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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 ...
The Japanese share superstitions with other Asian cultures, particularly the Chinese, with whom they share significant historical and cultural ties. The unluckiness of the number four is one such example, as the Japanese word for "four" 四 romaji: shi is a homophone for "death" kanji : 死.
Karoshi (Japanese: 過労死, Hepburn: Karōshi), which can be translated into "overwork death", is a Japanese term relating to occupation-related sudden death. [1] The most common medical causes of karoshi deaths are heart attacks and strokes due to stress and malnourishment or fasting.
Yūrei from the Hyakkai Zukan, c. 1737. Yūrei are figures in Japanese folklore analogous to the Western concept of ghosts.The name consists of two kanji, 幽 (yū), meaning "faint" or "dim" and 霊 (rei), meaning "soul" or "spirit".
Most Japanese homes maintain Buddhist altars, or butsudan (仏壇), for use in Buddhist ceremonies; and many also have Shinto shrines, or kamidana (神棚). When a death occurs, the shrine is closed and covered with white paper to keep out the impure spirits of the dead, a custom called kamidana-fūji (神棚封じ).
The practice of performing seppuku at the death of one's master, known as oibara (追腹 or 追い腹, the kun'yomi or Japanese reading) or tsuifuku (追腹, the on'yomi or Chinese reading), follows a similar ritual. The word jigai (自害) means "suicide" in Japanese.
The "Grade" column specifies the grade in which the kanji is taught in Elementary schools in Japan. Grade "S" means that it is taught in secondary school . The list is sorted by Japanese reading ( on'yomi in katakana , then kun'yomi in hiragana ), in accordance with the ordering in the official Jōyō table.
Kami (Japanese: 神, ) are the deities, divinities, spirits, mythological, spiritual, or natural phenomena that are venerated in the Shinto religion. They can be elements of the landscape, forces of nature, beings and the qualities that these beings express, and/or the spirits of venerated dead people.