Kwaidan
Overview
A collection published in English in 1904 by Lafcadio Hearn (Koizumi Yakumo), under the full title Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things. It contains more than a dozen ghost stories, including "The Story of Mimi-Nashi-Hoichi," "Yuki-Onna," "Rokuro-Kubi" and "Mujina," along with "Insect Studies," essays on butterflies, mosquitoes and ants. Drawing on old Japanese books and folk legends, it retells them in short, limpid English.
Background
Hearn was a writer and journalist born in Greece and raised in Ireland. He came to Japan in 1890, became an English teacher at a middle school in Matsue, and married Koizumi Setsu. He later moved to Kumamoto, Kobe and Tokyo, became a Japanese citizen in 1896 and took the name Koizumi Yakumo. In Meiji Japan, rapidly modernizing and Westernizing, Hearn was drawn to old beliefs and ways of feeling that were being lost. It is said that Setsu told him ghost stories from old books, and he asked her to tell them not from the book but "in your own words." Kwaidan was published in the year he died.
Highlights
- Hoichi the EarlessBlind Hoichi plays the biwa for the Taira ghosts. His whole body was covered in sutra, but his ears were forgotten.Read “The Story of Mimi-Nashi-Hoichi” →
- Yuki-OnnaA white woman seen in a hut in a blizzard, and a promise to tell no one. He tells Oyuki, now his wife, about that night.Read “Yuki-Onna” →
- MujinaThe woman weeping on Kii-no-kuni-zaka has no face. He flees to a noodle stall... A short, vivid ending.Read “Mujina” →
- OshidoriA hunter shoots a mandarin drake. That night the female appears in his dream, weeping. A poignant little piece.Read “Oshidori” →