Kwaidan

Stories and Studies of Strange Things

Lafcadio Hearn

Japanese Ghost Stories

Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things, often shortened to Kwaidan, is a book by Lafcadio Hearn that features several Japanese ghost stories and a brief non-fiction study on insects. It was later used as the basis for a movie called Kwaidan by Masaki Kobayashi in 1964.

Kaidan is Japanese for "ghost story".

Hearn declares in his introduction to the first edition of the book, which he wrote on January 20, 1904, shortly before his death, that most of these stories were translated from old Japanese texts. He also states that one of the stories -- Yuki-onna -- was told to him by a farmer in Musashi Province, and his was apparently the first record of it, both by his own account and according to the research of modern folklorists. Riki-Baka is based on a personal experience of Hearn's. While he does not declare it in his introduction, Hi-Mawari -- among the final narratives in the volume - seems to be a recollection of an experience in his childhood (it is, setting itself apart from almost all the others, written in the first person and set in rural Wales).

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• THE STORY OF MIMI-NASHI-HOICHI
• OSHIDORI
• THE STORY OF O-TEI
• UBAZAKURA
• DIPLOMACY
• OF A MIRROR AND A BELL
• JIKININKI
• MUJINA
• ROKURO-KUBI
• A DEAD SECRET
• YUKI-ONNA
• THE STORY OF AOYAGI
• JIU-ROKU-ZAKURA
• THE DREAM OF AKINOSUKE
• RIKI-BAKA
• HI-MAWARI
• HORAI
• INSECT STUDIES
• BUTTERFLIES
• MOSQUITOES
• ANTS
• Notes