Shinigami
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Shinigami (死神?, "god of death" or "death spirit") are
gods or supernatural spirits
that invite humans toward death, and can be seen to be present or
interpreted to be present in certain aspects of Japanese religion and
culture.
Japanese religion
In
Buddhism, there is the Mara that is concerned with death, the
Mrtyu-mara.
[1]
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 commit
suicide, so it is sometimes explained to be a "shinigami".
[2] Also, in the
Yogacarabhumi-sastra, a writing on
Yogacara, it was a demon that decided the time of people's deaths.
[3] Yama, the king of the
Underworld, as well as
oni like the
Ox-Head and Horse-Face are also considered a type of shinigami.
[4]
"Depiction of Searching in the Blue Sea by Amanonu (天瓊を以て滄海を探るの図)" by
Eitaku Kobayashi. Izanami is to the left.
In
Shinto and
Japanese mythology,
Izanami gave humans death, so Izanami is sometimes seen as a shinigami.
[4][5]
However, Izanami and Yama are also thought to be different from the death gods in western mythology.
[3][6]
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.
[3] Even though the kijin and
onryō
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.
[6]
Ningyō jōruri
Generally the word "shinigami" does not appear to be used in Japanese
classical literature, and there are not many writings about them,
[7] but going into the
Edo period, the word "shinigami" can be seen in
Chikamatsu Monzaemon's works of
ningyō jōruri and classical literature that had themes on double suicides.
In
Hōei
3 (1706), in a performance of the "Shinchuu Nimai Soushi," 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 "Shinchuuha ha Koori no Sakujitsu," 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 shinigami, or if a shinigami was given
as an example for their situation of double suicide,
[4] and there are also interpretations that the word "shinigami" is an expression for the fleetingness of life.
[10]
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 "paper" (紙, kami) as "god" (神, kami),
[12] but there are also interpretations that Chikamatsu himself didn't think about the existence of a shinigami.
[4]
Classical literature
In the classical literature of the
Edo period, shinigami that would possess humans are mentioned. In the
Ehon Hyaku Monogatari from
Tenpō
12 (1841), there was a story titled "Shinigami," but in this one, the
shinigami was the spirit of a deceased one and had bad intent, and
acting in 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,
[13] and thus these shinigami are somewhat like a
possession that would cause people to want to die.
[7][14][clarification needed] Close to this, according to the essay of the
Bakumatsu period titled "Hanko no Uragaki," there were the
itsuki and that made people want to commit suicide through hanging, as well as things told through
folk religion such as
gaki-tsuki and
shichinin misaki.
[3]
In the later Edo Period, the essay "Shōzan Chomon Kishū" 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 shinigami
invites a man to commit double suicide,
[15][16] and in the
kabuki Mekuranagaya Umega Kagatobi by
Kawatake Mokuami
in Meiji 19 (1886), a shinigami enters into people's thoughts, making
them think about bad things they have done and want to die.
[17] These are, rather than gods, more like yūki (meaning
ghosts and
yūrei[18]), or
evil spirits.
[4]
In the
San-yūtei Enchō of
classical rakugo,
there was a programme titled "Shinigami," but this was something that
was not thought of independently in Japan, but rather from adaptions of
the Italian
opera the
Crispino e la comare[19] and the
Grimm Fairy Tale "
Godfather Death."
[20]
Folk religion
Shinigami 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
shinigami would visit if this was ignored.
[21]
In the
Hamamatsu area,
Shizuoka Prefecture,
a shinigami 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" (shiniban), 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.
[15] Also, it is ordinary to visit graves for the sake of
Higan during noon or when the sun sets, but in the
Okayama Prefecture,
but visiting the grave for Higan during sunrise would result in being
possessed by a shinigami. Also, once one has visited the grave in
sunset, it would be necessary to visit the grave also during sunrise,
and doing only one would result in being possessed by a shinigami.
[15]
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.
[15]
In modern culture
After the war, the western notion of a death god entered Japan, and
shinigami started to become mentioned as an existence with a human
nature,
[3] and is a subject in many works of fiction. As the first, in the
Shōwa period, it is known that Shinigami appears in the manga work
GeGeGe no Kitarou by
Shigeru Mizuki, and in the 1979 television drama, "Nippon Meisaku Kaidan Gekijou," the
kabuki actor
Ganjirō Nakamura performed as a Shinigami.
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