Tag - kaidan

 
 

KAIDAN

Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Oct 5, 2019
'Japanese Ghost Stories': The ghostly ascent of Lafcadio Hearn's tales of the supernatural
Japanologist Lafcadio Hearn has languished in relative obscurity outside of Japan. But with the recent publication of several books about his life and works, there are signs this is beginning to change.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / JAPAN TIMES BLOGROLL
Apr 17, 2014
Hyakumonogatari Kaidankai: Tales of the Weird and the Strange
While many overseas scholars are attracted to the retrained aesthetics of Japanese arts and letters, it was the country's wild and wooly folklore that captivated Zack Davisson, an American writer and translator. While pursuing his masters degree in Japanese studies Davisson immersed himself in the mysterious world of kaidan. These are not your horror ghost stories, but any story that has an element of the strange and unusual.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Aug 24, 2013
Chilling tales are tops when trying to beat the heat
Perhaps stemming from the belief that hearing a scary story will send a chill down the spine and provide welcome relief from the summer heat, August is Japan's favorite season for traditional tales of horror. At local festivals and in theme parks, the obake yashiki (haunted house) is a standby for dating couples. A few of the bolder ones might even head for the sites of historic murders or hauntings, such as the shrine to O-Iwa, located a short walk from Yotsuya-Sanchome Station on the Marunouchi Subway Line. It is said to memorialize a young woman who was killed by an unfaithful husband who coveted her inheritance. She then returned to wreak terrible vengeance, as featured in Tsuruya Nanboku's celebrated 1825 kabuki drama, "Tokaido Yotsuya Kaidan."

Longform

Historically, kabuki was considered the entertainment of the merchant and peasant classes, a far cry from how it is regarded today.
For Japan's oldest kabuki theater, the show must go on