Sadako Yamamura (Yamamura Sadako 山村貞子) is the antagonist of the Ring novels, television drama, and films in Japan. Her character has been adapted into American and Korean counterparts for their respective localizations of Hideo Nakata's 1998 film, The Ring and The Ring Virus. (See Samara Morgan and Park Eun-Suh.)
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OriginsEdit
EtymologyEdit
Sadako's name is Japanese for "chaste child" (sada: chaste and ko: child). This may be an indication of her inability to reproduce in the novels due to Testicular Feminization Syndrome and her obsession with procreating in the later novels. In Japan, the name has since been negatively associated with ghosts, though it was once a popular name for girls.
MythologyEdit
Sadako's evil spirit is based off of the Japanese concept of onryō (怨霊) or "vengeful ghosts." Onryō were thought to be the souls of those who died with extreme hatred, particularly women. They all have a specified appearance: pale women with long, disheveled black hair wearing white burial clothes. (In ancient Japan, women's hair was kept up until death.) Sadako herself is based off of two famous onryō: Okiku of Banchō Sarayashiki (番町皿屋敷, The Dish Mansion at Banchō) who was murdered and thrown down a well by the samurai she spurned, and Oiwa of the Yotsuya Kaidan (四谷怪談) who was fooled into drinking poison and murdered by her husband.