IKI-RYO

**SPIRIT GOD OF ANGERS**

**Ikiryō**, or **shōryō**, **seirei**, **ikisudama** (生霊, lit. "living ghost," "eidolon"),
 in Japanese popular belief and fiction, refers to a spirit that leaves
the body of a living person and subsequently haunts other people or

places, sometimes across great distances.[1][2][3] The term(s) are used in contrast to *shiryō*, which refers to the spirit of those who are already deceased.

## Summary

The popular belief that the human spirit (or soul) can escape from
the body has been around since early times, with eyewitness accounts and
 experiences (hauntings, possessions, out-of-body experience) reported in anecdotal and fictional writings. Vengeful spirits (怨霊 *onryō*?) of the living are said to inflict curses (祟り *tatari*?)
 upon the subject or subjects of their vengeance by means of
transforming into their ikiryō form. It is believed that if a sufficient
 grudge is held, all or part of the perpetrator's soul leaves the body,
appearing in front of the victim to harm or curse them, a concept not so
 dissimilar from the evil eye.
 The ikiryō has even made its way into Buddhist scriptures, where they
are described as "living spirits" who, if angered, might bring about
curses, even just before their death. Possession is another means by
which the Ikiryō are commonly believed to be capable of inflicting harm,
 the possessed person thought to be unaware of this process.[5]
 However, according to mythology, the ikiryō does not necessarily act
out of spite or vengefulness, and stories are told of the ikiryō who
bears no grudge, or poses no real threat. In recorded examples, the
spirit sometimes takes possession
 of another person's body for motives other than vengeance, such as love
 and infatuation (for example the Matsutōya ghost below). A person's
ikiryō may also leave the body (often very shortly before death) to
manifest its presence around loved ones, friends and/or acquaintances.[2]

## Classical literature

In classical literature,*The Tale of Genji* (ca. 1100) describes the "well known" episode of the *ikisudama* (the more archaic term for *ikiryō*) that emerged from Genji's lover Lady Rokujo, and tormented Genji's pregnant wife Aoi no Ue, resulting in her death after childbirth.[6] This spirit is also portrayed in *Aoi no Ue*, the Noh play adaptation of the same story. After her death, Lady Rokujo became an *onryō* and went on to torment those who would later become Genji's consorts, Murasaki and Onna-sannomiya (ja).[6]

In the Heian period, a human soul leaving a body and drifting away is described by the old verb "akugaru" meaning "departure". In *The Tale of Genji*, the mentally troubled Kashiwagi fears that his soul may be found wandering (*akugaru*), and requests that last rites are performed on his body to stop his soul from escaping if this should happen.[7][8][9][10][11][12] and by Murakami.[11][a]

The medieval anthology *Konjaku Monogatarishū*
 contains the tale of "How the Ikiryo Spirit of Omi Province Came and
Killed a Man of the Capital." In the tale, a commoner encounters a
noblewoman and guides her to the house of a certain Senior Assistant Minister of Popular Affairs (民部大夫 *Minbu-no-tayū*?) in the capital. Little did the guide know that he was guiding the *ikiryō*
 of a woman to her neglecting husband. Upon reaching the house the lady
vanishes, though the gates remain shut. Wailing noises are heard inside
the house. The following morning, the guide learns that the master of
the house had complained the *ikiryō* of his former wife was
present and causing him illness, shortly after which he died. The guide
later seeks out the lady's house in Ōmi Province. There a woman speaks to him through blinds, acknowledging the man's services that day, and showers him with gifts of silk cloth.[13][14][15]
The *ikiryō* can also possess the object of its infatuation, who is neither rival nor enemy. The "Matsutōya yūrei",[b] a tale allegedly based on events that occurred during Kyōhō 14 or 15 (1729–30), a Kyoto merchant named *Matsutōya Tokubei* (松任屋徳兵衛?) had a teenaged son named Matsunosuke possessed by the spirit
 of two women who loved him, and who tormented the boy's conscience. On
occasion, he would be suspended in mid-air, engaging in conversation as
if the girls were present before his eyes, the ikiryō's words being
spoken through the boy's lips. Finally the family sought help from a
renowned priest named Zōkai.[c] The priest successfully exorcised the boy and cured his condition, but rumors had already spread regarding the incident.

The horror story (*kaidan*) collection *Sorori Monogatari* (曾呂利物語?) (published Kanbun 3, or 1663) includes a tale of a woman whose *ikiryō* assumed the shape of her severed head.[d] One night, a man traveling towards Kyoto arrives at place called Sawaya in Kita-no-shō, Echizen Province (now Fukui City),
 where he mistakedly thinks he saw a chicken fly from the base of a
nearby stone tower on to the road. The imagined chicken turns out to be
(or has transformed into) a lively severed head of a woman. When the
face grins at him, he attacks with a sword, and chases it to a home in
the capital of the province. Inside the house, the housewife awakes from
 a nightmare being chased by a man brandishing a blade. The wandering
head was, according to the title, the woman's *mōnen* (妄念?), or her wayward thoughts and obsessions. The woman later turns Buddhist nun to repent for her sins