ghosts are apt to invert

[incandescens]

I was grating ginger earlier, for a marinade (with soy sauce and mirin and sake) for some pork, to stirfry with courgettes and onions and mushrooms. My hands still smell of ginger; oh well, better than chilis or mushrooms or similar.

---

There is another point to be made of the legless ghost: by binding people to the soil, legs stress what part is on top and what is on bottom; they advertise a right way up and a wrong one. To be without legs is to be devoid of this proper standard. Ghosts are likely to come at night, not only because they relish the dark, but because people sleep lying down, their feet on the same level as their heads. At funerals, Japanese corpses were buried seated (although cremation is common today) so that they entered the next life still in the correct posture, mind firmly at the top. Ghosts are apt to invert.
-- Tim Screech, http://www.mangajin.com/mangajin/samplemj/ghosts/ghosts.htm

Comments

[kickinpants.livejournal.com]

That ghost link is really interesting. Thanks for posting it. I almost wish it were August again to celebrate them. Almost.

[incandescens]

It intrigued me when I ran across it. I was doing some google relating to onmyouji, with relation to Abe no Seimei -- the internet is a wonderful thing!