Onryō
"Probably the most dreaded type of yūrei is the Onryō". Quite so,if we are kind enough to recall what we did see in our "GRUDGE" series. Not a very much of what we may say 'a scary manifestation',but what the Japanese demand is that Onryō is definitely one of the scariest 'ghost',so far their folklore is concerned.
Their motive is one and the same ,vengeance. They say people who dies in the lap of extreme emotions-anger,sorrow,betrayal,jealousy,rage and the like,their spirit fails to achieve after life,instead it transforms itself into a strong dark spirit which promises to destroy anything & everything it encounters.They choose to,sometimes let go their reason of death,and haunt and torment him/her till he/she "ceases to exist". They do inflict a curse upon the place of their death or misfortune,and definitely the person related.Amazingly,their curse is more like a malicious and contagious disease,it can contaminate through the belongings of the deceased.
While most yūrei only haunt a person or place until they are exorcised
or placated, an onryō’s horrible grudge-curse continues to infect a
location long after the ghost itself has been laid to rest.So powerful is the curse/the power of human emotion that it cannot be even exorcised.
Origin of the Onryō dates back to about the 8th century.According to Japanese legend all spirits go to yomi when they are dead regardless of who they where before,even the kami. Some ridicule this spirit as "feminism in horror",nothing much to argue in fact,they mostly are to be seen in the form of a woman.
So far description goes,
A ghost figure consists of three main elements:
- White burial Kimono
- Wild, long black hair,mostly unkempt
- White face make-up called Aiguma.
" Unquestionably the most well-known onryō, and one whose grudge-curse
exists to this very day, is the ghost of Oiwa: a young woman who was
brutally disfigured and then murdered by her wicked and greedy husband
in an elaborate plot. Her story is told in Yotsuya Kaidan, The Ghost
Story of Yotsuya, and has been retold many times, in books, ukiyo-e,
kabuki, and film. Like with Shakespeare’s Hamlet, legend has it that a
curse accompanies her story, and that those who retell it will suffer
injuries and even death. To this day, producers, actors, and their crews
continue to visit the grave of Oiwa in Tokyo before productions or
adaptations of Yotsuya Kaidan, praying for her soul and asking for her
blessing to tell her story once again." This is the power of human emotions,we humans when playing or hurting emotions of others we do not realize the state of anguish they go through,our grudge-vengeance spirit Onryō does exactly that,it makes us feel the pain which SHE went through.
