Yurei (Edo period)

ghost · Japan · East Asia and Pacific

Yūrei are the restless ghosts of Japanese tradition, given their classic form in Edo-period art and kabuki: a woman with long black hair, a white funeral kimono, and trailing sleeves, rendered with pale or blue-tinted skin and no feet. They are souls with unfinished business who died with strong attachment or injustice. Edo woodblock prints, notably Maruyama Ōkyo's, fixed this enduring image.

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