Appendix

Yurei

(油冷)

Translation:

Faint Spirit

Personality:

Melancholy

Habitat:

Graveyards or Near the Place of Death

Visual:

Yūrei appear much like they did in their human life, wearing the clothing they wore when they died or were buried. Occasionally they have bloody wounds indicative of the way they died. They usually have long messy hair in their face.

Examples:

Fuyumi Yanagi, Blood Lad. Boss, Mob Psycho 100. Wisp, Animal Crossing New Horizons.

Yurei

Yūrei interact with the living world in a wide range of ways, from creating phantom lights and sounds, to invoke powerful curses. They do not roam about, but they haunt one particular place or person. In the case of a place it is often where they died or are buried. In the case of a person it is often their killer, or sometimes their loved ones.

Boss, Mob Psycho 100.

Wisp, Animal Crossing New Horizons. For Yokai.com, Mathew Meyer.

Suushi Yurei. Fuyumi Yanagi, Blood Lad.

Yūrei are often seen wearing white burial kimonos or the uniforms of fallen warriors. Their hands hang limply from their wrists. They are translucent and only very faintly visible, and in most cases they are so faint that they appear to have no feet. Yūrei exist only to haunt, and they remain stuck in this world until they can be put to rest. This might require bringing their killers to justice, finding their lost body, or something as simple as passing on a message to a loved one. Some yūrei are so reluctant to accept their deaths that they haunt their living family, bringing misfortune and unhappiness for the rest of their family members’ lives. Those who do not receive the proper funeral rites cannot pass on, and remain stuck in a purgatory that is part physical world and part ethereal. Others who die suddenly, tragically, violently, or with grudge and malice in their hearts are sometimes unable to pass on even with the proper prayers and rites. These “lost” souls are the ones that transform into ghosts. These yokai are analogous to Western notion of ghosts.

Appendix

1. Bakeneko: (バケネコ) is a type of Japanese yokai, or supernatural creature. According to its name, it is a cat that has changed into a yokai.

2. Biwa: (琵琶) a Japanese short-necked fretted lute, often used in narrative storytelling.

3. Buddhism: (仏教)is a faith that was founded by Siddhartha Gautama (the Buddha) more than 2,500 years ago in India.

4. Edo Period: (江戸時代) The Edo period or Tokugawa period is the period between 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan.

5. Itachi: (イタチ ]) are seen as disconcerting animals and bringers of ill omens for the particular brand of magic that yokai use. Yako: literally meaning field foxes. Yako is a spirit possession.

6. Kami: (米国) are the spirits, phenomena or “holy powers” that are venerated in the religion of Shinto.

7. Kimono: (着物) is a traditional Japanese garment, and the national dress of Japan. It is a T-shaped, wrappedfront garment and is worn left over right.

8. Kyogen: (虚言) a form of traditional Japanese Comic theater. The intermissions of Noh shows.

9. Meiji Restoration: (めいじ れｓとらちおん)

was an event that restored practical imperial rule to the Empire of Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji.

10. Noh: (能) traditional Japanese masked drama with dance and song, evolved from Shinto rites.

11. Onibi: (鬼火) According to folklore, they are the spirits born from the corpses of humans and animals.

12. Onigawara: (鬼瓦) are a type of roof ornamentation found in Japanese architecture. They are generally roof tiles or statues depicting a Japanese ogre (oni) or a fearsome beast.

13. Shinto: (神道) a Japanese religion dating from the early 8th century and incorporating the worship of ancestors and nature spirits and a belief in sacred power ( kami ) in both animate and inanimate things. It was the state religion of Japan until 1945.

14. Tsukumogami: (付喪神) tools that have acquired a kami or spirit.

15. Yokai:(妖怪), are strange and supernatural creatures from Japanese folklore.

16. Zenko: (善狐) “good foxes” are benevolent, celestial foxes associated with Inari.