Kwaidan (5 points)

Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things is a collection by Lafcadio Hearn that is made up of various short stories gathered from various sources. Each story itself is quite different from the last, like Yuki-Onna and Oshidori. It is interesting because the stories in this collection are very different from Western stories. More often than not, stories are made with forces battling against each other, often good vs evil, the good guy vs the villain. However, the stories in Kwaidan are very different. Rather than being seen as black and white, the stories tend to blur the lines and take on greater meaning. In The Story of Mimi-Nashi-Hoichi, the first short story of Kwaidan, a blind musician ends up performing for a great audience. The audience turns out to be the spirits of a long-deceased court. Normally, the spirits might be seen as the bad guy because one does harm Hoichi, and a priest says that Hoichi is in danger. For this story, the spirits were simply a result of circumstances, and they were a consequence to Hoichi for engaging with them. In a lot of Japanese horror, especially in some of Junki Ito's works, there is this sense of community. The horror may portray various characters and tie their involvement together. In the short story, A Dead Secret, there are multiple characters involved such as the husband, a priest, child, and many others aside from the spirit of the woman.