Monday 11 April 2016

I - Inky & Ikiryo - Fictional Phantoms #AtoZChallenge 2016


Hello (again) and welcome to my blog this lovely Monday, I hope you all had a great weekend. Today I have two fictional phantoms who are both Japanese, only one is animated and the other is all about people.

Inky (Pac-Man)

Inky is the cyan ghost from Pac-man and he's been around since the original arcade game. He's also the tricky one. He has no pattern in how he reacts to Pac-man so it is impossible to predict what he will do.

Blinky (red) chases Pac-man all the time like a one ghost army; Inky might as well, if he is in the mood.

Pinky (pink - bet you didn't guess that one :)) can jump ahead of Pac-man when you least expect it; so can Inky when he feels like it.

Clyde (orange) chases, but then wanders back to his corner when he get's too close and on occasion, Inky might do this too.

It all depends, making Inky a unpredictable ghost who can really put a spanner in the works.

Ikiryo (The Tale of Genji)

Written text from the earliest
illustrated handscroll (12th century)
An Ikiryo is a ghost of a living person and is a popular belief in Japan where the spirit leaves the body to haunt people or places. It has often been used in fiction and these spirits can be vengeful and dangerous.

The story I am interested in first is the classic The Tale of Genji which was written in the early years of the 11th century and Aoi no Ue, the Noh play of the same story,

In it Genji has a lover, the Lady Rokujo who's Ikiryo leaves her body and torments Genji's pregnant wife Aoi no Ue, which causes her to die after childbirth.

There is another Ikiryo in the medieval anthology Konjaku Monogatarishu in the tale "How the Ikiryo Spirit of Omi Province Came and Killed a Man of the Capital", which kind of gives away the plot! In the story a commoner encounters a noble woman who he guides to the house of a noble man, where she disappears at the gates. What he couldn't have realised was that the woman was in fact the Ikiryo of the man's former wife, who proceeds to cause the man an illness that kills him.

The wrath of a woman scorned in Japanese literature can truly be terrible it seems.

I think I'd rather be up again Inky than an Ikiryo, what do you think?

~*~
My Other Blogs
I am sharing blogging duties with my sister, Sophie, on two other blogs for the AtoZ as well :

And Sophie also has her own blog in the AtoZ too:

~*~
Other People's Blogs
Don't forget to check out the other participant in this years AtoZChallenge. Click on the image to visit the main site and see the full list.

51 comments:

  1. Inky is just wishy-washy!

    ~Ninja Minion Patricia Lynne aka Patricia Josephine~
    Story Dam
    Patricia Lynne, Indie Author

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  2. I agree with you, I would rather go against Inky :) I loved playing PacMan when it first came out; such a great game!

    betty

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    1. I am really, really bad at Pac-Man :) I just never seemed to get the hang of it - then again I couldn't do Donkey Kong either, so I'm just pretty pathetic. Pong I could manage :)

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  3. Love Inky and the Pac Man ghosts; I even made a bracelet dedicated to Pac Man!

    Pac Man Bracelet

    My first year taking part in the A to Z!

    I definitely want to face Inky not the other one!

    @TrollbeadBlog from
    Curling Stones for Lego People

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    1. Awww, that's adorable :) I think Inky is much less likely to be dangerous :)

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  4. You know I didn't Inky got the proper attention after all these years, thank you for giving PAC-MAN fever... :)

    Very Nice Post... but you know that, that's why you posted it! Right!

    Welcome in the letter "I"... thank you!
    Jeremy [Retro]
    AtoZ Challenge Co-Host [2016]

    Stop over and find a free "SIX STRINGS: BLOGGING AtoZ CHALLENGE" Here: http://www.jmhdigital.com/

    HOLLYWOOD NUTS!
    You know you want to know if me or Hollywood... is Nuts?

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    1. I honestly didn't know the ghosts had names until I went looking for an I and then Inky popped up and it sounded like he needed some love :)

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  5. Pac Man - what a hoot! That sure takes me back! I'd take Inky any day of the week over Ikiryo.

    Cheers - Ellen | http://thecynicalsailor.blogspot.com/2016/04/i-is-for-island-nancy-drew-investigates.html

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  6. Inky reminded me of Ink, one of by favorite obscure movies. It is about storytellers and dreams, in a way, and very much worth watching... :)

    @TarkabarkaHolgy from
    The Multicolored Diary
    MopDog

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    Replies
    1. I have heard of this movie, but never seen it - I shall add it to the queue, thank you :)

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  7. Okay, if I have to choose. I agree with Inky. Those revengeful ghosts are vicious!
    Happy Monday!

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  8. I haven't thought of PacMan in years but that is a cute little character. Not as scary as the other one!!!

    Meet My Imaginary Friends
    #AtoZchallenge http://www.kathleenvalentineblog.com/

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    1. He does look rather cute - shame he eats Pac-man when given the chance :)

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  9. These Ikiryo sound like a great device for storytelling. Fascinating.

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    1. They do, don't they :) I've heard of living ghosts before, but most of them seem to be warnings, where as this one is nasty!

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  10. You're right. Give me Inky any day. Those Japanese ghosts give me the creeps!

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  11. Love Pac man too and you brought it live...

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    1. I was always so bad at it :) I'd die quickly every time.

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  12. I wasn't aware the Pacman ghosts had names... I played way too litte...
    A great ghost for letter I!

    ClaoWue
    from
    Potpourri

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    1. I wasn't either until Inky popped up on a search :)

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  13. Yeah... Inky seems more manageable. ~grin~ As for Japanese Yōkai, I have some beautiful artwork featuring various spirits. The artist moved from the USA to Japan and I can't help feeling a little envious, at least at his intrepid nature.
    Awakening Dreams and Conquering Nightmares with a Pen
    Take care!

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    1. Let's hope he doesn't find any real subjects, because they all seem rather intent on doing people in :)

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  14. I didn't know that the ghosts in Pac Man had names. Pac Man is one of those nostalgic games that remind me of my childhood.

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    1. Me either - it was a revelation when he popped up in a list of fictional ghosts on wikipedia :)

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  15. "The wrath of a woman scorned in Japanese literature can truly be terrible it seems." Seriously.

    The vengeful spirit(particularly of a woman) appears a lot in contemporary film in Japan. The Grudge is possibly one of the better known versions. I think the creepiest aspect, apart from the ghost itself, is the way the curse seems to grow exponentially from the moment people come into contact with the ghost and then those who have come into contact with that individual, and so on. It probably gets a tad overused modernly, but I do love its ancient premise. :)

    The Immarcescible Word

    Frox'n'Fox

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    1. I love The Grudge - Asian horror really knows how to push the right buttons.

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  16. Love those unpredictable types--makes life more interesting.

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  17. The Japanese present the coolest ghosts and monsters!!!

    Piper Presley
    I is for Illnesses: Blogging from A to Z

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    1. I know, they do, don't they - mostly very deadly :)

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  18. Yeah, I'm going with Inky, too. At least all he does is chase Pac Man.

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  19. Do people still play Pac Man? Remember him from playing at the pizza parlour. :)
    Joy @ The Joyous Living

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    1. I have no idea - I was always so bad at it anyway :)

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  20. Oh gosh, Pac-Man was one of my favorite video games as a kid! Those ghosts! I loved when you got the power wafer and turned the tables on them!

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    1. I never did seem to be able to get that wafer - I always died :)

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  21. Best video game of all time. Yeah, give me Inky instead of vengeful Japanese ghost.
    Susan Says

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  22. I didn't know they were ghosts. I'm learning so much during this Challenge.

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    1. I always knew they were ghosts, just not that they had names until I looked them up :) I was kind of desperate for I and only found the Ikiryo later :)

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  23. I liked inky. He was my favorite one. I don't know why, but he was.

    I almost did this one for my I, but I liked. Ittan momen better.

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    1. The quilter's nightmare :) - that is a good one.

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  24. Replies
    1. He does seem like the better bed. All you have to do is distract him :)

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  25. The Japanese nail horror. No one can touch them.

    Inky is so cute. Definitely on Team Inky.

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    1. This is very true - they come up with some many nasty and deadly things and the way out is usually obscure or non-existent :)

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  26. I remember Pac-Man and Inky! ☺ He would definitely be a more mild-mannered adversary. The Japanese tale was fascinating. Nasty ghosts.

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