Japan is a special country. Here, ultra-modern technologies peacefully coexist with ancient traditions and beliefs. And there are an incredible number of different exotic demons and spirits that fall into several categories: bakemono, obake, youkai, yurei, and so on.
There is no rest for the dead
Criminal ghosts can be categorized as yurei. Yurei is the general name for the ghosts of deceased people. But they usually appear if a person died a violent death, is buried without appropriate rituals, or he has some important unfinished business left on the ground, most often revenge.
The majority of the Yureis are women who have been subjected to domestic violence and humiliation during their lifetime. Therefore, they are now taking revenge on people.
In ancient times, yurei was portrayed without legs, but now these ghosts are usually already with lower limbs. Then the fashion for yurei went completely without a face or with one huge eye. Recently, they have been portrayed as young women in white funeral kimonos, with long black hair falling over their faces.
Something similar can be seen in the famous film "The Ring", based on Japanese horror stories.
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These dead ghostly ladies usually hang around their places of former residence, burning with a thirst for revenge. Those who saw them with their own eyes note that the yurei appeared before them in the form of phosphorescent shadows, with long drooping arms and eyes glowing with ruby light. Moreover, many of them, unlike ordinary ghosts, do not move silently, but knock at night with the heels of wooden shoes.
Women rule
I must say that the supremacy of women among the Japanese scum is by no means accidental. The fact is that, according to Japanese mythology, the goddess Izanami sends demons to people. The very legend of this goddess is a fascinating romantic horror story. Izanami, having fallen into the land of eternal darkness, Yomi, began to take revenge on the white light, sending living evil spirits and demons into the world.
When her husband Izanagi hinted at the divorce, Izanami threatened him to strangle all people in one day. Izanagi was not afraid, and since then Izanami has regularly supplied all kinds of evil spirits to Japan. Including yurei, who usually take revenge on men.
The most famous yurei is the ghost of Oiwa-san, who lived during the Edo period (17th to 19th century) and was the wife of a samurai. Over time, the relationship of the spouses cooled, the samurai started a young mistress and decided to get rid of his disgusted wife with the help of poison. Poor Oiwa-san died in terrible agony. And after death, she began to appear every night to the insidious husband and reproach him. From her visits, the samurai began to go crazy, fell ill and soon died.
Back in the 14th-15th centuries, ghosts and spirits became the main characters on the stage of Japanese theater. So it's no surprise that Oiwa-san has turned into one of the most popular theatrical characters.
But at the same time, her spirit in every possible way interfered with the performances. It was only in 1976 that theatrical figures came up with the idea to butter up the ghost of Oiva-san.
The actors of the Ivany-Hall theater during the work on the play about the poisoned wife of a samurai were sick every now and then, and the props mysteriously broke down at the most crucial moment. Then they all got together and held a memorial service at Oiwa-san's grave in the Somei cemetery. After that, her spirit in relation to them calmed down and ceased to annoy.
Karma of the Prime Minister
However, in Japan there are still many places where ghosts play pranks. In Tokyo alone, 13,000 houses and apartments are susceptible to the appearance of otherworldly forces.
Even the prime minister's residence in Tokyo is notorious. In the early 30s of the XX century, the ratification of the London Maritime Agreement on the Limitation of Maritime Armaments provoked active opposition from the "young officers" of the Japanese army and navy, who undertook a number of military coup attempts. On May 15, 1932, several officers raided the residence of Japanese Prime Minister Inukai.
After shooting the police who blocked their way, the rebels broke into the house and severely wounded Inukai. He passed away the next day. In 1936, another riot broke out, during which the prime minister and several ministers were killed.
Since then, male yurei in military uniforms began to appear in the residence at night. They behaved very restlessly and literally pissed off Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. He even joked grimly: “I hope I don’t become a ghost myself. Because when you become prime minister, there is a chance that you will be killed."
So that the divorced prime minister would not be afraid alone at night, his sisters took turns to spend the night at his residence.
Samurai head
But the scariest place in Tokyo is the Otemachi financial district in Chiyoda district. In this place is the tomb with the head of the Japanese commander Tayrano Masakado.
During his lifetime, Masakado was distinguished by cruelty, because of a land dispute, he even killed his own uncle. And in 935, he rebelled and proclaimed himself the new emperor. The current emperor did not like it, and he sent troops against the rebel. Driven into the mountains with four hundred samurai, Masakado was shot in the temple with an arrow by his own cousin. After which they cut off his head, brought it to Kyoto and put it on display.
It is said that one night she soared into the air and flew east, looking for her body. According to legend, she was buried in the place where she fell.
It was in this place that the financial quarter began to be built almost a thousand years later. However, they did not take into account that Masakado's spirit is very strong and vindictive. It is said that it was he who caused the earthquake in 1923 that destroyed the Ministry of Finance. Finance Minister Hayami Seiji did not believe in mysticism and ordered the construction of a new building.
Then the spirit of Masakado first sent to the next world the minister and 10 of his employees who participated in the construction. And then he sent lightning to the main building of the Ministry of Finance, from which it burned down. Therefore, now financiers cherish the grave with Masakado's head like the apple of an eye. And even tables in offices are set so as not to sit with their backs to the grave and thus not show disrespect to it.
And also yurei have long settled down in the "Sunshine 60" skyscraper. It was erected on the site of the Sugamo prison, where the death penalty was carried out from 1895 to 1971, including over war criminals convicted by the International Tribunal. Therefore, a curse hung over the building from the moment of construction, which took several lives. And when the skyscraper was built, its roof was chosen by suicides. One and a half hundred of them have already jumped off it.
Japanese writer Kimitake Hiraoka took on the pseudonym Yukio Mishima, which means "The Devil Enchanted by Death." By this name, he will be remembered as the ghost of Mishima wanders the headquarters of the ground self-defense forces in Ichigaya, where he performed hara-kiri. On November 25, 1970, Yukio, taking the base commander hostage, from the balcony of his office, addressed the soldiers with an appeal to carry out a coup d'etat.
However, they booed him. “Being disgraced, the samurai must die,” said Mishima and stabbed himself with a samurai sword. And then, according to the seppuku ritual, his comrade beheaded him. Following Yukio, eight of his followers made hara-kiri. Probably their shadows and muffled voices frighten Japanese generals and officers in Ichigaya at night.
Ivan SMISLOV