Inugami
Inugami is a Japanese dog-spirit familiar associated in regional folklore with sorcery, possession, wealth, revenge and hereditary stigma.
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Culture or Region: Japanese traditions
Obake / Bakemono
Obake and bakemono are broad Japanese terms for changing, transformed or monstrous beings rather than one single species of yōkai.
Read entryFunayūrei
Funayūrei are Japanese maritime ghosts of people who died at sea, remembered for approaching ships and attempting to sink or…
Read entryGoryō
Goryō are powerful Japanese spirits of wronged or politically defeated dead, especially nobles whose anger is believed to manifest through…
Read entryHanako-san
Hanako-san is a Japanese school ghost associated with girls’ toilets, especially a particular stall reached through a repeated challenge or…
Read entryIkiryō
Ikiryō is a Japanese living spirit or apparition believed to separate from a person whose intense emotion reaches another place.
Read entryOiwa
Oiwa is the vengeful ghost at the center of Yotsuya Kaidan, one of Japan’s most influential kabuki and ghost-story traditions.
Read entryOkiku
Okiku is the servant ghost of Banchō Sarayashiki, remembered for counting plates from a well or haunted household and crying…
Read entryOnryō
Onryō are Japanese vengeful spirits whose rage, humiliation or unjust death is believed to bring illness, disaster and haunting upon…
Read entryOtsuyu
Otsuyu is the female ghost of Botan Dōrō, the Peony Lantern story, whose love affair with a living man continues…
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