Where did the ghost of the sky reside? Are there dead people in the sky, taken away before they should have completed their work in life? Stories were about life; it was like a tower that people climbed throughout their lives. Once they reached the top, they departed the earth and climbed that rope to the heavenly world. If it was not stable because of the harmful acts in their lives, they dropped back down to earth, eventually becoming sky and earthbound spirits for centuries. Towers were decorated with carved heavenly images, and people wore robes with abstract patterns that depicted the sky during funerals. The people of the mythical world had words for unseen things of the atmosphere that had defied logical conclusions. Ghosts were called the Unattained Wanderers, the Screeching Flyers, and the Forgotten Children; these were people or animals that didn’t complete their paths in life. People had seen semi-invisible animals or creatures that leaped around the sky and were on fire, screaming after such events, storms that flooded coastal cities and inland settlements. People claimed they saw dead relatives floating around in the sky, near the places where they had lived and the burial towers where they were kept.

The question was, were these things ghosts? Certain people built spirits, crafters who worked with the invisible or transparent things between the physical world and the unseen. The ghost makers were called the makers of the unseen guardians because artificial ghosts once protected the high temple towers and gardens. Were these real fake ghosts, or was it some illusional trick that fooled people? They existed, spirits resembling translucent glass, transparent liquid, or heavy mist; these ghosts protected people against the unseen things that tried to destroy their lives. People lived with artificial and natural ghosts; they were also made to care for the forests and plains in the darkness. They looked like small humanoids with kind of stubby limbs and glowing spheres of light that surrounded them, and their bodies were transparent and glowed. This ghost lived on the extreme top of trees, which lighted at night; on the forest floor, they came down from the treetops, hovering among the mushrooms, pine cones, and ferns.

In that mythical world, ghosts were part of everyday life for many people. They existed, and an entire culture developed around their existence.

Robert J. Matsunaga