Shinigami

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Shinigami (死神, Shinigami^? literally "death god") is the Japanese name for personifications of death, in particular the Grim Reaper, which was imported to Japan from Europe during the Meiji period. This image of death was quickly adopted by the Japanese, and early on featured in such works as a rakugo play called Shinigami and in Shunsen Takehara's Ehon Hyaku Monogatari (One-hundred Story Picture-Book). [1]

The term shinigami may also be used more loosely to refer to any death deity. It seems to be a recent term, however, as it belongs to no specific Shinto deity and is rarely used in folklore.

Today shinigami frequently appear in original Japanese works of fiction.

1 Characters in media
2 Other Japanese death deities
3 Trivia
4 External links

[edit] Characters in media

Perhaps the first appearance of shinigami in Japan was in a rakugo play titled Shinigami. It is thought that this play was based on the Italian opera Crispino e la Comare, which was in turn based on Der Gevatter Tod, a German fairy tale recorded by the brothers Grimm.

Shinigami characters often appear in modern Japanese popular culture. These characters are typically employed as psychopomps, bringing deceased souls to the world of the dead. Shinigami appear in the following fictional works:

In Bleach, shinigami send the souls of ordinary ghosts (called "Pluses" or "Wholes" in the English adaptation) to the Soul Society, and attempt to send the souls of bad ghosts, called "hollows" to the Soul Society, but if the soul had committed seriously evil crimes before death, the soul goes to Hell.

Main article: Shinigami (Bleach)

In Boogiepop Phantom, Boogiepop is a shinigami rumored to take people away sometimes. While Boogiepop really exists, the one responsible for the disappearances is actually a copy of the original called Boogiepop Phantom.
In Death Note, each shinigami possesses a book called a "Death Note" — a notebook with blank pages that can be used to kill any person so long as the writer knows the victims face and true name. These shinigami can see anybody's name and natural date of death, and by killing a person before this date using the Death Note, the shinigami steals the person's lost lifespan and adds it to their own. They have a corpse-like appearance, and can grow wings.
In Descendants of Darkness (闇の末裔, Yami no Matsuei^?), the main characters are shinigami who work in a place called Meifu; their job is to make sure that everything goes well when human souls die and are reborn.
In the love-simulation videogame Figures of Happiness, one of the girls you can end with is a shinigami. The main character calls her Miss Death, but her real name is never shown.
In Full Moon o Sagashite, shinigami ensure that a person dies at moment they are fated to die by interfering with circumstances and events that would cause a death earlier or later than fate deems; they then act as a psychopomp. These shinigami were once people who committed suicide and now must collect souls as punishment.
A shinigami character appears in Shigeru Mizuki's comic series Ge Ge Ge no Kitaro and Kappa no Sanpei. He has a skull-like head and likes watermelon.
In the video game Napple Tale, a small, comical flying shinigami named Straynap guides the main character, Poach, through the game.
In Naruto, the shinigami is a monster-like deity clad in a flowing white robe which can be invoked using a technique known as the Dead Demon Consuming Seal. The user of the technique forfeits their own life, and the shinigami devours the souls of both the user and the target, condemning them to fight each other inside of its stomach for all eternity .
In Omishi Magical Theater: Risky Safety, shinigami resemble small, cute versions of Death, and try to convince their victims to commit suicide. The title character, Risky, is a shinigami who attempts to use a miniature scythe to send the female protagonist to the land of the dead.
In the dojin game Phantasmagoria of Flower View, a shinigami named Komachi Onozuka is supposed to ferry souls across the Sanzu River. However, she doesn't take her job seriously, so the souls under her watch infest the flowers of the real world and make them bloom all over.
In Shinigami no Ballad, the main character is a shinigami whose job is to collect the souls of people at the moment of their death.
The Shin Megami Tensei games and their Persona spinoffs, a shinigami class of demons includes many death-related gods borrowed from mythology, such as Chernobog, Persephone, Ankou, Hades, Mot, and Thanatos.
In Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, the shinigami is the malevolent spirit of a legendary cursed card sealed in North School. Failing duelist Tachibana sells his soul to the spirit in return for unearthly draw power.
In Yu Yu Hakusho, the character Botan and other shinigami are represented as kimono-wearing girls that ride on oars. These girls guide departed souls to the Spirit World (Reikai), where they are judged by Koenma, Enma's son.

Characters associated with death are also commonly named or nicknamed "Shinigami":

In the Akumajō Dracula/Castlevania series (video games), a character named "Shinigami" (Death in the US games) is a loyal servant to Count Dracula, working to hasten his master's revival and assisting him in creating a world of darkness.
At least three characters from the multiple Gundam universes are called "Shinigami" as a nickname. These include, Kyral Mekirel from G Gundam, a blind assassin/Gundam Fighter who kills his opponents outside the ring before they fight, Duo Maxwell from Gundam Wing, who pilots the Gundam Deathscythe, and Terry Sanders Jr. from Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team, who was given this derisive nickname because he lost two sets of teammates during their third missions.
In Hajime no Ippo, an intimidating boxer named Ryo Mashiba earns the nickname "Shinigami" because of the long streak of fighters that would permanently retire from boxing after losing to him in the ring.
In Hellsing, the butler of the Hellsing organization, Walter C. Dornez, is nicknamed "Shinigami", or "Angel of Death" in the English version.
In MegaMan NT Warrior and MegaMan Battle Network 6, a boy named "Dark Scythe" (Dark Kirisaki) is referred to by people as the "Black Death God" (黒死神, Kuroi Shinigami^?) in Japanese versions of the anime and game, as he is the operator of a murderous hitman NetNavi, EraseMan.EXE (Killerman).
In Zombie Powder, the main character, Gamma Akutabi, is sometimes referred to as "The Black Armed Shinigami".

[edit] Other Japanese death deities

The following are Japanese death deities but are usually not referred to as shinigami:

Enma (　-ō, -daiō)

Enma, also known as Yama, is a Buddhist deity who judges the dead with either reward or punishment in Jigoku (the afterlife).

Izanami

A goddess in Shintoism, wife of Izanagi. Izanami is a goddess of creation who later became a goddess of death.

[edit] Trivia

A popular urban legend in Japan is that the Shirogane Tunnel in Meguro ward in Tokyo should be avoided, as it is the gateway shinigami use for the path between the lands of the living and the dead. There have been reports of screaming faces set into the silhouettes of the tunnel's pillars.[2]