In the old Japanese, or, more correctly speaking, Chinese Buddhist
literature relating to the gaki, the Sanscrit names of the gaki are
given in a majority of cases; but some classes of gaki described have
only Chinese names. As the Indian belief reached Japan by way of
China and Korea, it is likely to have received a peculiar colouring
in the course of its journey. But, in a general way, the Japanese
classification of gaki corresponds closely to the Indian classification
of the pretas.
The place of gaki in the Buddhist system is but one degree removed from
the region of the hells, or Jigokudō,--the lowest of all the States
of Existence. Above the Jigokudō is the Gakidō, or World of Hungry
Spirits; above the Gakidō is the Chikushōdō, or World of Animals; and
above this, again, is the Shuradō, a region of perpetual fighting
and slaughter. Higher than these is placed the Ningendō, or World of
Mankind.
Now a person released from hell, by exhaustion of the karma that sent
him there, is seldom reborn at once into the zone of human existence,
but must patiently work his way upward thither, through all the
intermediate states of being. Many of the gaki have been in hell.
But there are gaki also who have not been in hell. Certain kinds or
degrees of sin may cause a person to be reborn as a gaki immediately
after having died in this world. Only the greatest degree of sin
condemns the sinner directly to hell. The second degree degrades him to
the Gakidō. The third causes him to be reborn as an animal.
*
Japanese Buddhism recognizes thirty-six principal classes of gaki.
"Roughly counting," says the Shōbō-nen-jō-kyō, "we find thirty-six
classes of gaki; but should we attempt to distinguish all the different
varieties, we should find them to be innumerable." The thirty-six
classes form two great divisions, or orders. One comprises all
"Gaki-World-dwellers" (_Gaki-Sekai-Ju_);--that is to say, all Hungry
Spirits who remain in the Gakidō proper, and are, therefore, never seen
by mankind. The other division is called Nin-chū-Jū, or "Dwellers among
men": these gaki remain always in this world, and are sometimes seen.
There is yet another classification of gaki, according to the character
of their penitential torment. All gaki suffer hunger and thirst; but
there are three degrees of this suffering. The _Muzai-gaki_ represent
the first degree: they must hunger and thirst uninterruptedly, without
obtaining any nourishment whatever. The _Shōzai-gaki_ suffer only in
the second degree: they are able to feed occasionally upon impure
substances. The _Usai-gaki_ are more fortunate: they can eat such
remains of food as are thrown away by men, and also the offerings of
food set before the images of the gods, or before the tablets of the
ancestors. The last two classes of gaki are especially interesting,
because they are supposed to meddle with human affairs.
*
Before modern science introduced exact knowledge of the nature and
cause of certain diseases, Buddhists explained the symptoms of such
diseases by the hypothesis of gaki. Certain kinds of intermittent
fever, for example, were said to be caused by a gaki entering the
human body for the sake of nourishment and warmth. At first the
patient would shiver with cold, because the gaki was cold. Then, as
the gaki gradually became warm, the chill would pass, to be succeeded
by a burning heat. At last the satiated haunter would go away, and
the fever disappear; but upon another day, and usually at an hour
corresponding to that of the first attack, a second fit of ague would
announce the return of the gaki. Other zymotic disorders could be
equally well explained as due to the action of gaki.
*
In the Shōbō-nen-jō-kyō a majority of the thirty-six kinds of gaki are
associated with putrescence, disease, and death. Others are plainly
identified with insects. No particular kind of gaki is identified by
name with any particular kind of insect; but the descriptions suggest
conditions of insect-life; and such suggestions are reënforced by a
knowledge of popular superstitions. Perhaps the descriptions are vague
in the case of such spirits as the _Jiki-ketsu-gaki_, or Blood-suckers;
the _Jiki-niku-gaki_, or Flesh-eaters; the _Jiki-da-gaki,_ or * * * * *
*-eaters; the _Jiki-fun-gaki_, or * * * *-eaters; the _Jiki-doku-gaki_,
or Poison-eaters; the Jiki-fu-gaki, or Wind-eaters; the Jiki-ké-gaki,
or Smell-eaters; the _Jiki-kwa-gaki_, or Fire-eaters (perhaps they
fly into lamps?); the _Shikkō-gaki_, who devour corpses and cause
pestilence; the _Shinen-gaki_, who appear by night as wandering fires;
the _Shin-ko-gaki_, or Needle-mouthed; and the _Kwaku-shin-gaki_, or
Cauldron-bodied,--each a living furnace, filled with flame that keeps
the fluids of its body humming like a boiling pot. But the suggestion
of the following excerpts[2] will not be found at all obscure:--
*
"Jiki-man-gaki.--These gaki can live only by eating the wigs of false
hair with which the statues of certain divinities are decorated....
Such will be the future condition of persons who steal objects of value
from Buddhist temples.
"Fujō-ko-hyaku-gaki.--These gaki can eat only street filth and
refuse. Such a condition is the consequence of having given putrid or
unwholesome food to priests or nuns, or pilgrims in need of alms.
"Cho-ken-ju-jiki-netsu-gaki.--These are the eaters of the refuse of
funeral-pyres and of the clay of graves.... They are the spirits of men
who despoiled Buddhist temples for the sake of gain.
"Ju-chū-gaki.--These spirits are born within the wood of trees, and
are tormented by the growing of the grain. ... Their condition is
the result of having cut down shade-trees for the purpose of selling
the timber. Persons who cut down the trees in Buddhist cemeteries or
temple-grounds are especially likely to become ju-chū-gaki."[3]
Moths, flies, beetles, grubs, worms, and other unpleasant creatures
seem thus to be indicated. But some kinds of gaki cannot be identified
with insects,--for example, the species called Jiki-hō-gaki, or
"Doctrine-eaters." These can exist only by hearing the preaching of
the Law of the Buddha in some temple. While they hear such preaching,
their torment is assuaged; but at all other times they suffer
agonies unspeakable. To this condition are liable after death all
Buddhist priests or nuns who proclaim the law for the mere purpose
of making money.... Also there are gaki who appear sometimes in
beautiful human shapes. Such are the _Yoku-shiki-gaki_, spirits of
lewdness,--corresponding in some sort to the _incubi_ and _succubi_ of
our own Middle Ages. They can change their sex at will, and can make
their bodies as large or as small as they please. It is impossible to
exclude them from any dwelling, except by the use of holy charms and
spells, since they are able to pass through an orifice even smaller
than the eye of a needle. To seduce young men, they assume beautiful
feminine shapes,--often appearing at wine parties as waitresses or
dancing girls. To seduce women they take the form of handsome lads.
This state of _Yoku-shiki-gaki_ is a consequence of lust in some
previous human existence; but the supernatural powers belonging to
their condition are results of meritorious Karma which the evil Karma
could not wholly counterbalance.
Even concerning the _Yoku-shiki-gaki_, however, it is plainly stated
that they may take the form of insects. Though wont to appear in human
shape, they can assume the shape of any animal or other creature, and
"fly freely in all directions of space,"--or keep their bodies "so
small that mankind cannot see them...." All insects are not necessarily
gaki; but most gaki can assume the form of insects when it serves their
purpose.
[Footnote 2: Abridged from the Shōbō-nen-jō-Kyō. A full translation of
the extraordinary chapter relating to the gaki would try the reader's
nerves rather severely.]
[Footnote 3: The following story of a tree-spirit is typical:--In
the garden of a Samurai named Satsuma Shichizaëmon, who lived in the
village of Echigawa in the province of Ōmi, there was a very old
énoki. (The énoki, or "Celtis chinensis," is commonly thought to be a
goblin-tree.) From ancient times the ancestors of the family had been
careful never to cut a branch of this tree or to remove any of its
leaves. But Shichizaëmon, who was very self-willed, one day announced
that he intended to have the tree cut down. During the following
night a monstrous being appeared to the mother of Shichizaëmon, in a
dream, and told her that if the inoki were cut down, every member of
the household should die. But when this warning was communicated to
Shichizaëmon, he only laughed; and he then sent a man to cut down the
tree. No sooner had it been cut down than Shichizaëmon became violently
insane. For several days he remained furiously mad, crying out at
intervals, "The tree! the tree! the tree!" He said that the tree put
out its branches, like hands, to tear him. In this condition he died.
Soon afterward his wife went mad, crying out that the tree was killing
her; and she died screaming with fear. One after another, all the
people in that house, not excepting the servants, went mad and died.
The dwelling long remained unoccupied thereafter, no one daring even to
enter the garden. At last it was remembered that before these things
happened a daughter of the Satsuma family had become a Buddhist nun,
and that she was still living, under the name of Jikun, in a temple at
Yamashirō. This nun was sent for; and by request of the villagers she
took up her residence in the house, where she continued to live until
the time of her death,--daily reciting a special service on behalf of
the spirit that had dwelt in the tree. From the time that she began to
live in the house the tree-spirit ceased to give trouble. This story is
related on the authority of the priest Shungyō, who said that he had
heard it from the lips of the nun herself.]