J-Horror Kwaidan

Our fourth week of class has brought us the genre of j-horror. Its essentially the name for the modern Japanese horror film derivatives, but it originates in the traditional Japanese ghost stories. Contrary to the Texas Chainsaw Massacre type of “slasher” movies, j-horror deals more with creating an overwhelming mood of despair or emptiness.

I decided to read the alternative Kwaidan collection of traditional Japanese ghost stories, because it’s the source of what j-horror has evolved into today. In Lafcadio Hearn’s recollection we find beautifully narrated stories, almost with a far east poem feel to them, existential. For example, in the story of “Oshidori” we are told about a hunter, Sonjo, who wasn’t able to find any game to shoot and eat. Then he came across a pair of a male and a female oshidori ducks. Even though he knew killing oshidori brought misfortune, his hunger took the best of him, and so he shot and killed the male duck with his arrow. Later that night, after having the duck for dinner, he dreamt of a beautiful woman who sat by his pillow weeping, so sorrowfully that it caused him a great deal of sadness. She cried out, “Why did you kill him…do you know what you have done?”, “Me too you have killed—for I will not live without my husband!” Before leaving she told him that the following day he should go back to the pond where he shot him. Wanting to find out the meaning, if any, of his dream, Sonjo went back the next day and found the female oshidori in the water. It swam up to him, and with its beak it tore open its body and died before Sonjo’s eyes. After that he shaved his head, and became a priest.

I think that would’ve made any skeptic turn priest. Reading through Kwaidan I noticed the very strong Buddhist concepts of karma and reincarnation. The narrations are very intertwined with that aspect of Japanese and Asian culture. I read a book once called Graceful Exits by Sushila Blackman. It was a compilation of passed-down stories of how great Buddhists and Zen Buddhist teachers have passed away. It relates extraordinary events, beautiful spiritual moments, that most people would never believe, and I feel these type of accounts, deeply rooted in Buddhist culture, might be part of the influences of the Japanese ghost stories.