The Snow Ghost and Other Tales: Classic Japanese Ghost Stories
By (Author) Various
Contributions by Richard Gordon Smith
Contributions by Lafcadio Hearn
Contributions by Yei Theodora Ozaki
Illustrated by Yuko Shimizu
Vintage Publishing
Vintage Classics
21st November 2023
17th August 2023
United Kingdom
General
Fiction
Classic fiction: general and literary
Narrative theme: Sense of place
895.630873308
Hardback
208
Width 144mm, Height 222mm, Spine 23mm
331g
A spine-tinglingly beautiful hardback collection of some of Japan's scariest yet still compelling classic ghost stories Enter the haunted world of Ancient Japan in this spine-tingling collection of ghostly tales told and retold across the centuries. From Goblin infested caves and haunted Tombs, to vengeful spirits and strange, sinister happenings, Ancient Japan was a country and culture that lived with between realms- the world of everyday and the world of supernatural. It was a time and place where men could be brought down by karmic forces or lured into deadly danger by ghostly apparitions, and where the land held sorrowful secrets or stories that long-awaited an opportunity to reveal them and seek reparation. The Snow Ghost and Other Tales brings together some of the best and scariest tales that endured across centuries of folk lore in one new beautiful hardback collection. Finally commited to writing during the turn of the twenieth cenutry by a unique set of folklorists, the ghost stories presented in this new anthology will transport readers to a time of magic and mystery, and let them relish in the spine-tingling traditions of Japanese culture largely lost now to modernity.
Lafcadio Hearn (1850-1904) was born in Ireland but spent two decades in the United States, where he worked as a journalist, before travelling and living in Japan, where he married a Japanese woman and wrote about Japanese society and aesthetics for a Western readership. His ghost stories, which were drawn from Japanese folklore and influenced by Buddhist beliefs, appeared in collections throughout the 1890s and 1900s. He is a much celebrated figure in Japan. Yei Theodora Ozaki (1870-1932) was an early 20th century translator of Japanese short stories and fairy tales. Her translations were fairly liberal but have been popular, and were reprinted several times after her death. Richard Gordon Smith (1858-1918) was a British traveller, sportsman and naturalist who travelled through many countries in the late nineteenth century and lived in Japan for a number of years.