Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things by Lafcadio Hearn My rating: 4 out of 5 stars For the weekly topic of J-horror, I read two short stories from Lafcadio Hearn's Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things – The Story of Mimi-Hashi-Hoichi and Diplomacy. The Story of Mimi-Hashi-Hoichi follows the tale of Hoichi, a blind struggling musician who is invited to live at the Buddhist temple, Amidaji, by his friend, the Priest. Amidaji was built on the grounds of Akamagaseki, the death place of the Heike who fought against another ruling clan by the name of Genji. The whole clan perished, all the children, women, warriors and even their emperor. The warriors would haunt the shores of Akamagaseki, sinking ships and drowning swimmers. The temple was built as a way to appease the spirits along with the creation of a cemetery that housed tombstones with every warrior's name. After the priest leaves on business, Hoichi decides to play his biwa on the verandah connected to this room in an effort to wait for the priest's return. Many hours later, the priest has yet to return, Hoichi is approached by a stranger who asks him to come play for him and his people. The man was one of the ghost warriors and after they were done with Hoichi, they planned to kill him. The priest returned and having heard where Hoichi was going at night, warned and had his people perform a ceremony and write words all over his body so the ghost could not see him.
The priest left that night and when he returned the next morning, he found Hoichi bleeding on his verandah. His people forgot to write on Hoichi's ears and the ghost ripped them right off. Apologizing profusely, the priest tended to Hoichi's wounds and upon recovery Hoichi was known as Mimi-Hashi-Hoichi - Hoichi the earless. Dipolamcy was super anti-climatic. A huge disappointment, really. There was no physical ghost or haunting. It just told the story of how an executer avoids being haunted by the spirits of his victims. I finished reading it and yelled out loud, "That's it?!?!?!" As I said, super anti-climatic. Overall, I enjoyed the writing behind the stories and how it plays into cultural legends of that time.
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