Asian Horror Tales: Kwaidan

Every culture on Earth possesses a unique form of ghost storytelling and mythology that varies depending which country you happen to be in. In the United States you get the typical tale of a monster in the woods or a haunted house, in South America giant river monsters, in the Alps the Abominable Snowman, etc. It should come to no surprise then that Asia has its fair share of unique supernatural tales.

Reading the collection of ghost tales in Kwaidan was a breath of fresh air when it comes to the horror genre. I’ve read way too many generic horror tales that constantly follow the same formula that I’ve slowly become uninterested and bored with ghost stories. Quite sad to admit since I’ve loved reading them since I was a child. I can admit though now that Kwaidan’s given me a new interest in actually reading up on them again. There’s just something so bizarre and really quite fascinating about Japanese ghost stories that I haven’t seen anywhere else. One tale in particular that I really quite liked from the collection was the tale of Mimi-Nashi-Hoichi, or Hoichi the Earless. The story is about a man blind man named Hoichi who is a masterful biwa player capable of bringing about strong emotional reactions to the people who hear him play.

The tale starts at a Buddhist Temple in Akamagaseki during the night where Hoichi is requested by a guard to come play for the lord and his attendants in Akamgaseki. After performing for the lord and moving his audience to tears and many other emotional outcries he is asked to come back and play each night for six days. Later on the monks at the temple discover his outgoings and warn him that he is being led out by the spirits of those killed in the battle of Dan-no-ura who were buried in a cemetery near the temple. The spirits were so moved by his biwa playings that they wanted him to continue laying for them.

The priest of the temple decides to help Hoichi out of his situation by coming up with a plan to keep the ghosts away. He’s covered in protective writings one night and is asked to sit deathly still in the temple as the ghostly guard comes for him yet again. The plan works for the most part and the ghost leaves, but not before taking Hoichi’s ears which were left bare of protective writing and visible to the ghost. This and many of the other tales in Kwaidan follow a unique way of telling a ghost story since they don’t use the obvious plot points or aspects you could find in an uncomfortably large amount of ghost stories now a days.

I’d recommend really getting into Asian ghost tales to be frank. There’s nothing else quite like them and they make for a good horror story in my opinion. Japanese ghost stories are also probably one of the few things you can look for to get away from the cliché horror story tropes of zombies, vampires, werewolves, etc. I know I’m getting a tad tired of them!