A Comparative Study Of The Sino-Japanese Ghost Culture

This comparative study of the Sino-Japanese ghost culture, which focuseson the study of the origin, the inheritance and the special causes of the formationof ghost culture, belongs to the category of folk culture. The aim of the study isto grasp and master the cultural inheritance and development of ghost culture inthe field of folklore precisely, to explore the commonness and individuality ofghost culture, and to inherit and develop the folk culture by taking it as a drivingforce in promoting the development of folk cultural industries.Firstly the author of the paper gives a brief introduction to and acomparative analysis between the concepts of ghost culture and ghost images inChina and Japan. And the differences in definitions and images of ghosts are alsodiscussed respectively. Secondly, the author focuses on the discussion of theorigin, the current trend of its development and the characteristics of Sino-Japanese ghost culture which goes throughout the development of the twocountries. With the help of the information gathered from books and archives onhistory, the author makes a comparison between the threads of the developmentof the ghost cultures in the two countries, a discussion on its ups and downs andits inheritance, and the author also provides a great deal of theoretical and factualevidence and proof for the manifestation of ghost culture in everyday life.Thirdly the author analyzes the manifestation of the ghost culture in real life andits influence on people’s life, such as, customs, festivals, languages, animations,literatures and so on. This analysis is done from multiple angles in life andmultiple levels in culture. Finally, the author compares the reasons for theformation of the two countries’ ghost culture from the perspectives likegeography, ancestral worship, the impact of religion, attitudes to death,specificity and relevance between nationalities and cultures, the influence ofghost and ghost culture on society and so on.The author hopes to find out the unique characteristics and values of theghost culture in the two countries by doing research on the differences from thecustom and culture perspective. In accordance with the study on the connections, the co-existence, the assimilation and inheritance of the cultures, the authorexpects to conclude that the formation and the development of ghost culture arenot the manifestation of the feudal superstitious activities but the fruit of humanwisdom and cultural development. In a word, the ghost culture can be wellinherited only when we could truly bear no “ghost” in our minds.