Tenjin (kami)In the Shinto religion of Japan, Tenjin is the patron kami (deity) of academics, scholarship, of learning, and of the intelligentsia. Tenjin is the deification of Sugawara no Michizane (845–903), the famous scholar, poet and politician of the Heian period. Ten (天) means sky and jin (神) means god or deity. The original meaning of Tenjin, sky deity, is almost the same as that of Raijin (a god of thunder).
Vengeful ghostIn mythology and folklore, a vengeful ghost or vengeful spirit is said to be the spirit of a dead person who returns from the afterlife to seek revenge for a cruel, unnatural or unjust death. In certain cultures where funeral and burial or cremation ceremonies are important, such vengeful spirits may also be considered as unhappy ghosts of individuals who have not been given a proper funeral. The concept of a vengeful ghost seeking retribution for harm that it endured as a living person goes back to ancient times and is part of many cultures.
YūreiYūrei are figures in Japanese folklore analogous to the Western concept of ghosts. The name consists of two kanji, 幽 (yū), meaning "faint" or "dim" and 霊 (rei), meaning "soul" or "spirit". Alternative names include Bōrei, meaning ruined or departed spirit, Shiryō, meaning dead spirit, or the more encompassing Yōkai or Obake. Like their Chinese, Korean, and Western counterparts, they are thought to be spirits barred from a peaceful afterlife. According to traditional Japanese beliefs, all humans have a spirit or soul called a reikon.
GoryōIn a broad sense, Goryō ɡoɾjoː is an honorific for a spirit, especially one that causes hauntings, and the term is used as a synonym for vengeful Japanese ghosts. In a narrower sense, it refers to a person who was a noble or accomplished person in his or her lifetime, but who lost a political power struggle or died prematurely from an epidemic or other disease, becoming a onyō that brings pestilence or famine and is later enshrined as a kami in Shinto shrines.
Yōkai"strange apparition" are a class of supernatural entities and spirits in Japanese folklore. The word yōkai is composed of two kanji characters which both mean "suspicious, doubtful" and while it may be regarded as a loanword from the Chinese term yaoguai, the word yōkai it has taken on multiple different meanings peculiar in Japanese context. Yōkai are also referred to as あやかし, 物の怪 or 魔物.
