Reikon

The supplied sources do not record a mythic origin narrative for reikon. Scholarly and reference summaries present reikon as the Shinto/Japanese term for the human inner being or soul — a cultural concept rather than a single mythic progenitor — and treat its status as deriving from funerary and ancestral practice rather than from a discrete creation story.

Sources treat reikon as a nonphysical human spirit or soul and do not give a consistent corporeal description. When a reikon remains among the living after sudden or violent death it is said to manifest as a yūrei (ghost); the materials provided do not supply detailed, consistent visual traits for reikon or for yūrei within this discussion.

According to the sources, a reikon endures after physical death and occupies an intermediate state until proper funeral rites are performed. Proper rites move the reikon to join its ancestors; otherwise the reikon can remain among the living as a yūrei, performing hauntings driven by fixed desires (revenge, love, jealousy, hatred, sorrow) or unfinished duties. Reikon that have joined ancestors are said to return ritually during the annual Obon festival.