Are 化け物 and おばけ really the same thing?


Most sources on the internet, such as [How are 化け物, 妖怪, 幽霊, etc. related to
each other?](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/1528/how-
are-%E5%8C%96%E3%81%91%E7%89%A9-%E5%A6%96%E6%80%AA-%E5%B9%BD%E9%9C%8A-etc-
related-to-each-other), seem to say that 化け物 and おばけ are two separate words
for the same type of creature. But even if that's true in theory, in practice
it seems better to understand 化け物 as 'monster' and おばけ as 'ghost'.

It would seem kind of silly to call a person おばけ as an insult, for example.
The Google results for searching 化け物 are things I would recognize as monsters
but not as ghosts, and おばけ gets ghosts rather than monsters. Same goes for
ばけもの and お化け (though the results for お化け are rather creepier than おばけ).

So: In practice, is there a difference between 化け物 and おばけ?




heh. Looks to me like you've basically answered your question IN your
question.

Essentially, ばけもの/化け物 can be thought of as "scary supernatural things" aka
"monsters" though I think the Japanese idea of 化け物 is much broader than the
western idea of monster, including spiritual creatures such as demons, youkai
(妖怪), and yes, ghosts. ... Japanese 妖怪 are another very broad category of
monsters in and of itself. Check wikipedia. ;) ....おばけ, on the other hand,
always refers specifically to ghosts/spirits. And as another user pointed out,
almost exclusively the cute/funny kind, like Casper or maybe Slimer.

Whether human shaped or otherwise, if it's floaty, see-through, glowing, or
cannot normally be seen by people unless it wants to be seen, etc., it's an
おばけ. Part of the confusion might be because the Japanese version of the spirit
world contains so many more types of spirits than the western version.

One more thing: when Japanese people are specifically talking about
ghosts/spirits, the kind that closely match the western sense, they use the
word yuurei 幽霊. Obake includes yuurei, but again is much broader.

