Shinigami#Classical literature

In Buddhism, there is the Mara that is concerned with death, the Mrtyu-mara.{{Cite book|author=中村元|title=広説佛教語大辞典|year=2001|publisher=東京書籍|volume=中巻|isbn=978-4-487-73177-0|page=720}} It is a demon that makes humans want to die, and it is said that upon being possessed by it, in a shock, one should suddenly want to die by suicide, so it is sometimes explained to be a {{Transliteration|ja|"shinigami"}}.{{Cite book|author=大栗道栄|title=図説「理趣経」入門 密教の核心|year=1997|publisher=鈴木出版|isbn=978-4-7902-1074-0|page=101}} Also, in the Yogacarabhumi-sastra, a writing on Yogacara, a demon decided the time of people's deaths.{{Harvnb|多田|1997|pp=127–128}} Yama, the king of the Underworld, as well as {{Transliteration|ja|oni}} such as the Ox-Head and Horse-Face are also considered a type of {{Transliteration|ja|shinigami}}.{{Harvnb|七会|2009|pp=168–193}}

File:Kobayashi Izanami and Izanagi.jpg (Izanami to left)]]

In Shinto and Japanese mythology, Izanami gave humans death, so she is sometimes seen as a {{Transliteration|ja|shinigami}}. However, Izanami and Yama are also thought to be different from the death gods in Western mythology.{{Harvnb|木村|2007|p=141}} Some forms of Buddhism do not involve believing in any deities, so it is sometimes thought that the concept of a death god does not exist to begin with. Even though the {{Transliteration|ja|kijin}} and {{Transliteration|ja|onryō}} of Japanese Buddhist faith have taken humans' lives, there is the opinion that there is no "death god" that merely leads people into the world of the dead. In Postwar Japan, however, the Western notion of a death god entered Japan, and {{Transliteration|ja|shinigami}} started to become mentioned as an existence with a human nature.

Generally, the word {{Transliteration|ja|"shinigami"}} does not appear to be used in Japanese classical literature, and there are not many writings about them;{{Harvnb|村上|2005|pp=166–167}} however, going into the Edo period, the word {{Transliteration|ja|'shinigami'}} can be seen in Chikamatsu Monzaemon's works of {{Transliteration|ja|ningyō jōruri}} and classical literature that had themes on double suicides.

In Hōei 3 (1706), in a performance of {{Transliteration|ja|"Shinchuu Nimai Soushi"}}, concerning men and women who were invited towards death, it was written "the road the god of death leads towards",{{Sfn|鳥越他訳|1998|p=76}} and in Hōei 6 (1709), in {{Transliteration|ja|"Shinchuuha ha Koori no Sakujitsu"}}, a woman who was about to commit double suicide with a man said, "the fleetingness of a life lured by a god of death".{{Sfn|鳥越他訳|1998|p=266}} It never became clear whether the man and woman came to commit double suicide due to the existence of a {{Transliteration|ja|shinigami}}, or if a {{Transliteration|ja|shinigami}} was given as an example for their situation of double suicide, and there are also interpretations that the word {{Transliteration|ja|"shinigami"}} is an expression for the fleetingness of life.{{Cite web|author=スズキトモユ|date=2005-07-04|url=http://media.excite.co.jp/book/daily/monday/010/|title=日刊! ニュースな本棚|publisher=エキサイト|access-date=2012-09-22|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130410012326/http://media.excite.co.jp/book/daily/monday/010/|archive-date=2013-04-10}}

Other than that, in Kyōhō 5 (1720), in a performance of The Love Suicides at Amijima, there was the expression, "of one possessed by a god of death". Since the character was seller of paper, the character who confronted death wrote {{nihongo|"paper"|紙|kami}} as {{nihongo|"god"|神|kami}},{{Sfn|鳥越他訳|1998|p=424}}{{Cite web|year=2010|url=http://www2.ntj.jac.go.jp/dglib/contents/learn/edc13/jidai/sewajoruri/p1.html |title=近松の世話浄瑠璃|website= 文化デジタルライブラリー|publisher=日本芸術文化振興会|access-date=2012-09-22}} but there are also interpretations that Chikamatsu himself did not think about the existence of a {{Transliteration|ja|shinigami}}.

File:ShunsenShinigami.jpg}} (1841)]]

In the classical literature of the Edo period, {{Transliteration|ja|shinigami}} that would possess humans are mentioned. In the {{Transliteration|ja|Ehon Hyaku Monogatari}} from Tenpō 12 (1841), there was a story titled {{Transliteration|ja|"Shinigami"}}. In this one, however, the {{Transliteration|ja|shinigami}} was the spirit of a deceased person and had bad intent. Acting jointly with the malicious intent already within people who were living, those people were led on bad paths, which caused repeat incidents to occur at places where there was previously a murder incident (for example by causing the same suicide at places where people have hanged themselves before),{{Cite book|author=桃山人|title=桃山人夜話 絵本百物語|year=2006|publisher=角川書店|series=角川ソフィア文庫|isbn=978-4-04-383001-5|page=131}} and thus these {{Transliteration|ja|shinigami}} are somewhat like a possession that would cause people to want to die.{{Harvnb|村上|2000|p=69}}{{Clarify|date=March 2013}} Similar to this, according to the essay of the Bakumatsu period titled {{Transliteration|ja|"Hogo no Uragaki"}}, there were the {{Transliteration|ja|itsuki}} that made people want to commit suicide through various means, namely hanging, as well as things told through folk religion such as {{Transliteration|ja|gaki-tsuki}} and {{Transliteration|ja|shichinin misaki}}.

In the later Edo Period, the essay {{Transliteration|ja|"Shōzan Chomon Kishū"}} in Kaei 3 (1850) by the essayist Miyoshi Shōzan, the one titled "upon possession by a shinigami, it becomes difficult to speak, or easier to tell lies" was a story where a prostitute possessed by a {{Transliteration|ja|shinigami}} invites a man to commit double suicide,{{Harvnb|大藤他|1986|p=100}}{{Cite book|author=三好想山|editor=谷川健一 他編|title=日本庶民生活史料集成|year=1970|publisher=三一書房|volume=第16巻|id={{NCID|BN02048386}} |pages=81–83|chapter=想山著聞奇集}} and in the kabuki {{Transliteration|ja|Mekuranagaya Umega Kagatobi}} by Kawatake Mokuami in Meiji 19 (1886), a {{Transliteration|ja|shinigami}} enters into people's thoughts, making them think about bad things they have done and want to die.{{Cite book|author=河竹黙阿弥|others=戸板康二 他監修|title=河竹黙阿弥集|year=1970|publisher=東京創元新社|series=名作歌舞伎全集|volume=第12巻|isbn=978-4-488-02512-0|pages=218}} These are, rather than gods, more like {{Transliteration|ja|yūki}} (meaning ghosts and {{Transliteration|ja|yūrei}}),{{Cite book|author=松村明 編|title=大辞林|edition=第3版|year=2006|publisher=三省堂|isbn=978-4-385-13905-0|pages=2579}} or evil spirits.

In the {{Transliteration|ja|San-yūtei Enchō}} of classical {{Transliteration|ja|rakugo}}, there was a programme titled {{Transliteration|ja|"Shinigami"}}, but this was something that was not thought of independently in Japan, but rather from adaptions of the Italian opera the {{lang|it|Crispino e la comare}}{{Cite book|author=永井啓夫|title=三遊亭円朝|edition=新装版|year=2011|publisher=青蛙房|series=青蛙選書|isbn=978-4-7905-0875-5|pages=271–272}} and the Grimm Fairy Tale "Godfather Death".{{Cite journal|author=北村正裕|date=August 2000|title=死神のメルヘン グリム童話と日本の落語|journal=駿台フォーラム|issue=第18号|pages=54–68|id={{NCID|AN10084875}}}}

{{Transliteration|ja|Shinigami}} are also spoken about in folk religion after the war. According to the mores of Miyajima, Kumamoto Prefecture, those who go out and return to attend to someone through the night must drink tea or eat a bowl of rice before sleeping, and it is said that a {{Transliteration|ja|shinigami}} would visit if this was ignored.{{Cite journal|author=八木三二|date=July 1933|title=熊本県宮地町地方|journal=旅と伝説|issue=第6年7月号|page=178|id={{NCID|AN00139777}}}}

In the Hamamatsu area, Shizuoka Prefecture, a {{Transliteration|ja|shinigami}} would possess people and lead them to mountains, seas, and railroads where people have died. In those places, the dead would have a "death turn" ({{Transliteration|ja|shiniban}}), and as long as there is nobody to die there next, they shall never ascend even if they were given a service, and it was said that people who were alive would be invited by the dead to come next. Also, it is ordinary to visit graves for the sake of Higan during noon or when the sun sets, but in the Okayama Prefecture, visiting the grave for Higan during sunrise without a previous time would result in being possessed by a {{Transliteration|ja|shinigami}}. However, once one has visited the grave in sunset, then it would become necessary to visit the grave again during sunrise, to avoid a {{Transliteration|ja|shinigami}} possessing one's body. With this background of folk belief, it is also thought that sometimes people would consider the ghosts of the deceased, who have nobody to deify them, to be seeking companions and inviting people to join them.

{{div col|colwidth=30em}}

• Ankou - the equivalent in Celtic mythology
• Azrael - the angel of death in Abrahamic religions
• Death (personification) - personifications of death
• {{Transliteration|zh|Heibai Wuchang}} - Chinese angels of death
• King Yama - judge of the dead who presides over Narakas
• Kṣitigarbha - Bodhisattva of hell-beings
• Psychopomp - any entity that guides the souls of the dead to the afterlife
• Thanatos - the god of death in Greek mythology
• Yanluo Wang - ruler of Youdu{{div col end}}

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Category:Japanese words and phrases

Category:Japanese gods

Category:Japanese ghosts

Category:Shinto kami

Category:Psychopomps

Category:Death gods