The Goryo are ghosts of the Noble, titled, high-born, aristocratic class in Japan, who have been betrayed, murdered, or died prematurely from an epidemic or other diseases and natural disasters.
They have become consumed with hatred and turned into Onryo, (please check out my article on The Onryo.) but because of their status, they are known as Goryo, in Japanese go – means honorable, and ryo – means soul or spirit, so literally honorable spirit/ghost.
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Since they were powerful in life, they are extremely powerful in death in pursuing the people who wronged them, the Goryo revenge comes in the forms of plagues, famine, wars, fires, storms, floods, droughts, and deaths of important people, and even deaths in the imperial family.
As you can see these methods of revenge would cause a lot of innocent people to die as well as their intended targets.
The Goryo can cause so much death and destruction, ways had to be thought of to stop their destructive, chaotic ways.
The best way to stop the Goryo was to turn them into peaceful, benevolent spirits. I know this is easier said than done, so I will tell you some famous Goryo tales, and how they were placated.
The Tale of Prince Sawara
The first recorded Goryo was that of Prince Sawara, he was stripped of his position as crown prince and was exiled to Awaji Island. He felt anger, betrayal, and shame, that he had fallen from the top of Japanese society to basically confined to a small island, with all power, and authority taken away from him. When he died in 785, a plague broke out in Kyoto, with death and the stress on society caused by the plague, the people of Kyoto feared that Prince Sawara’s spirit had come back to get his revenge on all the people who had plotted against him. To appease his spirit ( later known as Goryo) the Kamigoryo Shrine was built in Kyoto in 794, and he was enshrined as a kami (I will briefly describe what a kami is below). This seemed to appease the Goryo, so a precedent was set.
What is a kami?
In the Shinto religion, Kami is an all-embracing term including gods, spirits, ancestors, natural phenomena, and supernatural powers. So as you can see a kami is wide and varied.
All of these kami can influence people’s everyday lives, so they are worshipped, given offerings and people ask for their help. Kami are particularly associated with nature and may be present in mountains, waterfalls, trees, and even unusually shaped rocks.
There are said to be 8 million (8,000,000) kami. Many kami are known nationally, but most exist in small rural communities, and each family has its own ancestral kami.
This is quite a complex topic, so I have only given you basic information about what is a kami.
The Assassination of Sugawara no Michizane
A government official Sugawara no Michizane was killed in a plot by a rival member of the Fujiwara clan. A few years later during a great storm, the palace was struck by lightning, this lightning bolt killed and injured many of the Nobles who were involved in the murder of Sugawara no Michizane.
This caused much unease in the capital and in the ruling class, natural disasters continued to inflict damage and suffering on the Capital and its people, and fires and floods destroyed many buildings.
All these events convinced the Imperial court, that the disasters and deaths were caused by Michizane’s onryo.
In order to placate Michizane, the emperor himself restored all his offices, burned the official order of exile, and was promoted to Senior Second Rank. You would think this would be enough to satisfy Michizane’s Goryo, but still, bad luck seemed to cling to the capital, so 70 years later Michizane was promoted to the position of Daijo-daijin, and he was named Tenjin-sama, which means ‘Heavenly deity’. Also, he was made patron god of calligraphy, of poverty, and of those who suffer injustice.
A shrine was built at Kitano, finally, the Goryo seemed satisfied and his presence dissipated.
I hope you found The Goryo – The Noble Dead interesting, I will research more Japanese Ghosts and hope you can read it soon.
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