Tales of Moonlight and Rain (Ugetsu Monogatari)
Overview
A yomihon published in 1776, nine stories in five volumes: "Shiramine," "The Chrysanthemum Vow," "The House Amid the Thickets," "The Carp of My Dreams," "Bupposo," "The Kibitsu Cauldron," "The Lust of the White Serpent," "The Blue Hood" and "On Poverty and Wealth." Drawing on Chinese vernacular fiction and Japanese classics but transplanting them to Japanese places and history, it portrays the extremes of the human heart, grudges, obsessive love, loyalty, as tales of the supernatural. The title comes from the preface, which says it was finished on a night when the rain had stopped and the moon was hazy.
Background
Ueda Akinari was raised as the adopted son of an Osaka merchant dealing in paper and oil; he studied National Learning and later also practiced medicine. In eighteenth-century Osaka and Kyoto, Chinese vernacular novels were in fashion, and the "yomihon," which adapted them, was born. This work is an early masterpiece of the genre, notable for its elegant Japanese prose mixed with Chinese vocabulary. Akinari is also known for his later dispute with Motoori Norinaga.
Highlights
- ShiramineSaigyo visits Emperor Sutoku's tomb, and the emperor, now a vengeful spirit, appears and says he will throw the realm into chaos. A powerful exchange between the two.Read “Shiramine” →
- The Chrysanthemum VowA sworn brother who promised to return is imprisoned and cannot come home, so he takes his own life and arrives on the promised day as a spirit.Read “The Chrysanthemum Vow” →
- The House Amid the ThicketsA husband kept away by war returns seven years later to find his wife waiting in the ruined house. What does he see when he wakes the next morning?Read “The House Amid the Thickets” →
- The Kibitsu CauldronThe ghost of a betrayed wife hunts down her husband. The terror of the last night is among the finest in Japanese ghost stories.Read “The Kibitsu Cauldron” →