怨霊
おんりょう

Translation: grudge spirit, vengeful ghost
Habitat: found all throughout Japan
Diet: none; survives solely on its wrath

Appearance: The most dreaded type of yūrei is the onryō. They are the ghosts of people who died with such strong passions—jealousy, rage, or hatred—that their soul is unable to pass on. Instead, they transform into powerful, wrathful spirits who seek vengeance on everything they encounter. Often they were victims of war, catastrophe, betrayal, murder, or suicide—and they display wounds or marks indicative of the way they died.

Interactions: Their motive is always the same—vengeance. Onryō are easily powerful enough to kill anyone. However, they prefer letting the object of their hatred live a long life of torment and suffering, watching loved ones die in their stead. Onryō inflict a terrible curse on the people or places that they haunt. This curse can be transmitted to others like a contagious disease, creating a circle of death and destruction far more devastating than any ordinary ghost. Onryō make no distinction in their targets; they just want to destroy. Moreover, an onryō’s vengeance can never be satisfied. While most yūrei only haunt a person or place until they are exorcised or placated, an onryō’s horrible grudge-curse continues to infect a location long after the ghost itself has been laid to rest.

Occasionally, an onryō’s curse is born not out of hatred and retribution, but from an intense, passionate love that perverts into jealousy. These onryō haunt their former lovers, exacting their wrath on new romances, second marriages, new children, and eventual end up destroying the lives of the ones they loved so much in life. Whatever the origin, an onryō’s undiscriminating wrath makes it one of the most feared supernatural entities in all of Japan.

Legends: Unquestionably the most well-known onryō, and one whose grudge-curse exists to this very day, is the ghost of Oiwa. A young woman who was brutally disfigured and then murdered by her wicked and greedy husband in an elaborate plot, her story is told in Yotsuya kaidan, or The Ghost Story of Yotsuya. Yotsuya kaidan has been retold many times, in books, ukiyoe, kabuki, and film. Like Shakespeare’s Macbeth, legend has it that a curse accompanies her story, and that those who retell it suffer injuries and even death. To this day, producers, actors, and their crews continue to visit the grave of Oiwa in Tōkyō before productions or adaptations of Yotsuya kaidan, praying for her soul and asking for her blessing to tell her story once again.