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was a popular didactic
Buddhist Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...
-inspired
parlour game A parlour or parlor game is a group game played indoors using speech (from French Parler). They were often played in a parlour. These games were extremely popular among the upper and middle classes in the United Kingdom and in the United States d ...
during the
Edo period The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional '' daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was characte ...
in Japan.


Play

The game was played as night fell upon the region using three separate rooms. In preparation, participants would light 100 andon 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 is a Japanese word consisting of two kanji: 怪 (''kai'') meaning "strange, mysterious, rare, or bewitching apparition" and 談 (''dan'') meaning "talk" or "recited narrative". Overall meaning and usage In its broadest sense, ''kaidan'' refers ...
. Upon the end of each kaidan, the story-teller would enter the third room and extinguish 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 Evocation is the act of evoking, calling upon, or summoning a spirit, demon, deity or other supernatural agents, in the Western mystery tradition. Comparable practices exist in many religions and magical traditions and may employ the use of mi ...
of spirits. However, as the game reached the ninety-ninth tale, many participants would stop, fearful of invoking the spirits they had been summoning.


History

While the exact origins of Hyakumonogatari Kaidankai are unknown, it was believed that it was first played amongst the
samurai were the hereditary military nobility and officer caste of medieval and early-modern Japan from the late 12th century until their abolition in 1876. They were the well-paid retainers of the '' daimyo'' (the great feudal landholders). They h ...
class as a test of courage. In Ogita Ansei's 1660 nursery tale "Otogi Monogatari" a version of the game was described in which the narrative tells of several young samurai telling tales in the Hyakumonogatari Kaidankai fashion. In the tale, as one samurai finished the one hundredth tale, he began to extinguish the candle when suddenly he sees a giant gnarled hand descend upon him from above. While some of the samurai cowered in fear, a swipe of his sword revealed the hand to be merely the shadow of a spider. At first, the game of Hyakumonogatari Kaidankai was popular amongst the aristocratic warrior class, but it soon garnered favorable reputation amongst the working class peasants and town people. With a heightened interest in telling newer and original kaidan, people began scouring the countryside for tales of the mysterious, many of which combined a mixture of ghostly vengeance and elements of
karma in Buddhism Karma (Sanskrit, also ''karman'', Pāli: ''kamma'') is a Sanskrit term that literally means "action" or "doing". In the Buddhist tradition, ''karma'' refers to action driven by intention (''cetanā'') which leads to future consequences. Those i ...
. A true popular phenomenon, the hype of Hyakumonogatari Kaidankai combined with new printing technology created a boom in the publication of kaidan-themed books collecting appropriate tales from every corner of Japan and China. But it was in 1677 that the first kaidan-shu was published. Known as Shokoku Hyakumonogatari, or 100 Tales of Many Countries, the book earned popularity for having been a compilation of tales from people residing in several countries, and who further claimed each tale was true. Books in this genre often used the term Hyakumonogatari in the title, and the published tale’s popularity continued long after the fad for the game had faded.


In other media

The game of Hyakumonogatari Kaidankai became a cult phenomenon in Japan, and while the hype of these tales has receded, many J-horror films and Japanese urban legends can be attributed to the parlour game's influence. Woodblock painter and founder of the Maruyama-Shijo School of Painting,
Maruyama Okyo Maruyama may refer to: * Maruyama (surname), a Japanese surname and list of people with the name * Maruyama, Chiba, a town in Japan * Maruyama Park in Kyoto * Mount Maru (disambiguation), a number of different mountains in Japan * 5147 Maruyama, ...
is considered the first artist to offer paintings of the '' yurei'' who were frequently cast in kaidan. The telling of the tales in a hyakumonogatari Kaidankai formed the basis of the film, Yokai Monsters: One Hundred Monsters released in 1968. In 2002, Fuji TV released the television program "Kaidan Hyakumonogatari" using the basis of the game Hyakumonogatari Kaidankai to tell classic Japanese ghost stories. The series starred
Naoto Takenaka is a Japanese actor, comedian, singer, and director from Kanazawa-ku, Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture, affiliated with From First Production. He is married to idol singer and actress Midori Kinouchi. He is also known as the voice of Samuel L. ...
and showcased 11 episodes, including an episode which focused on the tale of Yuki Onna. The popularity of Hyakumonogatari Kaidankai is not limited to Japan, in the Episode "Freshman Fear" of the A&E
docu-drama Docudrama (or documentary drama) is a genre of television and film, which features dramatized re-enactments of actual events. It is described as a hybrid of documentary and drama and "a fact-based representation of real event". Docudramas typi ...
reality television series Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring unfamiliar people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 19 ...
''
Paranormal State ''Paranormal State'' is an American paranormal reality television series that premiered on the A&E Network on December 10, 2007. The program follows and stars the Pennsylvania State University Paranormal Research Society, a student-led college cl ...
'', members of Penn State Paranormal Research Society play the ''Ancient Japanese Game of One Hundred Candles'' during their investigation of a supposed haunting in a student dormitory. Other cultural influences include: * In the tenth episode of the
anime is hand-drawn and computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japanese, (a term derived from a shortening of ...
xxxHolic Yūko invites Watanuki, Doumeki and Himawari to the Hyakumonogatari Kaidankai. * In Season 2, Ep. 13 of the anime
School Rumble is a Japanese ''shōnen'' manga series written and illustrated by Jin Kobayashi. First serialized in ''Weekly Shōnen Magazine'' from October 22, 2002 to July 23, 2008, all 345 chapters were later collected in 22 ''tankōbon'' volumes b ...
, the students of 2-C can be seen playing the game throughout the episode. * An adaptation opens the anime series Ghost Hunt. * In the manga Sundome the members of the Roman Club play Hyakumonogatari Kaidankai in one scene. * In the spin-off manga "Girls und Panzer: Motto Love Love Sakusen Desu!", the girls in the Senshado club organize a Hyakumonogatari night (with the Edo Period history buff making full use of the rakugo conventions). The game is seen in a more comical tone, with the various team recounting mysterious events like everything was either completely normal or of no importance. * One of the Conversation Skills in Persona 2: Eternal Punishment is the '100 Stories', with a special reward for when players manage to display all 100 scripted stories. ** Hyakumonogatari Kaidan can be read in
Persona 4 released outside of Japan as ''Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4'', is a 2008 role-playing video game by Atlus. It is chronologically the fifth installment in the ''Persona'' series, itself a part of the larger ''Megami Tensei'' franchise, and was ...
to increase Courage * A 1968 film starring
Miwa Takada is a Japanese film, TV and stage actress. She has starred in several Japanese movies that are today considered classics (especially in the '' Zatoichi saga'', and the ''Daimajin'' trilogy). Takada also worked as a singer, and the duet she reco ...
* In the fifth episode of the anime Sengoku Otome: Momoiro Paradox, the main characters are forced to participate in this by a group of undead samurai warriors. * In the book '' Night Film'' by Marisha Pessl. * In
Kaidan Restaurant is a Japanese children's storybook series. The books take the form of horror anthologies, edited by Miyoko Matsutani and illustrated by Yoshikazu Takai and Kumiko Katō. As of 2007, there were 50 volumes published by Doshinsha. Over 8 millio ...
anime where each episode is broken up into three "dishes" (Appetizer, Main Dish, and Dessert), the "Dessert" is a ghost story told by one of the main characters while playing Hyakumonogatari Kaidankai. * In the 3rd novel of The Zashiki Warashi of Intellectual Village Series * In MMORPG
The Secret World ''The Secret World'' is a massively multiplayer online role-playing video game set in a modern-day real world under attack from occult forces. Ragnar Tørnquist led development of the initial game for Funcom. ''The Secret World'' uses a subsc ...
, friendly ultraterrestrials explain in communications left around Tokyo's
Oni An is a kind of ''yōkai'', demon, orc, ogre, or troll in Japanese folklore. Oni are mostly known for their fierce and evil nature manifested in their propensity for murder and cannibalism. Notwithstanding their evil reputation, oni possess ...
-and- Elder-God-besieged Kaidan neighborhood that <> was a name originally referring to themselves before it was given to the game, which they had in fact created in order to gently educate humanity about the dangers facing it in such places. * In Anthony Bourdain’s comic series ''Hungry Ghosts'', the game is used as a framing device to tell several horror stories derived from popular folklore. * In the
Legend of the Five Rings Roleplaying Game The ''Legend of the Five Rings Roleplaying Game'' is a role-playing game originally written by John Wick and published by Alderac Entertainment Group, under license from Five Rings Publishing Group, in 1997. The game uses the Legend of the Five ...
tabletop RPG, the Hyakumonogatari Kaidankai features prominently in the sourcebook Book of Void, both as a game played by characters in the setting and as a particular book called Hyakumonogatari Kaidenkai. * In the anime Yamishibai, the season finale has a group of characters playing the game and reciting all the past episodes throughout the series.


See also

*
Hyakunin Isshu is a classical Japanese anthology of one hundred Japanese ''waka'' by one hundred poets. ''Hyakunin isshu'' can be translated to "one hundred people, one poem ach; it can also refer to the card game of ''uta-garuta'', which uses a deck compos ...
*
Karuta are Japanese playing cards. Playing cards were introduced to Japan by Portuguese traders during the mid-16th century. These early decks were used for trick-taking games. The earliest indigenous ''karuta'' was invented in the town of Miike in C ...
* Kimodameshi


References

*Addiss, Steven, ''Japanese Ghosts and Demons'', USA, George Braziller, Inc., 1986,


External links


Tales of Ghostly Japan
''Japanzine'' By Zack Davisson
A Brief History of KaidanAsian Folklore Studies: The Appeal of Kaidan Tales of the Strange.Information on ''The Kaidan Suite,'' a musical interpretation of hyaku monogatari by the Kitsune Ensemble.Hyakumonogatari.com
{{Authority control Buddhist folklore Japanese games Japanese mythology Japanese folklore Japanese horror fiction