Perfect Memento: Encyclopedia: Death Gods

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地獄の観光案内人	Tour Guides to Hell
死神	Death Gods
主な危険度：　　低	Usual threat level: Low
遭遇頻度：　　　低	Frequency of encounters: Low
多様性：　　　　低	Diversity: Low
主な遭遇場所：　三途の河付近	Main place of encounters: Near the Sanzu River
主な遭遇時間：　不明	Main time of encounters: Unknown
特徴	Characteristics
死神は幻想郷に住む妖怪ではないが、稀に幻想郷にも現れるのでここで紹介する。	Even though shinigami are not youkai who live in Gensokyo, since they do rarely appear in Gensokyo, they will be given an introduction here.
死神は、普段に地獄に住み、人間の寿命を管理する事務職や、幽霊の道案内、三途の河の船頭、観光ガイドなどを担う地獄の民である。	Shinigami usually live in Hell, working at the Ministry that determines the life spans of humans, providing directions to spirits, acting as ferrymen on the Sanzu River, and are burdened with performing other "tour guide"-type duties for the inhabitants of Hell.
人間が死を迎えると、死神が魂を持っていくというイメージは後から付けられたもので、本当は閻魔王の手足となって働く労働要員である。	Going out to greet humans when they die, the image of shinigami coming to take one's soul away only came about later. In reality, they're performing manual labor that is the physical manifestation of the Yama's will.
死神の特徴として、大きな鎌を持っている事が挙げられる。	Regarding the characteristics of a shinigami, it will be mentioned that they carry with them an enormous scythe.
この鎌は、死神として箔を付ける為に持っていると言われているが、実際は地獄の民が死者に向けて行うサービスの一環である。	It could be said that this scythe acts as a foil to the shinigami, when in practical reality, it is one of the services from the inhabitants of Hell to the recently deceased.
大鎌を持った死神を見た死者に『本当に死神って居たんだぁ』と喜んで貰おうという訳である（＊１）。	When the deceased first gazes upon the shinigami wielding the giant scythe, it's been said that they think "there really are such things as shinigami" and then merrily receive their fate (*1).
主な死神の仕事	Main Jobs of a Death God
寿命の管理	Administration of Life Span
生きている人間の寿命を記録し、予定と異なる場合が見つかれば、再度寿命を計算し直す（＊２）。	Keeping watch over the life spans of living humans, if something happens that wasn't in the plans, a recalculation of one's life span is performed (*2).
膨大な資料に囲まれながら計算を繰り返す職業なので、事務職に向いている死神が従事する。	Because even when surrounded by massive bulks of data and documents, one has to further do repeat calculations, shinigami who are cut out for such a job are always being sought after.
地獄の受付嬢	Receptionist of Hell
地獄のシステムに不慣れな幽霊がやってくるので、その幽霊に説明したり、行き先を案内したりする。	Because spirits who don't know about how the system works in Hell will come around, they will explain the details to the spirits and present them with directions to various destinations.
見た目が地獄向けな死神が担当する。	Appearances show that the Hell-oriented shinigami are in charge of this role.
三途の河の船頭	Ferrymen for the Sanzu River
三途の河に来た幽霊を、賃金を貰って彼岸に渡す仕事である。	Taking the fare paid by the spirits who come to the Sanzu River, they then have the job of ferrying the spirits to Higan.
外勤で肉体労働の為、人気は低い。	Because this involves hard manual labor away from the office, it's not very popular.
しかし、仕事は一人で行い、自分のペースで仕事が出来たり、色んな幽霊と話が出来たりと、好きな人はとことん好きな仕事である。	But because you work by yourself, at your own pace, and can meet and talk with all kinds of spirits, those who can like this kind of work will come to thoroughly enjoy it.
裁判の書記	Judicial Clerk
閻魔様の裁判に同席し、内容を記録する仕事。	Sitting in at the court of the Lord Yamas, this work further involves documenting the minutes of the proceedings.
死神の中で最もエリートが従事する仕事であるが、内容は地味。	Only the elite among the shinigami are sought for this position, but the actual work itself is fairly simple.
＊１ 割と好評。	1: Reputed as a relative favorite.
＊２ 記録するだけなので、予定に変更があっても殺したりはしない。	2: Because this only involves records keeping, even if something deviates from the plans, the shinigami may not kill.

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• Previous: pg. 101-102 Spirit
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