What’s the Difference Between Yokai and Yurei?
1: The only difference is that dead people turn into ghosts, and yokai have always been strange monsters, right? Hanako-san of the Toilet and Okiku-san were once people, but because their stories are known all over Japan they’re apparently known as yokai and not yurei, huh.
4: According to Yanagita Kunio, who gave lectures on yokai, those that haunt a specific person are yurei, while those that appear in a certain spot to an unspecified number of people are yokai.
5: Also, yurei appear at midnight, while yokai appear at dusk and dawn.
14: Kuchisake-onna is both a yokai, a ghost, and even a strange person, right? Although the stories spread all over Japan at the same time.
90: >>14 I think when something strange happens to a person or they regress then they called them a yokai. Medical care at that time still wasn’t very well known. Maybe they just saw things wrong? Like snakes that have just eaten something big look like a tsuchinoko.
16: Isn’t it just whether they have a solid body or not?
18: >>16 Yokai have a solid body?
19: >>16 There are some yokai that don’t though. Plus there are yurei that leave something behind…
17: Yurei are yokai.
21: >>17 So maybe yokai is the larger category and yurei are a part of that?
32: If they’re transparent, they’re yurei.
33: >>32 That’s easy to understand, but there are yurei that aren’t transparent as well. Maruyama Oukyo was apparently the one who came up with the yurei with no legs.
34: If they look sad, they’re yurei. If they look happy, they’re yokai.
36: >>34 Do happy yurei exist? Like maybe they hold athletic meets in graveyards.
38: >>36 The onryo in Miminashi Houichi was happy enough to expressly hold concerts at his place.
35: Urban legends from the Showa Era mostly spread through phone or word of mouth, but now we have the internet so maybe it’s harder for legends to be born.
40: >>35 What about Hasshaku-sama and Kunekune? Although they’re a little too fake for my tastes.
42: >>40 Is Hasshaku-sama really a net original? Although these day’s she sadly nothing more than a moe character.
48: Scary stories that don’t give you all the details are more terrifying. There are vague parts, things that change and the original never stays the same, so that creates anxiety. With scary stories on the internet you can quickly trace where they came from, so they’re not scary anymore.
57: Yokai -> Monster
Yurei -> Ghost
58: In my mysterious definition, yokai are living creatures that can breed.
60: >>58 There are cases where yokai are undiscovered creatures, huh. Like tsuchinoko. Tengu and kappa are like UMA (unidentified mysterious animals) as well.
65: I think kappa were just old guys going bald.
68: >>65 So baldies want shirikodama?
69: Yurei are transparent and yokai you clearly see, right?
74: It’s simple. If they were once human, they’re yurei. Otherwise, they’re yokai.
81: >>74 There are plenty of yokai that were once human. Tesso was once a monk.
82: >>81 For sure, but I think you can count that as an exception.
85: >>82 Nah, I think it’s pretty normal for yokai to have once been people. I mean, the hannya mask is the form a woman takes as she’s turning into an oni.
84: If you think about it, Kuchisake-onna was once a person and she’s considered a yokai. Although it’s not like she died or anything either.
86: Listen, if it seems like a yurei, it’s a yurei, and if it seems like a yokai, it’s a yokai. Isn’t that enough?
87: Yurei become so after dying, but yokai are born that way, they don’t necessarily become that way after death.
89: >>87 In the past there were yokai without bodies that were just to explain phenomena though.
91: Aren’t yokai just unexplainable things?
99: If I respond to this seriously, then yurei are those who have had the Buddhist scriptures read to them and ascend to heaven, and for those it doesn’t work on, they’re yokai. I’m a former monk.
101: >>99 So the guy in Miminashi Houichi?
102: >>101 That’s a yokai.
108: >>99 I see, so because yokai don’t understand the scriptures, it doesn’t work on them.
100: Yokai have particular methods to deal with them.
107: Yurei come from people. Yokai come from animals and plants, etc. It’s so simple, are you all morons?
137: If they don’t have a goal, they’re yurei. If they do have a goal, they’re yokai.