Japanese Ghost Stories

Thedead wreak revenge on the living, paintings come alive, spectral bridespossess mortal men and a priest devours human flesh in these chillingJapanese ghost stories retold by a master of the supernatural. LafcadioHearn 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 infusedthem with his own memories of his haunted childhood innineteenth-century Ireland to create these terrifying tales of strikingand eerie power. Today they are regarded in Japan as classics in theirown right.

Edited with an introduction by Paul Murray

Reviews

An extraordinary author . . . Paul Murray, a former Irish diplomat, has been hooked since a 1970s posting in Japan. His Penguin compilation includes 34 selections, a chronology of Hearn's peripatetic life, some intriguing background information about the sources of the stories, and a number of evocative woodblock prints. Murray's introduction is exceptionally useful to contextualize the man and his oeuvre, tracing the powerful influence of Irish folktales and ghost stories on Hearn's take on Japanese counterparts