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The Gashadokuro is a spirit that takes the form of a giant skeleton made of the skulls of people who died in the battlefield or of starvation/famine (while the corpse becomes a gashadokuro, the spirit becomes a separate yōkai, known as hidarugami.), and is 10 or more meters tall. Only the eyes protrude, and some sources describe them as ...
Grandson of sun goddess Amaterasu and great-grandfather of Japan's first emperor, Emperor Jimmu. The amatsukami sent him down from Takamagahara to replace Ōkuninushi as the ruler of the earth. Nobusuma A flying squirrel-like monster (possibly inspired by the Indian giant flying squirrel). Noderabō
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] In Postwar Japan, however, the Western notion of a death god entered Japan, and shinigami started to become mentioned as an existence with a human nature ...
Pages in category "Japanese legendary creatures" The following 53 pages are in this category, out of 53 total. This list may not reflect recent changes. ...
Two other Japanese examples derive from Buddhist importations of Indian dragon myths. Benzaiten, the Japanese form of Saraswati, supposedly killed a five-headed dragon at Enoshima in 552. Kuzuryū (九頭龍, "nine-headed dragon"), deriving from the nagarajas (snake-kings) Vasuki and Shesha, is worshipped at Togakushi Shrine in Nagano Prefecture.
Yomi or Yomi-no-kuni (黄泉, 黄泉の国, or 黄泉ノ国) is the Japanese word for the land of the dead (World of Darkness). [1] According to Shinto mythology as related in Kojiki, this is where the dead go in the afterlife. Once one has eaten at the hearth of Yomi it is (mostly) impossible to return to the land of the living. [2]
Jikininki (食人鬼, "human-eating ghosts") appear in Lafcadio Hearn's Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things (1904) as corpse-eating spirits.In Japanese Buddhism, jikininki ("human-eating ghosts"; pronounced shokujinki in modern Japanese), are similar to Gaki/Hungry ghost; the spirits of greedy, selfish or impious individuals who are cursed after death to seek out and eat humans and ...
[18] [n] [39] Although the husband and wife become separated (during the day), she fulfills the promises to come sleep with him every night, [o] hence the Japanese name of the creature, meaning "come and sleep" or "come always", according to the folk etymology presented in the tale. [39] [37] [103] [104]