The lady in the graveyard

                   KOREAN GHOSTS AND MONSTERS

 Korean supernatural mythology originates from the word “ seolhwa” meaning “ tales”.

It is divided into three categories:

1.     shinhwa (myth)

2.     joenseol (legend)

3.     mindam ( folklore)

The majority of the stories involving ghosts are in shinwa category.

GWISHIN: they are spirits that have not fulfilled their life’s purpose and are cursed not to pass to the other side. One of the most famous type of these ghosts is the cheonyo gwishin. It’s the ghost of a virgin girl. In early Korean times women had to serve their father, husband and children and if a young girl died feeling that she failed this, she could be on this earth forever. This ghost is usually depicted in traditional white mourning clothes called “sobok” and long and unkept hair because only married women had the right to wear the hair up. The equivalent of this ghost is the chonggak gwishin.

 MUL GWISHIN: ghost of a drowned person.

 DALGYAL GWISHIN: egg shaped ghost with no features, personality or emotions. It is the most fearsome though, usually found in the mountains.

 DOKKAEBI: it is a creature from Korean mythology which are commonly depicted as demonic or goblin like with hornes and distorted faces. They are mischievous and they like to play tricks and steal from bad people to reward the good people.

 GUMIHO: It means nine tailed fox and it is popular not only in Korean folklore but also in the Japanese one. It is born when a fox lives a thousand years. It is a shape shifter.

 TAEJOO AND MYEONGDO: respectively ghost of male children and ghost of female children who pass away before their third birthday.

                             AKURYO, ONRYO AND IKIRYO

 These are the most known Japanese ghosts and the most dangerous in the Japanese folklore.

Akuryo ( or akurei) is a term for a spirit that causes harm to the living. It is generally an evil spirit that brings sicknesses and misfortune. Shinto priests or Buddhist monks are the ones able to defeat an akuryo.

The onryo is a type of spirit that appear when a person was wronged in life or died because of a murder on in a state of desperation. They return to seek vengeance. They are depicted having white skin with long black disheveled hair. They are the most fearsome of all Japanese spirits. Some say that an onryo does not have necessarily have to be the soul of a deceased person and this leads to the definition of ikiryo. Ikiryo are spirits of living people who can hunt a person without being dead. Shinto belief states that a person consists of a single spirit and four separate souls and each of them has its function and character. If a person dies suddenly or violently one or more of these souls stay behind so we have a ghost, but in this case we have a living spirit, they are vengeful and its created by very strong emotions: resentment, hatred, anger and jealous or abnormal love.

The woman in black (2012)

The legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irvin (1819)

Gloomy and rainy days are my favorite. 

Paul Koudounaris -  The Empire of Death: A Cultural History of Ossuaries and Charnel Houses