Japan is a country filled with stories of ghosts, demons and monsters. Its literature, art and films are rich with the fantastical. They are taken very seriously and are treated with reverence and fear in equal measure. Even the Prime Minister is wary of them.
With such prevalence in the country’s religion, history and culture, let’s take a closer look at why they are so important.

The Japanese concept of ghosts  

It is thought all humans have a spirit inside of them called reikon, and once a person dies this spirit is set free. A proper funeral ritual must be performed in order for this spirit to join its ancestors in the afterlife. Consequently, the benign reikon will protect the living family and return every year during the Obon Festival in August where it will receive thanks, with family members cleaning and praying at family graves, performing dancing rituals and hanging lanterns from their homes to guide their ancestor’s spirits. However, if a person dies violently, such as through suicide or murder, or if they are filled with emotions such as hatred, rage and jealously when they die, then a reikon will transform into a yurei (faint spirit) and pass through both the physical and spiritual world haunting and exacting revenge on whoever they wish. To prevent a yurei from spooking you relentlessly, one must perform the proper funeral ritual on the deceased or to fix an emotional conflict that was left unresolved. It is also thought the person who had the most violent death, or who was treated the most unfairly will exact the most revenge in the afterlife. A rage-fueled yurei is thought to have the power to cause mass-destruction, so much so that Japan’s natural disasters were once thought to be the work of vengeful ghosts. The idea of an evil yurei wasn’t always common knowledge, though. In ancient times yurei were peaceful spirits, but with the introduction of Buddhism around 550 AD the belief in heaven and hell became widespread. And with that came the notion of demons and ghosts, as well as people being reincarnated into monstrous apparitions.

Appearance

The most widespread idea of what a yurei looks like appeared in 1750 with Maruyama Ōkyo’s painting “The Ghost of Oyuki”. Since then, they have been associated with wearing white, having long black hair, and floating in mid-air while their limp, lifeless hands remain outstretched in front of them. These apparitions have become popular in popular culture with the horror films The Ring and The Grudge featuring the terrifying Sadako and Kayoko Saeki respectively. A popular form of art depicting ghouls and ghosts is Ukiyo-e, which specialized in folk-lore paintings and was popular from the 17th to the 19th century. There are some absolutely jaw-dropping works which are beautiful, creepy and unforgettable such as the woodblock print ‘Takiyashi the Witch and the Skeleton Spectre’ by Utagawa Kuniyoshi in 1844, which shows a scene in tenth-century Japan, where a princess is conjuring up the ghost of a giant skeleton to scare away intruders.

Another disturbing one is Kaidan Chibusa Enoki: The Ghostly Tale of the Wet Nurse Tree by Ito
Seiu, which displays a scene from an old horror story about the ghost of a dead
painter returning to protect his baby from his murderer, a samurai who had an
affair with his wife while he was away painting. The picture shows the painter
holding the baby under a waterfall.

You can find more nightmarish images like these at Zenshoan Temple. It displays a large collection of Japanese yurei paintings during the month of August. The fact that it’s in the month of the Obon festival makes for a more immersive and spooky experience.

Yurei or Obake?

Many people in Japan call ghosts ‘obake’, and they differ slightly from a yurei in that they are even more hostile and unpredictable. Traditionally, a yurei will haunt someone from around 2:00-2:30am, whereas an obake is happy to scare someone throughout the day and night. Also, a yurei usually has one specific location or person to haunt, but an obake is free to roam the world striking at will wherever and at whoever it pleases. Furthermore, they can also be shapeshifters, turning themselves into mischievous and bloodthirsty animals.
In conclusion, it’s best not to attract the attentions of an obake. 

Haunted Japanese locations 

If you’re feeling adventurous (or brave), you can discover some of Japan’s scariest places thought to be haunted by ghosts and ghouls. Here are a few:

The well and the screaming ghost, Himeiji Castle 

 On the grounds of Himeiji Castle lies a well said to be haunted by the ghost of Okiku, a servant in one of the dungeons of the castle. She worked for a samurai called Tessan Aoyama, who, despite being married, wanted to sleep with her. She rejected his advances, which infuriated Tessan who looked for ways to seek revenge. He noticed that part of Okiku’s duties involved handling 10 expensive gold plates. Tessan then hid one of the plates and gave Okiku an ultimatum: either become his lover, or he would blame the missing plate on her and have her executed. Not wishing for either, Okiku threw herself down the well to her death. Little did Tessan know that Okiku would continue to haunt him. Every night she would climb out of the well and drift towards the castle to count the number of plates inside. And when she couldn’t find the missing tenth one, she would let out an abnormal, horrifying scream which eventually drove Tessan insane. Apparently, the hauntings continue to this day. The artist Katsushika Hokusai visualized this story in 1830 with his eerie style. 

Japan’s haunted forest, Aokigahara 

 This dense forest, known as the Sea of Tress, lies at the foot of Mt. Fuji and is one of the most notorious suicide spots in the world. Subsequently, it is thought to attract the spirits of the dead, creating a lot creepy goings-on. If you’re brave enough to wander the haunted pathways you may stumble across a lot of ‘wara ningyou’ which are little straw voodoo dolls nailed to trees and are used for curses to kill or harm people. Inevitably, Hollywood has used this location as the subject for a movie called The Forest. 

The cursed head of the samurai, Otemachi, Tokyo 

A samurai warrior called Tairo no Masakado, led a rebellion against the Japanese government in Kyoto back in the year 940. He was subsequently caught and beheaded. According to legend, his head subsequently flew away and landed in Tokyo. Despite having no body, his head was furious and wanted revenge on the people who killed him. Locals enshrined his head, in order to satisfy his wrath. The monument to his head exists today near to Tokyo’s Otemachi Station, and remains undisturbed. Superstition about the shrine was heightened when, after World War Two, American occupying forces tried to demolish the shrine, but the bulldozer suddenly flipped over, killing the driver. Since then, people have been terrified of the shrine and refuse to interfere with it. 

You can find more spooky locations here if you dare!