Japanese ghost books, Japan ghosts, Invisible Ink--Books on Ghosts & Hauntings: Ghosts Japan

there are 4 pieces of merchandise in this room---click HERE to see more haunted Asia

Item #034

Ghosts and the Japanese: Cultural Experience in Japanese Death Legends, Michiko Iwasaka and Barre Toelken, 1994, art, biblio., index, 192 pp. $22.95 PB

As you might imagine from the title, this is a scholarly look at ghosts in Japanese culture. The first part covers death rituals, customs, and beliefs. Then it moves on a to a weird and chilling collection of Japanese ghost stories handsomely illustrated by eerie prints. The tofu-seller's daughter who burned to death, then returned to smash through the altar railing of the Kori Temple. The skulls of drowned sailors who bite at the oars of fishermen, trying to drag them down. The angry ghosts of frustrated mothers who nurse their coffin-born babies. NOTE: This 6 in. x 9 in. book is from a university press, which is why it costs more than an ordinary trade paperback. I personally think it's worth it for this look at a different face of Japanese culture.

Item #035

Haunting Tales from Japan, Retold by Carol F Kendall, 1985, art, 40 pp. $8.00

Superb woodblock illustrations of disfigured and hacked-to-bits ghosts and demons accompany these 6 creepy tales and an essay on the supernatural in Japan. Contents: The Rogue of Kachi Kachi Mountain, Okiku and the Saucers, The Eight-forked Serpent, The Monk and Lady Kiyo, The Vengeance of Oiwa, The Tongue-cut Sparrow, Japanese Supernaturals.

Item #033

In Ghostly Japan, Lafcadio Hearn, 1996, line art, 241 pp THIS BOOK IS NO LONGER AVAILABLE. Ask us to find you a nice used copy.

Known as "haunted Hearn," for his fascination with ghost stories, the author lived much of his life in Japan, immersing himself in the culture. There he continued collecting ghost stories, setting them down in romanticized volumes like this one and the now out-of-print Kwaidan. This is a reprint of an older edition. It is difficult to say whether these are true or fictional stories—they are traditional tales and they may have had some basis in fact. A kimono that possesses and kills all the young girls who wear it. A dying wife who bequeaths her rival a sinister legacy. A spectral beauty who returns for her handsome samurai. Also essays on Japanese poetry, Buddhism, and incense.

Item #032

Supernatural and Mysterious Japan, Spirits, Hauntings, And Paranormal Phenomena, Catrien Ross, 1996, photos and art, 160 pp $9.95

Unlike most books on supernatural Japan, this collection includes contemporary sightings of traditional ghostly figures. Churenji, haunted by the ghosts of those who failed to be come "living mummies." The ghostly head of Taira no Masakado. The arsonist Oshichi, who still haunts the district where she set her fires. The accident-causing ghost of Route 20 who approaches wrecked cars and intones, "Wrong man," smiling gleefully at the carnage she causes. Also chapters on metaphysical sects, alien astronauts, the grave of Jesus Christ, and psychic research in Japan.

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