Japan’s Onryō Spirits Inhabit a Purgatory of Revenge and Cosmic Rage

Atlas Obscura and Epic Magazine have teamed up for Monster Mythology, an ongoing series about things that go bump in the night around the world—their origins, their evolution, their modern cultural relevance. A dead woman, her face disfigured by poisoned makeup, returns to take revenge on the husband who murdered her. A samurai is beheaded in a failed rebellion, his head put on display in a town square, where it bellows for the return of his body. In the wake of a nobleman’s exile and death, pestilence and disease spread…

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