GORYO

Goryo: translation

Also onryo. Unquiet or vengeful spirits, typically of those who have died violently or unhappily and without appropriate rites. Unless pacified, normally by Buddhist rites but exceptionally by enshrinement as a kami (see for exampleSugawara,Michizane) they may haunt or inflict suffering on the living. A belief in goryo or onryo and the necessity to pacify them underlies much traditional and modem Japanese religion and is a favourite theme of the new religions, many of which aim to reinforce ancestor-reverence. The pacification of ancestors is also seen as a form of purification, an expulsion of evil and an expression of filial piety, thus answering to magical, soteriological and moral dimensions of the Japanese religious tradition.

See Goryo-e.