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Some playing with Winged Soul Flies Off at Death?
If you're looking at works from Japan, its likely at least a mild reference to the Kami of Shinto (everything has a spirit, even inanimate objects) and Tsukumogami (essentially, items that have come to life over time, the article gets into more detail)
The Red Indians have the Manitou thing - the idea that everything has a soul and any artefact created by a human being carries something of the purpose and the intention of the person who did thae making - if the object is broken, the manitou persists, if only briefly. Terry Pratchett uses this idea in the Discworld, where a spirit medium still moves a glass on a table - only she fills it first, and then sets light to the alcohol, thus summoning her familiar ghost with the promise of the ghost of a drink.
Edited by AgProv Male, early sixties, Cranky old fart, at least two decades behind. So you have been warned. Functionally illiterate in several languages.
2 examples I've found
- One episode of Spongebob Squarepants has Spobgebob turned into a ghost, meaning he can't interact with normal objects (except when needed to set up a gag). He tries to pick up a spatula and fails to hold it, so he grabs it and breaks it in half, allowing him to use the spatula's ghost... except it now goes through the patties.
- Reaper Man: At the book's climax, Death takes his old scythe's blade and smashes it in two, using the blade's ghost to fight the new Death of Humans.
Apparently, items/things (up to very mundane ones), when they're broken, they'll release a ghost/spirit akin to a dying human/creature.
It could be something real in-universe or it could just be a gag.
What do we call this?