ABSTRACT
The belief in evil or restless spirits also helped bring Shinto and Buddhism together, and these spirits play major roles in Shinto and Shinto-Buddhist festivals. The Japanese called them either onryō (spiteful or grudge-filled spirits) or, because they had to be treated with great respect, goryō (august spirits). The fear and reverence in which they held these spirits further indicates the close ties between the world of the living and that of the dead in Japanese religion. Goryō ideology also connects with Japanese religious ideas on good and evil, pollution and purification, and devils, demons, and gods.
