Manga,Jin $4.95
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[] O0 MANGA,JIN $4.95 TEACHIN~ ENGLISH ilk JAPAN: HELP #GT WANTED The Japanese world of the supematural comprises a dizzying array of characters, from the humorously bizarre to the downright terrifying. In the 18th century, Toriyama Sekien attempted to categorize the many different types of ghostly beings that inhabit the Japanese landscape, its heavens and its hells; the results of his efforts filled four huge volumes. Here, Tim Screech takes us on a slightly more abbreviated tour. the Japanese "ghost," is exactly what its name and logs crackling, as shadows deepen and listeners become suggests: o is an ho[mrific prefix, while bnke is a too afraid to go to bed. Mytlas about Japanese ghosts do not Obake,noun from bakeru (~t~-Yo), the verb meaning talk uf the ghoul nn the frozen staircase, the skeleton in the dergo change." Japanese ghosts, then, are essentially trans- musty closet, or the drafty bell-tower, but of the tangled bed formations. They are one sort of thing that mutates into an- clothes or the broken fan. The classic type are spawned from other, one phemmaenon that experiences shift and alteration, steamy weather--squeezed out, as if in some fetid momenk one meaning that becomes unstuck and twisted into some- frmn other things. thing else. Obake undermine the certainties of life as we usu- The materials that breed obake can be many, and often ally understand it. routine, as if it is precisely the near at-hand ohject that is the The Japanese ghost is a thing of summer. There are none most st~sceptible to transformation. A discarded umbrell¢~ of the scary tales told around a winter fh-e--flames spitting may enter the world of the strange as an umbrella obake-- 14 Mangajin GHOSTLY TERMS ATTRIBUTES OF YOREI Obake (~ 1’l~-)/Bakernono According to Shint5 beliefs, Literally, "transforming thing." Refers to any type of preternatural people are endowed with a spirit or a being. Comprises y~kai and yerei, and can also be used more gee- soul, called reikon (~). When a emily to refer to anything that is weird or grotesque. person dies, the reikon leaves the body and joins the souls of its an- cestors, provided the correct funeral and post-funeral rites have been Y~kai Yfirei (~) performed. Ancestral souls are a U~terat~y, "bewitching appari- L;~teratty, "dim/hazy/faint comforgng presence; they are be- tion." Encompasses a wide spirit," Spirits of the dead who lieved to protect the family, and are spectrum of ghouls, goblins remain among the living for a welpomed back to the home every and monsters--some frighten- specific purpose, usually to summer during the obon festival. ing, some amusing, and many seek vengeance. YBrei bizarre. Yhkai usually appear generally appear between However, when a person dies in at dawn or dusk. 2 and 3 AM. an unexpected manner or with an excess of emotion, or when he or she hasn’t been given an appropri- ate funeral, the reikon may become "Demons" or "ogres." Ferocious creatures with horns and fangs that a yOreL a tormented ghost who re- are best known for manning the gates of the various Buddhist hells mains among the living in order to and performing some of the tortures that take place in them. seek revenge or take care of unfin- ished business. In the beginning, y~rei were visually indistinguishable from their original human selves. Then, in the late 17th cen- SOME WELL.KNOWN tury, as kaidan (’1~.~, "ghost stories") became increasingly popular in literature and in the theater, y~rei began to ac- quire certain attributes which continue to characterize them Tengu (~ ~i~): A powerful mounlain goblin, originally por- today. It is believed that the main purpose of these trayed with a long beak and tributes was to make it easier to distinguish y~rei in art and wings but gradually becoming on the stage from ordinary, living characters. more human-like, with a long Most of the yhrei’s characteristics derive from Edo-period nose instead of a beak. Tengu funeral rituals. For example, they appear in white, the color can assume various forms and can be kind protectors or cruel in which people were buried at that time--either in white tricksters, carrying off small chil- katablra (~, a plain, unlined kimono) or in kyhkalabira dren, starting fires, end even (,~1~-, a white katabira inscribed with Buddhist sutras). inciting wars. Kappa (i~ ~): A scaly river Y~rei also appear with a white triangular piece of paper or monster with a beak-like snout cloth on their forehead--usually tied around the head with and a waterfi~led dish on its string--called hitaikakushf (~,~. L, lit. "forehead cover"). head that gives it supernatural These were originally conceived to protect the newly dead powers. Kappa are dangeroue from evil spirits, but eventually became just part of the ritual pranksters, known for dragging people into the water and then ornamentation of Buddhist funerals. pulling their intestines out YOrei began to appear without legs in the mid-18th cen- through their anuses. Kappa tury, as par~ of the movement toward increasingly lurid and love cucumbers and sumo gruesome kaidan. Some attribute this wrestling--but if you are chal- new characteristic to Maruyama (~kyo lenged to a bout, and value your life, you had best let the (~IZI~,-~) a well-known artist of the Rokurokubi (~ ( ~ ~-): kappa win. time. In the theater, actors portraying A female monster with an ex- yQrai wore long kimono to cover their tremely flexible neck. At day legs, and were often hung by a hid- they are indistinguishable from den rope to appear more yhrei-like. normal women, but after night- The outstretched arms and dangling fall rokurokubi stretch their hands typical of y~rei also arose as a necks out to any length in search of prey. According to one convention of the theater. theory, they are seeking out See sidebars on pp. 18-19 for two men in order to suck the life energy out of them. famous kaidan, Msngajin 15 Feature-Story (colltimled ftvm page 14) steam seeming to rise oddly from the A face suddenly ticularly prone to change waxed-paper brim and forming a leer- appears and then naturally come to be ing face. There is also the lamp disappears in the thought of as obake. For chgchin) obake that grows out of a nor- flames of a bon- example,/he fox is both an mally swinging lantern, investing its ap- fire, a "will-o’-the- animal in nature and a proachable, dangling form with weird wisp" (’)<© ~,-, hi bakemono (’~)~q’;~), or life, as the shade and candle inside no tama) lingers too "transforming thing." Once bounce angrily against the blasts of a long above har- very common throughout gale. vested paddies, the Japan, foxes were neverthe- Obake can possess an element of "fox fire" less seldom seen since they cuteness as well; indeed, they some- kitsunebi) is both seen moved at night; dead birds, times evoke more amusement than fear. and not seen behind broken fences and chick- Children make drawings of umbrellas hedges and thickets, Fire en’s blood were the only with grinning fhces~ and may giggle at is one of the greatest of all evidence of their nocturnal the image of a ripped and gaping lan- transformers, for it alters passages. Jt may have been tern. Most of the time such things are anything it touches, turning the difficulty of seeing a perfectly harmless. But therein also lies dead meat into food, fi’igid fox, or of keeping it in view their danger--no one can ever be quite pallor into warmth. But fire for any period of time, certain when the transformations will will also reduce homes or which led to the notion that take place. tenaples to ashes, desta’oy the they undergo actual physi- A significant number of obake are labor of many hands, or cru- cal shift. A fox might skulk explicitly related to fire. In many soci- elly terminate life. The fire into the farmyards looking eties, fire is seen as the chief helper of obake will uot submit to like a fox, but exit in an en- working people, but also as their dead- anyone’s control, tirely different form--as liest menace, and so fire is often an in- Centuries ago in India, the an old woman, a boy, a de- dication of strange forces in the offing. Buddha taught that uothing in mon, or a princess. In Japa- this world is nese lore, they live a sort stable, no form of Anonymous, Oni of mirror image of human existence is any- society, with fox lords and : thing more than a ladies, servants and labor- wandering ers--standing on hind through flux. People may legs, dressed in human clothes, and car- think they have a self, and rying out their mystic rituals by lantern may strive to build an ego, light in the middle of the forest. or worry about Iheir personal To the end of mitigating the powers consistencies or reputations, that these worrisome animals possessed, but these concerns are delu- shrines were erected, and the fox-god, sions. A "self" is an imagi- Inan (’~lM,q), became the most popular nary construct; and so, in a roadside divinity, honored with a clap sense, "transformation" is of the hands on passing by, or with a actually the truest manifesta- gift of flowers, sake, or fried t0fu tion of being. Obake, the ul- (aburage, believed to be a favorite food timate transformers, point up of foxes). Even today, it is common to the folly of our human secu- see a little street-corner shelter with a rity in the unchanging status ceramic fox image housed behind a of things, and obliterate our grill, offerings carefully placed in front proud sense of understanding to ward off all dangerous eventualities.