Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things

Deriving its title from the word for "ghost story" in Japanese Kwaidan is a compilation of supernatural tales from Japan. Hearn writes in his introduction, written only months before his death, that the majority of the stories were translated from old Japanese texts (some of which themselves were based on earlier Chinese tales), although one of the stories, "Riki-Baka," he declares to be of his own making, based on a personal experience. Unmentioned in the introduction, another of the stories - "Hi-Mawari", written in the first person - appears almost certainly to be born from his own experience also, a recollection of a childhood experience in Wales.

Among the many curious happenings related in the other stories, we read of man-eating goblins, a musician who performs for the dead, a mysterious face appearing in a cup of tea, and, rather terrifyingly, a featureless girl with a face as smooth as an egg.

The final section of the book, "Insect-Studies," presents Chinese and Japanese superstitions relating to the insect world: butterflies (personifications of the human soul), mosquitoes (karmic reincarnations of jealous or greedy people), and ants (humanity's superior in chastity, ethics, social structure, longevity, and evolution).

Vastly different from ghost stories in the West, this collection will haunt your dreams and leave you shivering in the dark.