Yūrei (幽霊). A word that may not mean much to us as westerners, but for the people of Japan, the word sends a shiver down their spine. Yurei range from fairly harmless ghosts to vengeful, angry (righteously so) ghosts who have the ability to physically harm you in Japanese culture. Both have been barred from entry into the afterlife. Yurei have been a part of Japanese society since the 17th century. In the early 19th century, the current form of Yurei as the Japanese know it began to emerge, through the use of Kabuki stages. In Japanese media, they’re portrayed as women, with long black hair, slowly crawling towards you.  This particular form of the Japanese ghost is also known as onryō 怨霊, which will be the main focus of this project. Onryō took its hold on western media in the early 2000s, and resulted in many Japanese movie remakes with a "western" spin, but more on that later.


You don’t believe in Yūrei ? It doesn’t matter if you do or don’t. You should pray you never run into them , because once theYūrei have their sights set on you, it’s hard to shake them off. But there is a way to survive an encounter with aYūrei. And depending on which one you encounter (because there are many types of yurei), you can walk away unscathed, or you won't get away at all.