Living resentment leaving the body to haunt
Ikisudama
Living spirit
She did not mean to hate. She only thought, for an instant, that the other woman might fall ill. When she woke, the scent of ritual smoke clung to her robes.
Overview
Ikisudama is the spirit or intense emotion of a living person leaving the body. Born from jealousy or resentment, it may possess and torment a chosen target, sometimes fatally, whether or not the sender is aware of it.
Encounter
It arises from a person who strongly envies or resents another and appears to that target. It may come in the person's own form at night or act invisibly as an illness that drains the victim.
Lore
The term was common in the Heian period. Famous examples include Rokujo no Miyasudokoro's living spirit in The Tale of Genji and tales in Konjaku Monogatari-shu. The noh play Aoi no Ue adapts the same motif.
Traits
It is driven by powerful emotion, especially jealousy and hatred. Because the person who sends it may not know what has happened, the horror lies in a soul acting beyond its owner's conscious will.
Bind fast my soul, wandering in grief through the sky.
The Tale of Genji