Laughing Demoness (Warai Hannya).
Halloween approaches. Hyakumonogatari Kaidankai (more popularly known as Hyaku Monogatari) translates as A Gathering of One Hundred Supernatural Tales, or simply One Hundred Ghost Stories. This is a Japanese parlour game some of whose traditional stories were illustrated in a series of five prints by the great Katsushika Hokusai (1760–1849). For anyone wishing to play the game later this month, Wikipedia has a description:
The game was played as night fell upon the region using three separate rooms. In preparation, participants would light one hundred andon (lamps) in the third room and position a single mirror on the surface of a small table. When the sky was at its darkest, guests gathered in the first of the three rooms, taking turns orating tales of ghoulish encounters and reciting folkloric tales passed on by villagers who claimed to have experienced supernatural encounters. These tales soon became known as kaidan. Upon the end of each kaidan, the story-teller would enter the third room and extinguished one andon, look in the mirror and make their way back to the first room. With each passing tale, the room slowly grew darker and darker as the participants reached the one hundredth tale, creating a safe haven for the evocation of spirits.
The Mansion of the Plates (Sara yashiki).
Kohada Koheiji.
O-iwa-san.
Haunted Revenge (Shunen).
Obsessive jealousy returning from the grave in the form of a snake.
Previously on { feuilleton }
• Yoshitoshi’s ghosts
• Japanese moons
• The Hell Courtesan