Shinigami

() are that invite humans toward death in certain aspects of Japanese religion and culture. have been described as monsters, helpers, and creatures of darkness. are used for tales and religions in Japanese culture.

Japanese religion

In Buddhism, there is the Mara that is concerned with death, the Mrtyu-mara. It is a demon that makes humans want to die, and it is said that upon being possessed by it, in a shock, one should suddenly want to die by suicide, so it is sometimes explained to be a . Also, in the Yogacarabhumi-sastra, a writing on Yogacara, a demon decided the time of people's deaths. Yama, the king of the Underworld, as well as such as the Ox-Head and Horse-Face are also considered a type of .

In Shinto and Japanese mythology, Izanami gave humans death, so she is sometimes seen as a . However, Izanami and Yama are also thought to be different from the death gods in Western mythology. Some forms of Buddhism do not involve believing in any deities, so it is sometimes thought that the concept of a death god does not exist to begin with. Even though the and of Japanese Buddhist faith have taken humans' lives, there is the opinion that there is no "death god" that merely leads people into the world of the dead. In Postwar Japan, however, the Western notion of a death god entered Japan, and started to become mentioned as an existence with a human nature.

Generally, the word does not appear to be used in Japanese classical literature, and there are not many writings about them; however, going into the

Edo period, the word can be seen in Chikamatsu Monzaemon's works of and classical literature that had themes on double suicides.

In Hōei 3 (1706), in a performance of , concerning men and women who were invited towards death, it was written "the road the god of death leads towards", and in Hōei 6 (1709), in , a woman who was about to commit double suicide with a man said, "the fleetingness of a life lured by a god of death". It never became clear whether the man and woman came to commit double suicide due to the existence of a , or if a was given as an example for their situation of double suicide, and there are also interpretations that the word is an expression for the fleetingness of life.

Other than that, in Kyōhō 5 (1720), in a performance of '' The Love Suicides at Amijima'', there was the expression, "of one possessed by a god of death". Since the character was seller of paper, the character who confronted death wrote as , but there are also interpretations that Chikamatsu himself did not think about the existence of a .

Classical literature

In the classical literature of the Edo period, that would possess humans are mentioned. In the from Tenpō 12 (1841), there was a story titled . In this one, however, the was the spirit of a deceased person and had bad intent. Acting jointly with the malicious intent already within people who were living, those people were led on bad paths, which caused repeat incidents to occur at places where there was previously a murder incident (for example by causing the same suicide at places where people have hanged themselves before), and thus these are somewhat like a possession that would cause people to want to die. Similar to this, according to the essay of the Bakumatsu period titled , there were the that made people want to commit suicide through various means, namely hanging, as well as things told through folk religion such as and .

In the later Edo Period, the essay in Kaei 3 (1850) by the essayist Miyoshi Shōzan, the one titled "upon possession by a shinigami, it becomes difficult to speak, or easier to tell lies" was a story where a prostitute possessed by a invites a man to commit double suicide, and in the kabuki by Kawatake Mokuami in Meiji 19 (1886), a enters into people's thoughts, making them think about bad things they have done and want to die. These are, rather than gods, more like (meaning ghosts and ), or evil spirits.

In the of classical , there was a programme titled , but this was something that was not thought of independently in Japan, but rather from adaptions of the Italian opera the and the Grimm Fairy Tale " Godfather Death".

Folk religion

are also spoken about in folk religion after the war. According to the mores of Miyajima, Kumamoto Prefecture, those who go out and return to attend to someone through the night must drink tea or eat a bowl of rice before sleeping, and it is said that a would visit if this was ignored.

In the Hamamatsu area, Shizuoka Prefecture, a would possess people and lead them to mountains, seas, and railroads where people have died. In those places, the dead would have a "death turn" (), and as long as there is nobody to die there next, they shall never ascend even if they were given a service, and it was said that people who were alive would be invited by the dead to come next. Also, it is ordinary to visit graves for the sake of Higan during noon or when the sun sets, but in the Okayama Prefecture, visiting the grave for Higan during sunrise without a previous time would result in being possessed by a . However, once one has visited the grave in sunset, then it would become necessary to visit the grave again during sunrise, to avoid a possessing one's body. With this background of folk belief, it is also thought that sometimes people would consider the ghosts of the deceased, who have nobody to deify them, to be seeking companions and inviting people to join them.

See also

* Ankou - the equivalent in Celtic mythology
* Azrael - the angel of death in Abrahamic religions
* Death (personification) - personifications of death
* - Chinese angels of death
* King Yama - judge of the dead who presides over Narakas
* Kṣitigarbha - Bodhisattva of hell-beings
* Psychopomp - any entity that guides the souls of the dead to the afterlife
* Thanatos - the god of death in Greek mythology
* Yanluo Wang - ruler of Youdu

References

Bibliography

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{{Japanese folklore long

Japanese words and phrases

Japanese gods
Japanese ghosts
Shinto kami
Psychopomps
Death gods