Tuesday, September 8, 2026 · 天火 · tianmu.org
Folklore
Japanese folklore, ghost-tales, and the study of the uncanny.
✦ ─── ⟐ ─── ✦
Texts
Ancient Tales and Folk-lore of Japan — Richard Gordon SmithRichard Gordon Smith's 1918 collection of fifty-seven Japanese legends and ghost tales, gathered from local storytellers and set in named, specific places.In Ghostly Japan — Lafcadio HearnLafcadio Hearn's 1899 essays and sketches on Japanese ghost-lore, popular Buddhism, and the beliefs surrounding death, from a dream of a mountain of skulls to proverbs, poetry, and a tale of a tengu.Japanese Folk Stories and Fairy Tales — Mary F. Nixon-RouletMary F. Nixon-Roulet's complete 1908 collection of thirty-three English literary retellings of Japanese folk stories, legends, and fairy tales.Kwaidan — Lafcadio HearnLafcadio Hearn's 1904 collection of seventeen retold Japanese ghost stories, from Mimi-Nashi-Hoichi and Yuki-Onna to the Dream of Akinosuke, closing with his essay on the folklore of butterflies, mosquitoes, and ants.