Onryō

Onryō are often depicted as wronged women, who are traumatized, envious, disappointed, bitter, or just infuriated by what happened during life and exact revenge in death.

These kinds of ghosts appear extremely vengeful, ruthless, heartless, brutal, cruel, deranged, egotistical, selfish, bloodthirsty, and cold-hearted.

[7][8][9] While the origin of onryō is unclear, belief in their existence can be traced back to the 8th century and was based on the idea that powerful and enraged souls of the dead could influence, harm, and kill the living.

The earliest onryō cult that developed was around Prince Nagaya who died in 729;[1] and the first record of possession by the onryō spirit affecting health is found in the chronicle Shoku Nihongi (797), which states that "Fujiwara Hirotsugu (藤原広嗣)'s soul harmed Genbō to death" (Hirotsugu having died in a failed insurrection, named the "Fujiwara no Hirotsugu Rebellion", after failing to remove his rival, the priest Genbō, from power).

[12] Traditionally in Japan, onryō driven by vengeance were thought capable of causing not only their enemy's death, as in the case of Hirotsugu's vengeful spirit held responsible for killing the priest Genbō,[13] but causing natural disasters such as earthquakes, fires, storms, drought, famine and pestilence,[1] as in the case of Prince Sawara's spirit embittered against his brother, the Emperor Kanmu.

[14] A well-known example of appeasement of the onryō spirit is the case of Sugawara no Michizane, who had been politically disgraced and died in exile.

It was believed to cause the death of his calumniators in quick succession, as well as catastrophes (especially lightning damage), and the court tried to appease the wrathful spirit by restoring Michizane's old rank and position.

Other examples include: The onryō is a staple of the J-Horror genre, most notable being Sadako Yamamura and Kayako Saeki from the Ring and Ju-On franchises, respectively.

The characters in these works are usually women who were wronged in life and returned as onryō to wreak havoc on the living and obtain revenge.

In this story Okiku, a beautiful maid, is the target of desire for the samurai whose house she works at, Aoyama Tessan.

She continually refuses his advances, and in a fit of rage Tessan hides one of 10 expensive plates that Okiku is in charge of counting.

[21] In 2018, the asymmetrical horror game Dead by Daylight released the Shattered Bloodline chapter DLC, and with it came Rin Yamaoka, The Spirit.

Mizu, the protagonist of the 2023 Netflix series Blue Eye Samurai shares many similarities with, and is often compared diegetically to, an Onryō.