This shows that the Shinigami have no control over who lives and dies.

The Shinigami also explains that each life is measured on a candle, and once the flame burns out, the person dies. Before he could do so, however, he is visited by a Shinigami, who tells him that his time has not yet come. In one traditional tale, a man who is fed up with his life prepares to commit suicide. By Shunsensai Takehara. ( Public Domain ) A Shinigami Story 'Shinigami' from the Ehon Hyaku Monogatari. They could even be said to be less frightening than the Grim Reaper because they politely invite people into death instead of creeping up on them and dragging them to the afterlife, or using a more aggressive means to reap them.Īdditionally, whilst the Grim Reaper is depicted as singular and is traditionally depicted as a skeleton garbed in a black cloak and bearing a scythe, it is believed that there are many Shinigami of unknown appearances which usually work in pairs. Unlike the Grim Reaper, who may be described as a ‘harvester of souls’, the Shinigami merely ensure that people die at the appointed time and then escort their souls into the afterlife. Thus, the Shinigami are regarded as agents who facilitate the smooth running of this cycle. In Japanese folklore, on the other hand, death is seen less as an individual, and more as a part of the natural cycle of life. To start, in Western belief, the Grim Reaper is regarded as a terrifying being and is the personification of Death itself. While the Shinigami are similar to the Grim Reaper, they are not entirely alike, and a few important differences exist between the two. Shinigami isn’t even a word in classical Japanese literature the first known instances of the term appear in the Edo Period, when it was used in a type of Japanese puppet theater and literature with a connection to evil spirits of the dead, spirits possessing the living, and double suicides. Shinigami as a Grim Reaper for JapanĪlthough Japanese myth has long been filled with different types of kami as spirits of nature, Shinigami only entered Japanese folklore around the 18th or 19th century. “Shinigami” is a composite of the Japanese words “shi”, meaning death, and “kami”, which stands for god or spirit. Shinigami did not exist in traditional Japanese folklore and only came into being later on. Shinigami have also transformed their unique role in Japanese culture over the centuries. They are akin to the Grim Reaper in many ways, however these supernatural beings may be somewhat less frightening and they arrived later on the folklore scene. Shinigami are Japanese death gods or death spirits.

Grim reaper scythe pronunciation