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3.71 AVERAGE
3.71 AVERAGE
it was a lot of fun and a great read for the classic japanese yokai stories. going to watch the 1964 film adaptation by masaki kobayashi cause all i could think about was the close-up of hoichi from mimi-nashi hoichi from the film.
These stories remind me a little of the myths and legends I've heard locals tell of the Peruvian Amazon. I absolutely love tales of the uncanny and for me at least they are valuable not really because they are good stories or told well, but because people totally swear to their veracity.
Honestly, I was not digging these stories at first. Some of them, especially the first 5 or so, felt pretty unapproachable for someone like me who knows nothing about Japanese culture. But then either the stories got better or I had adjusted to the type of narrative and began to enjoy myself! Here are my favorites in order with snapshot summaries.
#1 Mujina: A man traveling alone went up a slope that now people avoid after dark because a Mujina haunts it. He came across a young girl crying alone, facing away from him. He tries to help her, but she is covering her face and weeping. Finally, she moves her hands away and BOOM she has no face! So he runs away and doesn't stop til he meets a man with a lantern. He tries to explain what he saw and the man with the lantern goes "did it look like THIS" and his own face dissapeared and the lantern went out. Nightmare material for sure.
#2 Diplomacy: this guy is about to get his head chopped off and he is very not happy about it. So he tells his executioner/samurai master that he's going to come back as a ghost and get his revenge. The samurai is unphased and challenges the guy to prove that he really will haunt them by biting the stepping stone at their feet once his head has rolled. The dying man agrees, sword flashes, blood squirts and lo and behold the severed head bites the stepping stone. The rest of the samurai's household is thoroughly freaked out and waits around for some sign of vengeance for months. Finally the samurai says he intentionally diverted the man's mind from revenge and he died with the set purpose of biting the stone rather than with the purpose of becoming a haunting spirit. "And indeed the dead man gave no more trouble. Nothing at all happened."
#3 Jikininki: a priest is journeying alone and gets lost. He meets an aged priest in a dilapidated building and asks to stay the night, but is turned away and sent to a little town in the next valley. He gets lodging in a house where a man had just passed away. His eldest son warns the priest that he should leave the valley with them for the night, because in their village they always leave town when someone has died. The priest declines and stays up with the body. In the middle of the night a huge dark shape steals into the house and eats the corpse head to toe along with all the offerings around him. Turns out it was the priest he had met earlier, cursed after death into existence as a jikininki or man-eating goblin.
#4 Rokuro-kubi: a samurai-turned-priest is lured to the home of some goblins in the habit of depositing their bodies and bouncing around chattering as heads. He sneaks up on them in the night and hears their plans to eat him, but he had already moved the main goblin's body, which is fatal to them...just go with it.The heads realize what he has done and attack but the samurai-priest is fierce and he kills the main goblin who latches on to his sleeve in a death grip with his teeth. He keeps on his journey dangling that grody decomposing goblin head from his sleeve as a souvenir, which obviously shocks and terrifies people. Eventually, a robber buys it off him but gets freaked out and buries it.
Other tidbits: I love the idea that ants are actually tiny goblins. If you've ever stepped in a fireant bed you totally agree. There is this whole section on ants near the end talking about how they've reached a transcendent level of social morality above humans. But the goblin bit is way more interesting. Then there is this idea in one of the stories that the atmosphere of a certain city is lighter and whiter because of all the ghosts in the air, softening the sun. That's beautiful. Finally, the story Hi-Mawari (sunflower) is really private. It doesn't fit in with the other stories at all. It feels like Hearn just needed to write it for himself personally, and stuck it in this collection.
I love getting to read things totally off my beaten path and this one was rewarding!
Honestly, I was not digging these stories at first. Some of them, especially the first 5 or so, felt pretty unapproachable for someone like me who knows nothing about Japanese culture. But then either the stories got better or I had adjusted to the type of narrative and began to enjoy myself! Here are my favorites in order with snapshot summaries.
#1 Mujina: A man traveling alone went up a slope that now people avoid after dark because a Mujina haunts it. He came across a young girl crying alone, facing away from him. He tries to help her, but she is covering her face and weeping. Finally, she moves her hands away and BOOM she has no face! So he runs away and doesn't stop til he meets a man with a lantern. He tries to explain what he saw and the man with the lantern goes "did it look like THIS" and his own face dissapeared and the lantern went out. Nightmare material for sure.
#2 Diplomacy: this guy is about to get his head chopped off and he is very not happy about it. So he tells his executioner/samurai master that he's going to come back as a ghost and get his revenge. The samurai is unphased and challenges the guy to prove that he really will haunt them by biting the stepping stone at their feet once his head has rolled. The dying man agrees, sword flashes, blood squirts and lo and behold the severed head bites the stepping stone. The rest of the samurai's household is thoroughly freaked out and waits around for some sign of vengeance for months. Finally the samurai says he intentionally diverted the man's mind from revenge and he died with the set purpose of biting the stone rather than with the purpose of becoming a haunting spirit. "And indeed the dead man gave no more trouble. Nothing at all happened."
#3 Jikininki: a priest is journeying alone and gets lost. He meets an aged priest in a dilapidated building and asks to stay the night, but is turned away and sent to a little town in the next valley. He gets lodging in a house where a man had just passed away. His eldest son warns the priest that he should leave the valley with them for the night, because in their village they always leave town when someone has died. The priest declines and stays up with the body. In the middle of the night a huge dark shape steals into the house and eats the corpse head to toe along with all the offerings around him. Turns out it was the priest he had met earlier, cursed after death into existence as a jikininki or man-eating goblin.
#4 Rokuro-kubi: a samurai-turned-priest is lured to the home of some goblins in the habit of depositing their bodies and bouncing around chattering as heads. He sneaks up on them in the night and hears their plans to eat him, but he had already moved the main goblin's body, which is fatal to them...just go with it.The heads realize what he has done and attack but the samurai-priest is fierce and he kills the main goblin who latches on to his sleeve in a death grip with his teeth. He keeps on his journey dangling that grody decomposing goblin head from his sleeve as a souvenir, which obviously shocks and terrifies people. Eventually, a robber buys it off him but gets freaked out and buries it.
Other tidbits: I love the idea that ants are actually tiny goblins. If you've ever stepped in a fireant bed you totally agree. There is this whole section on ants near the end talking about how they've reached a transcendent level of social morality above humans. But the goblin bit is way more interesting. Then there is this idea in one of the stories that the atmosphere of a certain city is lighter and whiter because of all the ghosts in the air, softening the sun. That's beautiful. Finally, the story Hi-Mawari (sunflower) is really private. It doesn't fit in with the other stories at all. It feels like Hearn just needed to write it for himself personally, and stuck it in this collection.
I love getting to read things totally off my beaten path and this one was rewarding!
The treatment of the weird is very subtle and skilful. Obviously it all takes place in a world very different to mine but the transitions from real-world c19th Japan and the supernatural world of Hōrai take place in a wonderfully poetic manner.
adventurous
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
dark
informative
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
dark
funny
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
dark
informative
mysterious
reflective
tense
fast-paced