Compared to Norway, it seems that the Japanese people believe in ghosts more than the Norwegians do, as in Norway now, hardly anyone has the opinion that ghosts exist.
I have asked a lot of Japanese people if they believe, and 8 of 10 said yes. Around 2 of 10 claimed to have seen a ghost, while 4 of 10 told me they had not seen but felt a ghost or spirit.
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| Picture taken at Halloween, outside Kansai Gaidai. |
It is said that Kyoto is a city with a lot of ghost. No body could answer why Kyoto in particular is a ghost city, but my friend's host mother guessed it could be because there is a lot of graves, temples and shrines there. When people told me this, I asked about Hiroshima and Osaka as well. In Osaka there is not a lot of stories of Ghosts, but Hiroshima was also said to be place where you could find a lot of ghosts.
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| Kyoto |
My friend told me that his friends and he, had gone to a so called "ghost spot", and the day after being at the ghost spot, both of their cars had been broken. They had not seen anything there, but they both believed that it must have been a ghost that was the reason for the broken car.
A ghost a like appearance called, Zashikiwarashi is believe to bring good luck. You can read a little about it here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zashiki-warashi
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| The Ring-inspired photo. |
If I were to make a guess, I think that Japanese people believe in ghost because of their religion. It seems like Christians at least, don't believe in ghosts as much.
When I was in Prague during the summer they had several tours of haunted areas in the city. So I think ghosts are everywhere. In the Japanese context one could investigate this subject from a religious/spiritual perspective and/or a media perspective. We have professors here that teach both kinds of classes (which are quite popular).
ReplyDeleteA former student did a visual anthro post on kanashibari - and even years later people find it and comment.
http://becauseitsjapan.blogspot.com/2008/04/kanashibari.html