Yūrei

thumb|Yūrei, [[Bakemono no e scroll, Brigham Young University]]

are figures in Japanese folklore analogous to the Western concept of ghosts. The name consists of two kanji, (yū), meaning "faint" or "dim" and (rei), meaning "soul" or "spirit". Alternative names include , meaning ruined or departed spirit, , meaning dead spirit, or the more encompassing or . Like their Western counterparts, they are thought to be spirits barred from a peaceful afterlife.

Japanese afterlife

According to traditional Japanese beliefs, all humans have a spirit or soul called a . When a person dies, the reikon leaves the body and enters a form of purgatory, where it waits for the proper funeral and post-funeral rites to be performed so that it may join its ancestors. If this is done correctly, the reikon is believed to be a protector of the living family and to return yearly in August during the Obon Festival to receive thanks.

However, if the person dies in a sudden or violent manner such as murder or suicide, if the proper rites have not been performed, or if they are influenced by powerful emotions such as a desire for revenge, love, jealousy, hatred or sorrow, the reikon is believed to transform into a yūrei which can then bridge the gap back to the physical world. The emotion or thought need not be particularly strong or driven. Even innocuous thoughts can cause death to become disturbed. Once a thought enters the mind of a dying person, their yūrei will come back to complete the action last thought of before returning to the cycle of reincarnation.

The yūrei then exists on Earth until it can be laid to rest, either by performing the missing rituals or resolving the emotional conflict that still ties it to the physical plane. If the rituals are not completed or the conflict left unresolved, the yūrei will persist in its haunting.

Oftentimes the lower the social rank of the person who died violently or who was treated harshly during life, the more powerful as a yūrei they would return. This is illustrated in the fate of Oiwa in the story Yotsuya Kaidan, or the servant Okiku in Banchō Sarayashiki.

Classifications

thumb|Yūrei from the [[Hyakkai Zukan, <abbr>c.</abbr> 1737]]

All Japanese ghosts are called yūrei, and there are several types within this classification. However, a given ghost may be described by more than one of the following terms, as the following terms are used differently depending on which elements of a ghost's characteristics are focused on:

Onryō: The term onryō refers to the spirit of a person who died with a grudge or hatred and was feared by people as bringing disaster through possession.
Ubume: A mother ghost who died in childbirth, or died leaving young children behind. This yūrei returns to care for her children, often bringing them sweets.
Goryō: The term "goryō" refers to the spirit of a noble or accomplished person who became an onryō after losing a political power struggle or dying prematurely from an epidemic. It is a type of onryō.
Funayūrei: The ghosts of those who died at sea. These ghosts are sometimes depicted as scaly fish-like humanoids and some may even have a form similar to that of a mermaid or merman.
Zashiki-warashi: The ghosts of children, who are described as mischievous and like pulling pranks on the living. They are often mentioned in the local folklore of Iwate Prefecture, and are said to bring good fortune to the houses they inhabit.
: These spirits do not seek to fulfill an exact purpose and wander around aimlessly. In ancient times, the disease of the Emperor of Japan was thought to arise as a result of these spirits floating in the air. Alternatively, fuyūrei refer to ghosts in which only the body of the deceased has perished and only the soul floats in the air. When used in this sense, onryō and goryō are both types of fuyūrei.