Download or read book Strange Tales from Japan written by and published by Tuttle Publishing. This book was released on 2021-08-10 with total page 415 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Prepare to be spooked by these chilling Japanese short stories! Strange Tales from Japan presents 99 spine-tingling tales of ghosts, yokai, demons, shapeshifters and trickster animals who inhabit remote reaches of the Japanese countryside. 32 pages of traditional full-color images of these creatures, who have inhabited the Japanese imagination for centuries, bring the stories to life. The captivating tales in this volume include: The Vengeance of Oiwa--The terrifying spirit of a woman murdered by her husband who seeks retribution from beyond the grave The Curse of Okiku--A servant girl is murdered by her master and curses his family, with gruesome results The Snow Woman--A man is saved by a mysterious woman who swears him to secrecy Tales of the Kappa--Strange human-like sprites with green, scaly skin who live in water and are known to pull children and animals to their deaths And many, many more! Renowned translator William Scott Wilson explains the role these stories play in local Japanese culture and folklore, and their importance to understanding the Japanese psyche. Readers will learn which particular region, city, mountain or temple the stories originate from--in case you're brave enough to visit these haunts yourself!

Download or read book Japanese Ghost Stories written by Lafcadio Hearn and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2019-07-25 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The dead wreak revenge on the living, paintings come alive, spectral brides possess mortal men and a priest devours human flesh in these chilling Japanese ghost stories retold by a master of the supernatural. Lafcadio Hearn drew on the phantoms and ghouls of traditional Japanese folklore - including the headless 'rokuro-kubi', the monstrous goblins 'jikininki' or the faceless 'mujina' who stalk lonely neighbourhoods - and infused them with his own memories of his haunted childhood in nineteenth-century Ireland to create these terrifying tales of striking and eerie power. Today they are regarded in Japan as classics in their own right. Edited with an introduction by Paul Murray

Download or read book Supernatural and Mysterious Japan written by Catrien Ross and published by Tuttle Publishing. This book was released on 2015-11-03 with total page 161 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since time immemorial, tales of the spooky, paranormal, and mysterious have been staples of folklore across the world. Japan is no exception, and its unique position as a melting pot for cultures from around Asia gives it a particularly rich heritage of supernatural legend and tradition. To write this book on Japan's ghosts and other freaky phenomena, author Catrien Ross collected accounts of the eerie and terrifying from around Japan. Along the way, she braved frightening locales including the unquiet grave of the beautiful, betrayed Oiwa, and sacred Mount Osore, a gateway for communicating with the dead. The result of her journeys is a glimpse into hidden aspects of the Japanese world of the paranormal: a world of blind, women shamans, trees that grow human hair, weeping rocks, and even a graveyard where Jesus is reputed to have been buried. Covering ancient and modern times, Supernatural and Mysterious Japan offers not only some good, old-fashioned scary stories, but some special insights into Japanese culture and psychology. It delivers terrific entertainment—and some good chills—for the Japanophile and the aficioniado of the supernatural, alike.

Download or read book Strange Light Afar written by Rui Umezawa and published by Groundwood Books Ltd. This book was released on 2015-08-31 with total page 117 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A bitterly jealous brother, a samurai who makes the ultimate sacrifice, a cold-hearted husband, a monk who mistakes desire for piety, a fraudulent merchant who meets his match in a supernatural river otter — the motives underlying these traditional Japanese folktale characters are explored with haunting results. Prompted by the sometimes illogical and perplexing actions of folktale characters (Why doesn’t the wolf kill Little Red Riding Hood right away?), master storyteller Rui Umezawa revisits eight popular Japanese folktales, delving beneath their sometimes baffling plot lines to highlight the psychological motivations behind the characters’ actions. In “Betrayal,” a treacherous husband poisons his wife so he can marry another woman. In “Paradise,” a young man saves the life of a sea turtle, who takes him to a luxurious underwater palace, where his every whim is fulfilled. A brother in “Rage” is consumed by jealousy when his brother’s dog digs up a cache of gold. In “Honor,” a samurai kills himself to keep a promise made to his blood brother. Tales of addiction, bravery, sex, greed, abuse and control — these stories take their inspiration from the great Japanese storytelling traditions, as well as from Noh and Kabuki. Sometimes laced with ironic humor, sometimes truly horrifying, these stories of the strange and supernatural will appeal to readers of all ages, but they particularly speak to teenagers. Evocative and haunting illustrations by the stunningly talented Mikiko Fujita add to the eerie beauty of this collection. A detailed afterword outlines the author’s storytelling approach and provides source material for each tale.

Download or read book The Book of Yokai written by Michael Dylan Foster and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2015-01-14 with total page 330 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Monsters, ghosts, fantastic beings, and supernatural phenomena of all sorts haunt the folklore and popular culture of Japan. Broadly labeled yokai, these creatures come in infinite shapes and sizes, from tengu mountain goblins and kappa water spirits to shape-shifting foxes and long-tongued ceiling-lickers. Currently popular in anime, manga, film, and computer games, many yokai originated in local legends, folktales, and regional ghost stories. Drawing on years of research in Japan, Michael Dylan Foster unpacks the history and cultural context of yokai, tracing their roots, interpreting their meanings, and introducing people who have hunted them through the ages. In this delightful and accessible narrative, readers will explore the roles played by these mysterious beings within Japanese culture and will also learn of their abundance and variety through detailed entries, some with original illustrations, on more than fifty individual creatures. The Book of Yokai provides a lively excursion into Japanese folklore and its ever-expanding influence on global popular culture. It also invites readers to examine how people create, transmit, and collect folklore, and how they make sense of the mysteries in the world around them. By exploring yokai as a concept, we can better understand broader processes of tradition, innovation, storytelling, and individual and communal creativity. Ê

Download or read book Tales of the Supernatural in Early Modern Japan written by Noriko T. Reider and published by . This book was released on 2002 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is intended to assess the significance of kaidan, specifically its multi-dimensional reflection of an impact on Japanese culture in the Edo period. The legacy of Japan's cultural efflorescence in the late eighteenth century was far-reaching, its fruits often seen as epitomizing the entire Tokugawa period. In the years between the Kan'en era (1748-1751) and the chilling effects of the Kansei Reforms (1790), there was no dearth of innovative belletristic expression, but in the area of fiction, the yomihon of Ueda Akinari (1734-1809) eclipse all else. Professor Reider's outstanding study treats this unusual scion of a remarkable age, contextualizing his work from a unique perspective. Under various noms de plume, Akinari authored significant works in several genres of both poetry and prose, but his greatest opus is incontrovertibly his Ugetsu monogatari (Tales of Moonlight and Rain), a collection of nine stories that revolutionized tales of the supernatural, elevating the genre to unprecedented levels of style and sophistication. Such a work deserves - and has duly received - ample critical attention from scholars on both sides of the Pacific, resulting in a plethora of seco

Download or read book Haunted Japan written by Catrien Ross and published by Tuttle Publishing. This book was released on 2020-09-01 with total page 175 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A delightfully creepy telling of Japanese ghost stories. Japanese folklore is abundant with tales of ghostly creatures and the supernatural. In Haunted Japan, author Catrien Ross reveals the legends that have been passed down for generations and continue to terrify us today. To research this book on the country's ghosts, demons and paranormal phenomena, Ross collected accounts from across Japan including: Sacred Mount Osore, a Japanese gateway to the land of the dead, where people gather to contact those who have passed on The Tokyo grave of the samurai Taira no Masakado, where passersby regularly witnessed his ghost until prayers finally laid him to rest The mummified remains of the monk Tetsumonkai at the Churenji Temple on Mount Yudono--a place where bizarre happenings are common The ruins of Hachioji Castle in Tokyo, which was abandoned for many years because of its many hauntings The result is an unparalleled insight into the dark corners of the Japanese psyche--a world filled with horrifying creatures including Oni (demons with fierce and ghastly appearances), Yurei (Japanese ghosts who inhabit the world of the living), and Yokai (supernatural monsters). The book also includes several traditional Japanese legends, concluding with two of the most famous ghost stories--that of the wronged wife Oiwa and the tale of the Peony Lantern. This book is richly illustrated with 32 pages of full-color prints of frightening ghosts and legendary creatures from Japan's shadowy past. Haunted Japan is the ideal book for anyone interested in exploring the darker side of Japanese history.

Download or read book Japan Supernatural written by Melanie Eastburn and published by Art Gallery of New South Wales. This book was released on 2020-01-30 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the pioneering work of eighteenth-century painter Toriyama Sekien to contemporary superstar Takashi Murakami, Japan Supernatural presents wildly imaginative works by Japanese artists past and present and takes readers on a journey of discovery through the astonishing array of yōkai culture and yūrei (ghosts)--phenomenal beings from fiendish goblins to mischievous shapeshifters--that have inhabited Japanese culture for centuries. Once a means of explaining the unexplainable, they have been kept alive in stories and artworks. Evolving into a form of entertainment ranging from horror to the comical, they have maintained an ongoing presence in Japanese novels, films, anime, manga, and games. Drawn from around the world, the artworks illustrated in Japan Supernatural date from the eighteenth to the twenty-first century and include fantastically detailed ukiyo-e woodblock prints, miniature netsuke, wall-sized scrolls, and large-scale contemporary photographs, paintings, and installations. Some of the greatest Japanese artists of the past, including Katsushika Hokusai, Utagawa Kuniyoshi, Tsukioka Yoshitoshi, and Kawanabe Kyosai, are featured alongside contemporary artists such as Chiho Aoshima, Miwa Yanagi, and Takahashi Murakami, who update the tradition for the present.

Download or read book Japanese Tales written by Royall Tyler and published by Pantheon. This book was released on 2012-08-22 with total page 401 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Two hundred and twenty tales from medieval Japan—tales that welcome us into a fabulous faraway world populated by saints, scoundrels, ghosts, magical healers, and a vast assortment of deities and demons. Stories of miracles, visions of hell, jokes, fables, and legends, these tales reflect the Japanese civilization. They ably balance the lyrical and the dramatic, the ribald and the profound, offering a window into a long-vanished culture. With black-and-white illustrations throughout Part of the Pantheon Fairy Tale and Folklore Library

Download or read book Supernatural Tales from Japan written by Lafcadio Hearn and published by Tuttle Publishing. This book was released on 2024-10-22 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Eerie tales of Japanese goblins, ghosts and magic--beautifully illustrated in a deluxe collector's edition. This collection of fifteen chilling tales brings to life a world where the supernatural and earthly realms are seamlessly entwined. The ghosts, goblins and magical creatures in its pages are by turns mischievous, terrifying, protective and tender. Included in this anthology are: The Badger Haunted Temple: A brazen group of friends attempt to rid a temple of a gluttonous, shape-shifting goblin who has taken up residence there A Cherry Flower Idyll: A young man falls in love with the ethereal spirit of a cherry blossom tree and vows to find her in the mortal world The Story of Mimi-Nashi Hoichi: A blind bard is summoned to recite the tale of a famous battle to the ghosts of its victims, only to find that his own life is at risk And eleven other supernatural tales, including several that rarely appear in English! Passed down through generations, these classic tales are beautifully retold by Lafcadio Hearn and Yei Theodora Ozaki, two great interpreters of Japanese folk traditions. This volume features a deluxe embossed hardcover binding and sixteen all new, full-color illustrations by contemporary Japanese yokai artist Sakyu. It will be treasured by fans of yokai and Japanese traditional culture, as well as anyone who enjoys a good ghost story.

Download or read book In Ghostly Japan written by Lafcadio Hearn and published by . This book was released on 1903 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Japanese Ghost Stories written by Catrien Ross and published by Tuttle Publishing. This book was released on 2011-08-30 with total page 173 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A Best Book of 2009" --The Japan Times Japanese Ghost Stories, formerly published under the title Supernatural and Mysterious Japan, is a collection of the eerie and terrifying from around Japan. This book opens a window into the hidden aspects of the Japanese world of the paranormal, a place where trees grow human hair, rocks weep and there's even a graveyard where Jesus is reputed to have been buried. Covering ancient and modern times, Japanese Ghost Stories offers not only good, old-fashioned scary stories, but some special insights into Japanese culture and psychology. Japanese ghost stories include: In Search of the Supernatural Psychic Stirrings New Forays into the Mystic Strange but True Modern-Day Hauntings Scenes of Ghosts and Demons Edo-Era Tales

Download or read book Folk Tales from Japan written by Florence Sakade and published by Tuttle Publishing. This book was released on 2020-08-04 with total page 108 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Filled with now-familiar favorites, along with lesser known yet equally delightful tales, this enduring collection presents stories to enchant and enlighten young readers." -- School Library Journal From singing turtles and flying farmers to a weeping dragon and rice bags that replenish themselves, readers of all ages will find engaging characters and moments of magic in these beloved Japanese folk tales. The stories in this collection include: The Magic Mortar--A tale that explains why the sea is salty How to Fool a Cat--A funny story about a clever woodworker The Rolling Mochi Cakes--Good food, a beautiful song and a lesson on the benefits of sharing with others The Dragon's Tears--A sweet tale about first impressions, kindness and inclusivity Broken up into 16 folk tales, this book will become a go-to for bedtime and storytime. Kids (and adults!) will have the opportunity to learn more about Japanese culture in a fun, accessible way.

Download or read book Japanese Ghosts Demons written by Stephen Addiss and published by George Braziller. This book was released on 1985 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Japan has perhaps the most lively and richly developed tradition of supernatural lore of any civilization. It is comprised of some of the most relentlessly fearsome goblins, demons, metamorphosed animals and ghosts ever known to man. Japanese poets, actors, dancers, and artists have all delighted in portraying these monsters, often with a playfulness and humor that mitigates the demons' more ferocious qualities, but also with a bold, dramatic fervor designed to impress upon their audiences the lessons of folklore. For, like our own mythological and fairy-tale characters, Japan's supernatural inhabitants suggest much about the morals of the Japanese people and of their efforts to understand the mysteries of the world. This is the first book devoted to the study of the supernatural world and its representation in Japanese art. From the 17th to the 19th centuries many of Japan's most brilliant artists, including Hiroshige, Hokusai, Yoshitoshi, and Zeshin, allowed their imaginations free rein to present these mysteries in a variety of media, including paintings, woodblock prints, screens, netsuke and inrō sculptures, and fans. The 49 color plates and 75 black and white illustrations presented here show a stunning array of Japan's most fiendish figures. Each of the ten chapters focuses on one of the most important themes in Japanese lore, discussing its anthropological meaning and literary and artistic interpretations. -- from back cover.

Download or read book Manga Yokai Stories written by Lafcadio Hearn and published by Tuttle Publishing. This book was released on 2020-09-15 with total page 133 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This thrilling collection of seven Japanese ghost stories will captivate lovers of yokai stories! These classic Japanese ghost stories are based on those written by famed author Lafcadio Hearn between 1890 and 1904. Here, they are retold by award-winning comic book writer Sean Michael Wilson, who has garnered a worldwide fan base for his manga adaptations of works of Japanese literature, including such classics as The Book of Five Rings and The Demon's Sermon on the Martial Arts. Manga Yokai Stories includes: Nuke-kubi: A masterless samurai is trapped in a house haunted by headless goblins The Screen Maiden: A young man develops an obsession with a woman in a painting that almost kills him Corpse Rider: A woman's unburied corpse cannot rest until she has taken her revenge on the man who divorced her A Dead Secret: A young mother terrifies her family when she returns as a ghost, unable to find peace until she puts to rest a shocking secret she has left behind Wilson's skillful adaptation of Hearn's ghostly tales--along with superb manga illustrations from UK-based Japanese artist Inko Ai Takita--make these fascinating stories come to life. This book is in traditional Japanese reading order--from back to front--so that fans and manga lovers can enjoy an authentic reading experience.

Download or read book Seven Demon Stories from Medieval Japan written by Noriko T. Reider and published by University Press of Colorado. This book was released on 2016-10-03 with total page 307 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Japanese culture, oni are ubiquitous supernatural creatures who play important roles in literature, lore, and folk belief. Characteristically ambiguous, they have been great and small, mischievous and dangerous, and ugly and beautiful over their long history. Here, author Noriko Reider presents seven oni stories from medieval Japan in full and translated for an English-speaking audience. Reider, concordant with many scholars of Japanese cultural studies, argues that to study oni is to study humanity. These tales are from an era in which many new oni stories appeared for the purpose of both entertainment and moral/religious edification and for which oni were particularly important, as they were perceived to be living entities. They reflect not only the worldview of medieval Japan but also themes that inform twenty-first-century Japanese pop and vernacular culture, including literature, manga, film, and anime. With each translation, Reider includes an introductory essay exploring the historical and cultural importance of the characters and oni manifestations within this period. Offering new insights into and interpretations of not only the stories therein but also the entire genre of Japanese ghost stories, Seven Demon Stories is a valuable companion to Reider’s 2010 volume Japanese Demon Lore. It will be of significant value to folklore scholars as well as students of Japanese culture.

Download or read book Yurei written by Zack Davisson and published by Chin Music Press Inc.. This book was released on 2015-07-13 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "I lived in a haunted apartment." Zack Davisson opens this definitive work on Japan's ghosts, or yurei, with a personal tale about the spirit world. Eerie red marks on the apartment's ceiling kept Zack and his wife on edge. The landlord warned them not to open a door in the apartment that led to nowhere. "Our Japanese visitors had no problem putting a name to it . . . they would sense the vibes of the place, look around a bit and inevitably say 'Ahhh . . . yurei ga deteru.' There is a yurei here." Combining his lifelong interest in Japanese tradition and his personal experiences with these vengeful spirits, Davisson launches an investigation into the origin, popularization, and continued existence of yurei in Japan. Juxtaposing historical documents and legends against contemporary yurei-based horror films such as The Ring, Davisson explores the persistence of this paranormal phenomenon in modern day Japan and its continued spread throughout the West. Zack Davisson is a translator, writer, and scholar of Japanese folklore and ghosts. He is the translator of Mizuki Shigeru's Showa 1926–1939: A History of Japan and a translator and contributor to Kitaro. He also worked as a researcher and on-screen talent for National Geographic's TV special Japan: Lost Souls of Okinawa. He writes extensively about Japanese ghost stories at his website, hyakumonogatari.com.