Kaidan

Hyakumonogatari Kaidankai and kaidanshu

Kaidan entered the

Examples of kaidanshu

• Tonoigusa, called Otogi Monogatari (Nursery Tales) by Ogita Ansei (1660)
• Otogi Boko (Handpuppets) by Asai Ryoi (1666)
• Ugetsu Monogatari (Tales of Moonlight and Rain) by Ueda Akinari (1776)

Background of the romanized translation

The word was popularised in English by Lafcadio Hearn in his book Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things. The spelling kwaidan is a romanization based on an archaic spelling of the word in kana - Hearn used it since the stories in the book were equally archaic. The revised Hepburn romanization system is spelled kaidan.

When film director Masaki Kobayashi made his anthology film Kwaidan (1964) from Hearn's translated tales, the old spelling was used in the English title.

Plot elements

Originally based on didactic Buddhist tales, kaidan often involve elements of karma, and especially ghostly vengeance for misdeeds. Japanese vengeful ghosts (Onryō) are far more powerful after death than they were in life, and are often people who were particularly powerless in life, such as women and servants.

This vengeance is usually specifically targeted against the tormentor, but can sometimes be a general hatred toward all living humans. This untargeted wrath can be seen in Furisode, a story in Hearn's book

Kaidan also frequently involve water as a ghostly element. In Japanese religion, water is a pathway to the underworld as can be seen in the festival of Obon.

See also

• Yose
• Glen Grant
• Japanese horror
• Japanese mythology
• Junji Ito
• Obake
• Shigeru Mizuki
• The Unbelievable
• Yōkai
• Yūrei
• Aesop's Fables

External links

• Ghoul Power - Onryou in the Movies Archived 2007-10-13 at the Wayback Machine Japanzine By Jon Wilks
• Tales of Ghostly Japan Japanzine By Zack Davisson
• Japanese GhostsMangajin #40 by Tim Screech
• Hearn's Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things.
• A site with several kaidan.
• Asian Folklore Studies: The Appeal of Kaidan Tales of the Strange.
• Information on The Kaidan Suite, a musical interpretation of kaidan by the Kitsune Ensemble.
• Hyakumonogatari.com A website of translated kaidan
• TheJapaneseHorror.com Website with several translated Kaidan