Obscure Mythology Chapter 7: Gaki, malevolent spirits of the dead in Japanese myth.

Welcome to installment 7 of my look at obscure mythology. Today we are on the letter G and I figured we should probably get some eastern mythology involved so I happened across the Gaki, Malevolent spirits of the dead in Japanese culture. It is a short entry but after I read it I figured I’d have to share it for a few reasons you will probably see as you read what these evil ghosts did.  So, without further ado let us learn about the Gaki.

Gaki: a malevolent spirit of the dead: ghost, Japanese:

These beings crept into the bodies of mortals to take nourishment from the food ingested by their hosts since they have no digestive organs of their own. As a result, the Gakis put on weight while their hosts become thinner.

The first thing that came to my mind after I read this was writing a story or movie about a couple of ghost hunters who capture these Gakis and then sell them to obese people to use as a way to diet! Imagine instead of going to the local pharmacy for diet pills or working out at the gym you just pay some family or person for the right to their spirit after they are dead. I can think of a hundred different stories about this idea. Everyone would be walking around thin as a stick while some fat, slobbery ghost trails behind them just waiting to jump inside their host for another meal. Of course, there would end up being laws, taxes, licenses  and such put on ghost ownership so the government could cash in as well. While diet pill companies, liposuction places and gym owners would attempt to make using gaki illegal or very expensive and of course there would be ghost rights activists who would say the whole thing is just like slavery and should not be allowed. I love how one little myth from hundreds or even thousands of years ago can end up with so many awesome and horrifying ideas. It was for thata exact reason that I started doing this obscure mythology, I want to look back at some of these ancient myths and try to understand them or at least spread them again. I still can’t get the image of an obese phantom trailing behind some guy waiting for him to sit down to eat and then when the guy does this phantom just slips right in and starts shoveling food into his hosts mouth. I imagine a restaurant full of phantom filled people staring straight ahead like zombies while their ghoulish companions cram food down their throats. Well I think I have painted a good enough image of what I think today’s society would look like if we had gakis running around, I hope you all found this as interesting as I did and I cannot wait to share chapter 8 with you next week. Until then have a great weekend and as always, PEACE!!!!!!