Yurei Attack!. Hiroko Yoda

      Precocious young Michizane at age 11, composing a poem with brush and ink. Print by Yoshitoshi.

      Michizane is the archetypical onryo in the most precise definition of the term. While the word is bandied about today to refer to all sorts of angry ghosts, originally and most correctly onryo applies only to those spirits bent on vengeance against the Imperial family.

      Michizane’s spirit reacts triumphantly to his belated recognition by the Imperial Court. By Yoshitoshi.

      We aren’t exaggerating or overstating the case when we say that the Imperial government took the haunting seriously. A historical text from 1292 called Gukansho shows that the affair still remained a hot topic more than three centuries later. The thirteenth-century author theorizes that the gods orchestrated Michizane’s posthumous reappearance as an example of the repercussions of false accusations, which can give an otherwise good man the necessary credentials, so to speak, to come back as an angry ghost.

      Another sign of official respect: Michizane’s face appeared on the 5-yen bill, which went out of circulation in 1929.