By Ryleigh Simmons

For my project, I have chosen to focus on the Netflix show Blue Eye Samurai and the concept of onryōs, or vengeful spirits, in Japanese folklore. At first, I originally wanted to just learn more about onryōs, but as I continued to watch through Blue Eye Samurai, I noticed a striking similarity between the main character, Mizu, and an onryō. Thus, I have decided to discuss what these vengeful spirits are and the parallels between them and Mizu. To better understand the parallels between the two, I have also created a collage of pictures that compare Mizu to images of onryō for reference. 

What Are Onryō?

Before we can understand how Mizu’s character is like an Onryō, we need to know what an onryō is and what they do. An onryō is a sub-category of spirits called yūrei. Yūrei are described as spirits attached to the world due to their strong emotions before they died (The Ghost of Japan). Onryō, specifically, are people who die with strong emotions, such as jealousy, rage, and hatred, which causes them to seek vengeance on those who have wronged them somehow (Onryō). Although these spirits may have a specific goal in mind, most of the time, they don’t care about who gets hurt along the way. They are said to take vengeance on everything they encounter and make no distinctions in their target as they only wish to destroy (Onryō). Moreover, onryō are described as the most vicious spirits out there because of the suffering they cause. According to Joseph Campbell in “Onryō Japanese Vengeful Spirit,” onryō have the power to kill anyone they want; however, they often choose to leave their target of hatred alive to make them watch and suffer as the spirit kills off the ones they love. This firey wrath they hold onto is so strong that it has been known to cause natural disasters, such as earthquakes and tsunamis. 

Traditionally, onryō can be identified as having a lot of the same physical characteristics, but it’s also important to note that not all onryō may fit this criteria. When an onryō rises from their death, they tend to hold onto the wounds or marks that show how they died (Onryō). For example, in The Ghost Stories at Yotsuya on the Tokaido, the onryō’s, Oiwa’s, eye is swollen, and she is missing a lot of hair, which represents how she looked before she died. Furthermore, onryō are normally depicted as women with long, dark flowing hair and wearing “white burial garments” along with white foundation (Campbell). 

While their horrific goals and actions, along with their offputting appearance, seem to make onryō out to be nothing more than scary stories, there is actually a lot more to them. “They remind us of the power of emotion, the enduring nature of the human spirit, and the universal desire for justice” (Campbell). They show us how strong humans, especially women, can be. These stories are also cautionary tales that “symbolize the repercussions of immoral actions” (Campbell). They are used as a tool to dissuade people from causing incredible harm to others so that when their victims die, they are not haunted. Overall, stories of onryō may be extremely horrific, but they also expose the many cases of injustice that have ended people’s lives, more specifically women’s lives, and they give those lives a second chance at finding the justice that no one could give them before they died. 

How Is Mizu An Onryō?

Now that I have explained what onryō are and what their goals are, we can look more into Mizu’s character and her similarities with them. First, it is important to know a little bit about Mizu’s background. She is the main protagonist of Blue Eye Samurai, and “She is a half-Japanese and half-Caucasian swordmaster, who has sworn herself to a quest of vengeance” (Mizu). Her whole life, she was treated horribly for being part white because, at the time, no Westerners were allowed in Japan. As a child, she was in multiple assassination attempts due to her heritage. This treatment, along with the betrayal of those closest to her, causes her to head out on a quest for revenge on the four white men who were in Japan at the time of her birth. Essentially, she wants to kill the men who are responsible for birthing her as a “monster” or “demon.” 

From this background, we can gather the first similarity between Mizu and an onryō, vengeance. As I mentioned previously, onryō are vengeful spirits who seek a violent form of justice for those who have wronged them. This is exactly what Mizu wishes to do. She wants to kill the men who have wronged her and her mother, and she will do anything to reach her goal. Moreover, on her quest, we see Mizu disregard the feelings and lives of the people around her. She doesn’t stop to help others unless it is getting in the way of her mission. This lack of compassion even seems to stem to herself as she doesn’t care about her own feelings and life. In episode four, we see this when Madam Kaji states, “If you are only a sword, are you even a man or a mere demon.” Essentially, this quote states that Mizu thinks of herself as nothing but a tool for revenge. 

Mizu’s inability to think of the pain her path is causing to herself and those around her aligns perfectly with the idea that an onryō doesn’t care about who gets in the path of their revenge. I even read that the curse of the onryō “can be transmitted to others like a contagious disease, creating a circle of death and destruction,” and they can affect a place long after they have left it (Onryō). In my collage, I included a photo of Mizu surrounded by fire and compared it to another drawing of Oiwa from Ghost Stories, also surrounded by fire. While it may be in the collage to show the similarities to Oiwa, it is also there because in the scene the photo was taken from, the entire city of Edo was burnt down. One of the most populated cities in Japan is burning all because of Mizu’s need for revenge. This is a great example of Mizu’s vengeful “disease” spreading to the environment around her, causing the deaths of many innocent people. Although she leaves Japan at the end of the show, the consequences of her actions will still haunt Edo even without her presence.  

Another piece of evidence I would like to add to my comparison is the entirety of episode five. In this episode, we learn a lot more about Mizu’s backstory, more specifically, her marriage. However, the show is going back and forth between showing flashbacks of her marriage and a puppet show telling a story of the creation of an onryō. This switching between the two stories shows how similar Mizu’s circumstances are to those of the puppets in the show. While at first, we think she is being compared to the male samurai puppet, it actually turns out she is the bride onryō in the story. In other words, Mizu is on a path for revenge, like the samurai puppet, but she pushes it away to be with her husband and provide for her mother. However, when they both turned on her, she became dead inside. Her heart is broken, and all of her fears of people always thinking of her as a monster have come true. She fills up with hatred and rises from the “dead,” just like the bride puppet, to get revenge on those who have hurt her, including her husband and mother. Below are two great quotes from the episode that back up Mizu’s comparison to an onryō. 

“So the bride met her death, but she did not meet her end. Within her lifeless body roiled a tempest of hate, betrayal, injustice, possessing her soul, transforming her into a nightmare, into an onryō.”  

“Hate alone was not enough. Love poisoned by betrayal to bring so much bloodshed and woe to create the onryō.” 

In this episode, we see a comparison between Mizu and an onryō not only through her story but also through her appearance. In the middle of the collage, I provide two images of Mizu, one image of the onryō from the episode and another from the article “Onryō.” In the images of Mizu, we see her wearing the typical white kimono and white foundation that an onryō is often described as wearing. The smudging of her makeup and the blood all over her white clothes further show her loss of happiness and her now bloodthirsty mindset. The version of her that was a wife has died, and she has come back as someone out for blood. 

I would like to make one last comparison between the two pictures of people in masks that I included in my collage. The one on the right is Taigan’s perception of Mizu when he is training to fight her. The one on the left is from a website detailing the mask’s meaning and use. The masks in these photos are almost exactly the same. They are the same because these masks are called hannya masks. Hannya masks are used in traditional Japanese Noh theater to represent female onryō (Ghost in Japanese Folklore). Thus, the show is once again calling Mizu and onryō.

Why Is This Important?

While there is definitely a parallel between Mizu and onryō, why is it important to notice? There are many reasons for pointing this comparison out, but I decided to write about it because I feel like Mizu’s story points to the reason onryōs exists. One obvious difference between Mizu and an onryō that I have not covered is the fact that Mizu is alive. I may have stated that she metaphorically “died,” but in all actuality, she can fight for justice and revenge while alive when onryō cannot. This specific difference is the reason I chose to write this. Mizu can get her revenge alive because everyone thinks she is a man. 

In episode four, Madame Kaji explains that she can not get her revenge and that Mizu has to do it for her because “revenge is a luxury to men.” This means men have the opportunity and are encouraged to fight those who have wronged them. They are allowed to fight for their honor and justice, but women are not. Many onryō are women who have been betrayed, traumatized, or violated by the world around them. They are women who didn’t have the opportunity to fight back in life, so they had to do it in death. 

Knowing the stories of onryō is important because they help us understand the suffrage of a woman’s life and the emotions she feels when the world around her disregards her in her time of need. Knowing how Mizu compares and differs from an onryō is important because it shows the inequality of justice. Why does Mizu get to have her revenge alive because everyone thinks she is a man, but women like Oiwa have to die to get their justice because they are women?  

Works Cited

Campbell, Joseph. “Onryo Japanese Vengeful Spirit – Mythology Vault.” Mythology Vault, 19 Jan. 2024, mythologyvault.com/mythic-beings/spirits/onryo-japanese-vengeful-spirit/. Accessed 6 Dec. 2024.

“Ghost in Japanese Folklore.” Wikipedia.org, Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., 5 Mar. 2005, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onry%C5%8D. Accessed 6 Dec. 2024.

“Hannya.” Yokai, yokai.com/hannya/.

“Mizu.” Blue Eye Samurai Wiki, Fandom, Inc., 2024, blue-eye-samurai.fandom.com/wiki/Mizu#:~:text=Mizu%20is%20the%20main%20protagonist,to%20a%20quest%20of%20vengeance. Accessed 6 Dec. 2024.

“Onryō | Yokai.com.” Yokai.com, 2018, yokai.com/onryou/. Accessed 6 Dec. 2024.

“The Ghosts of Japan.” Washington Post: Creative Group, The Washington Post, 2 Aug. 2019, http://www.washingtonpost.com/brand-studio/amc/the-ghosts-of-japan/. Accessed 6 Dec. 2024.