Kwaidan :: 怪談

Came across Lafcadio Hearn's 'Kwaidan' (or 'kaidan' really, and in kanji,「怪談'」 mentioned in cavalock's blog post. I've watched the 1965 film when I was a kid, and I know the genre of 'kaidan' but I never read the stories in this book.

Lafcadio Hearn's life (June 1850 - September 1904) didn't seem to be filled with happiness although it was a rather privileged one. He seemed to have finally have found happiness in Japan during the last decade of his existence, which resulted in 'Kwaidan' being written in 1904. He became a teacher in a middle school, then a professor of literature at rather prestigious Japanese universities, married a Japanese wife, and even had a pen name of Koizumi Yakumo (小泉八雲).

 I've never read any of the author's other works. These stories in 'Kwaidan' aren't exactly categorized as 'horror', but more of folktales, mythology and legends of the old. It's a short read! It compiled stories of many types of yōkai (妖怪) in Japanese folklore. It also tells of strange happenings of love and reincarnation, forest spirits in human form, et cetera. Very quaint and rather romantic. The prose is indeed, as what cavalock said, "charming".

I was highly amused by 'Rokuro-Kubi'. The story tells of a samurai who cut off his hair and became traveling priest. He took the the roads and reached the mountains in the province of Kai. In the mountains, he accepted the hospitality of a woodcutter who lived in a hut with four other people. Of course in the middle of the night, he discovered the five bodies in the other room, lain without heads, and bloodless. He realized he had been lured into the dwelling of a Rokuro-Kubi (ろくろ首). The rokurokubi is a flying head that talks and plots and eats people. It's quite a merry little tale that ends with a robber buying a flying head from the priest and getting all scared when he realizes what it is.  

A day or two after leaving Suwa, Kwairyō met with a robber, who stopped him in a lonesome place, and bade him strip. Kwairyō at once removed his koromo, and offered it to the robber, who then first perceived what was hanging to the sleeve. Though brave, the highwayman was startled: he dropped the garment, and sprang back. Then he cried out:—"You!—what kind of a priest are you? Why, you are a worse man than I am! It is true that I have killed people; but I never walked about with anybody's head fastened to my sleeve.... Well, Sir priest, I suppose we are of the same calling; and I must say that I admire you! ... Now that head would be of use to me: I could frighten people with it. Will you sell it? You can have my robe in exchange for your koromo; and I will give you five ryõ for the head."

Towards the end in 'Hi-Mawari', we're suddenly transported to Wales. Ermm. Okay. That was disjointed. This story is written in first person narrative, so I assumed the author is kinda retelling a childhood experience. I was also thrown off by the final three stories because they deal with insects in first person narrative. Butterflies, mosquitoes and ants. From the author's perspective, he shares the tales of insects in Chinese and Japanese culture and mythology, and opines his thoughts about it. Okaaaaay.