The word “Shinigami” is made up of two other Japanese words: “shi” and “kami.” These literally mean “death” and “god.” In Japanese mythology, the world is filled with kami of various types. Everything in the world has a spirit that governs it. There are kami of the sky, kami of the rivers, kami of luck, and, of course, kami of death. These are the Shinigami.
The job of the spirit of death is to invite mortal humans to death, which sounds much more polite than having your soul harvested by a tall skeleton in a robe. But it’s not always clear that kami are true Shinigami.
For example, Izanami is sometimes referred to as the first Shinigami because she introduced death into the world. Similarly, Yama, the god of the underworld, is also considered a Shinigami, but it is not entirely clear whether or not these two are spirits of death.
There has not been a single culture in human history that has not spent a significant amount of time thinking about death. It should come as no surprise, therefore, that we also attribute the mysterious process of death to supernatural forces.
In Western culture, we have angels of death and the Grim Reaper: beings who lead souls from the mortal coil to the afterlife. In Japan, they have the Shinigami, but as in Japan, there are many unique twists to the stories of these creatures.
Appearance
What does the Shinigami look like? That’s a surprisingly difficult question to answer, as the spirits of death are invisible to everyone except a few who have some kind of connection to death or are close to dying themselves.
Furthermore, it seems that even when Shinigami are seen, they never look or appear the same. This means that you won’t necessarily recognize one if you see it.
Family
Very little is known about the kinship of the spirits of death. Presumably, they must share the same mother and father as all kami. Specifically, they must come from Izanami and Izanagi. However, for reasons that will be explained below, they are never mentioned in the original creation stories, and therefore we are left with nothing more than educated guesses.
Origin and History
Although shinigami are kami like any other in the Shinto religious tradition, they are actually a relatively modern invention. It was not until Japan came into contact with the West that the idea of a god of death or a spirit like the Shinigami really entered the collective imagination.
It is quite possible that Western folk tales of a Grim Reaper served as the original inspiration for these Japanese spirits of death. When exactly did this idea of death spirits emerge? Well, no one is really sure, but it seems that it may have been as recent as the 18th or 19th century.
Before the idea of death kami came to Japan, traditional beliefs did not necessarily view death as a bad thing, but rather as a normal part of the cycle of existence. Therefore, death spirits are no more frightening than garbage collectors or other public officials in a way.
According to legend, death spirits work in pairs and appear when a person’s time to die has come, at which point they invite them to cross the threshold between life and death.
We know this fact about these death spirits from an old traditional tale. A man who is about to commit suicide comes face to face with a Shinigami who reveals himself. The death spirit tells the man that it is not his time to die, because lives are measured like candles that burn.
Since his has not yet burned down, he should continue living. The Shinigami then tells him a secret that can help him earn money. He reveals to the man magic words that will send away a spirit of death. Pretending to be a doctor, the man visits the deathbeds of patients and uses the magic words to banish the spirits of death.
However, he can only do this if the spirit of death is sitting at the foot of the bed. If it is sitting at the head, it means that the person’s candle is burned out and they must die. This little trick allows the man to become extremely wealthy, but eventually everything goes wrong. One day, the Shinigami is sitting at the head of the bed.
The family of the dying patient offers the fake doctor an obscene amount of money to save their loved one, and he tries to trick the spirit of death by turning the bed around. However, when he tries to banish the Shinigami, he burns the rest of his own candle instead and dies.
In modern times
Many Japanese people who belong to the Shinto religion still believe strongly in the Shinigami, as they do in other kami. Of course, modern Japan is a very secular nation, so most people do not literally believe in its existence.
That said, the Japanese love to honor their traditions, so Shinigami remains a part of Japanese culture, much like the Grim Reaper in the Western world. He has appeared in several very popular television series in Japan.
Two notable titles are Death Note and Bleach. In Death Note, Shinigami are grotesque creatures who write the names of mortals who are going to die in a notebook. One of these “death notes” falls to earth and into the hands of a human, who attempts to rule the world with it.
In Bleach, the Shinigami are actually a society of Japanese samurai whose job is to maintain law and order in the afterlife. They guide souls to the afterlife and keep lost and unruly souls in check. Stories about Shinigami have been popular throughout history, and it seems likely that they will continue to be so.
