and deified them in Shinto shrines to appease their resentment and anger that had turned into onryō.

Onryō are used as subjects in various traditional Japanese performing arts such as Noh, Kabuki, and Rakugo; for example, hannya is a Noh mask representing a female onryō.

The Japanese people's reverence for onryō has been passed down to the present day. The head mound of Taira no Masakado (将門塚, Masakado-zuka or Shōmon-zuka), located between skyscrapers near Tokyo Station, was to be moved several times as part of urban redevelopment projects, but each move resulted in the death of a construction worker and a series of accidents. Although the buildings surrounding the Taira no Masakado mound have been rebuilt many times, the mound has remained intact between the high-rise buildings. Even today, the mound is carefully maintained.

The term goryō (御霊) is often used as a synonym for onryō, but the term goryō is more commonly used to refer to the onryō that have become the object of the people's reverence after a noble person has died a politically unjust death. Goryō Shinko (御霊信仰) refers to the belief that the onryō of people who have died unfortunate deaths cause hauntings and disasters, and the belief that they are enshrined as kami to appease them.

Origin~

While the origin of onryō is unclear, belief in their existence can be traced back to the 8th century and was based on the idea that powerful and enraged souls of the dead could influence, harm, and kill the living. The earliest onryō cult that developed was around Prince Nagaya who died in 729; and the first record of possession by the onryō spirit affecting health is found in the chronicle Shoku Nihongi (797), which states that "Fujiwara Hirotsugu (藤原広嗣)'s soul harmed Genbō to death" (Hirotsugu having died in a failed insurrection, named the "Fujiwara no Hirotsugu Rebellion", after failing to remove his rival, the priest Genbō, from power). priest Genbō, from power).

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