The Motif of Vengeful Spirits in Japanese Urban Legends

While urban legends have become increasingly widespread with the development of the Internet, systematic research on urban legends, especially in regions with a prominent urban legend culture like Japan, remains scarce. Aiming to clarify the crucial element of ‘motif’ within narratives, this paper focuses on studying the motif of vengeful spirits in Japanese urban legends. It does so by identifying the characteristics of the vengeful spirit motif in relation to the cultural characteristics of Japanese urban legends and by examining how this motif is artistically expressed through characters, plots, and symbols within urban legends. Employing a combination of three specialized methods – historical–cultural analysis, semiotics, and structural analysis – the study will examine the three key characteristics of the motif: mutability, punishment, and reflection. These characteristics will be analyzed in terms of their corresponding aspects and meanings. The findings of this research can contribute to the theoretical understanding of urban legends, provide a research model for approaching popular culture and literature, and be introduced into undergraduate and graduate foreign literature curricula.