japanese ghosts

[addicted2pocky]

I have a question regarding a triangular hat often worn on characters portrayed as ghosts such as this picture.

I see it a lot on cute merchandise and such. what does this hat mean??

[undrentide]

The triangle thing came from the Japanese gravecloth (shini-shouzoku).

http://www.sogi.ne.jp/chishi/ch_1_b.html
http://www.sougi.or.jp/nagare/pass09.html
http://sogi-iso.jp/jouhou/sougi17/17_1_1.html
Here you can see what the gravecloth is, it consists of several items.
When people die, they are supposed to make a trip to the heaven, so they are what travellers used to wear but everything is in white.

You can see how one wears these things (except the triangle one which is called "zukin") here.
http://www.jiyu-club.com/meguru/ready.php
This is a guide page for "henro" in Shikoku, which is Buddhism pilgrimage, and they wear something similar to the gravecloth because in the old days people with grave illness go to Shikoku to visit 88 temples and they got prepared for death.

As for the "zukin", I've found info on the net, which explains that this customs came from China, and it is a replacement for the crown that was a part of formal wear. People were supposed to wear the formal dress as they're going to meet Enma (which is translated as "diablo"? - he is to make the judgement whether the one is going to the heaven or hell) and need to show respect. Ordinary people did not have a crown, of course, so a simple triangle cloth was used in place of a crown, according to the site.

Since ghosts are spirits of the dead, they are supposed to be wearing gravecloth.

[kireikoori]

Wow, that was an awesome post right there undrentide.
This forum needs more threads like this.

[Kirie_Maiden]

I have been wondering this too for a while. Thank you for your extremely informative post, undrentide. I agree with kireikoori. This forum needs a lot more threads like this one, and a lot more posters like you.