Kwaidan

For this week’s reading I looked at a selection of stories from Kwaidan. I found the text to be really engaging for a number of reasons. As a general statement, I will say that the cultural differences between the Japanese ghost stories and traditional western horror was very apparent, and added greatly to my interest in each story.

The general feeling of the Kwaidan tales is eerie and much more subtly creepy than the direct approach that western storytelling often takes. We are faced not with crazy serial killers, straightforward ghosts, or shunned monsters, but complex characters that are, in the most simple of terms, unusual. For example, characters in each story may face someone with no face, spirits of the dead, or other part-creature-part-human-part-spirit entities that are mysterious in their actions and existence.

An interesting aspect of the characters in Japanese ghost stories is the ambiguity between good and evil. While Western culture most often explicitly defines the plot’s events and characters as “good” or “bad,” the distinction is much less clear in the Kwaidan. For example, in the story where a man encounters two characters with no faces, they don’t cause him harm, they aren’t acting out in any way, they are just unusual, and understandably startling. I think that this approach makes the stories much more interesting as opposed to having a clear good vs. bad set up.

Finally, I find the Japanese interaction with death fascinating. In Western culture there are disconnects from, or even denial of ghosts, spirits, the presence of dead ancestors, etc. However in the Kwaidan stories these kinds of beings are integrated closely with daily life. Because of this, many of the Japanese ghost stories seem to be more relatable. In other words, when spirits are encountered while doing everyday activities, it is much easier to make a creepy situation instead of presenting a more elaborate environment. It is the difference between “Saw” – where a crazy man decides to teach people lessons about life by means of torture – and encountering a spirit in the presence of your own home, on the street, etc. The acknowledgement of non-human beings in Japanese culture allows for greater depth and mystery in the interactions between the dead and the living, which lends to ideal conditions for effective horror story telling.