is a

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

word consisting of two

kanji are the logographic Chinese characters taken from the Chinese family of scripts, Chinese script and used in the writing of Japanese language, Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese ...

: 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 to any ghost story or

horror story Horror is a genre of fiction which is intended to frighten, scare, or disgust. Horror is often divided into the sub-genres of psychological horror and supernatural horror, which is in the realm of speculative fiction. Literary historian J ...

, but it has an old-fashioned ring to it that carries the connotation of

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 characteriz ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

ese folktales. The term is no longer as widely used in Japanese as it once was: Japanese horror books and films such as '' Ju-on'' and ''

Ring Ring may refer to: * Ring (jewellery), a round band, usually made of metal, worn as ornamental jewelry * To make a sound with a bell, and the sound made by a bell :(hence) to initiate a telephone connection Arts, entertainment and media Film and ...

'' would more likely be labeled by the ''

katakana is a Japanese syllabary, one component of the Japanese writing system along with hiragana, kanji and in some cases the Latin script (known as rōmaji). The word ''katakana'' means "fragmentary kana", as the katakana characters are derived f ...

'' . ''Kaidan'' is only used if the author/director wishes to specifically bring an old-fashioned air into the story.

Examples of ''kaidan''

*''

Banchō Sarayashiki is a Japanese ghost story (kaidan) of broken trust and broken promises, leading to a dismal fate. Alternatively referred to as the tradition, all versions of the tale revolve around a servant, who dies unjustly and returns to haunt the living ...

'' (''The Story of Okiku'') by Okamoto Kido *''

Yotsuya Kaidan , the story of Oiwa and Tamiya Iemon, is a tale of betrayal, murder and ghostly revenge. Arguably the most famous Japanese ghost story of all time, it has been adapted for film over 30 times and continues to be an influence on Japanese horror ...

'' (''Ghost Story of Tōkaidō Yotsuya'') by

Tsuruya Nanboku IV Tsuruya (鶴屋) can refer to: *Haruhi Suzumiya series character, see Tsuruya *Tsuruya Golf, see Tsuruya Open *Matsuya (department store) Matsuya Co., Ltd. (株式会社松屋) is a Japanese depato, department store in Tokyo. Founded in 1869, it ...

(1755–1829) *'' Botan Dōrō'' (''The Peony Lantern'') by Asai Ryoi *'' Mimi-nashi Hōichi'' (''Hōichi the Earless'')

''Hyakumonogatari Kaidankai'' and ''kaidanshu''

''Kaidan'' entered the

vernacular A vernacular or vernacular language is in contrast with a "standard language". It refers to the language or dialect that is spoken by people that are inhabiting a particular country or region. The vernacular is typically the native language, n ...

during the

, when a

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 ...

called ''

Hyakumonogatari Kaidankai was a popular didactic Buddhist-inspired parlour game during the Edo period 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 p ...

'' became popular. This game led to a demand for

ghost stories A ghost story is any piece of fiction, or drama, that includes a ghost, or simply takes as a premise the possibility of ghosts or characters' belief in them."Ghost Stories" in Margaret Drabble (ed.), ''Oxford Companion to English Literature''. ...

and folktales to be gathered from all parts of

and

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

.The popularity of the game, as well as the acquisition of a

printing press A printing press is a mechanical device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a print medium (such as paper or cloth), thereby transferring the ink. It marked a dramatic improvement on earlier printing methods in which the ...

, led to the creation of a literary genre called ''kaidanshu''. ''Kaidanshu'' were originally based on older

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 ...

stories of a didactic nature, although the moral lessons soon gave way to the demand for strange and gruesome stories.

Examples of ''kaidanshu''

*''Tonoigusa'', called ''Otogi Monogatari'' (''Nursery Tales'') by Ogita Ansei (1660) *''Otogi Boko'' (''Handpuppets'') by Asai Ryoi (1666) *''

Ugetsu Monogatari is a collection of nine supernatural tales first published in 1776. It is the best known work of Japanese author Ueda Akinari. Largely adapted from traditional Japanese and Chinese ghost stories, the collection is among the most important work ...

'' (''Tales of Moonlight and Rain'') by

Ueda Akinari Ueda Akinari or Ueda Shūsei (, July 25, 1734 in Osaka – August 8, 1809 in Kyoto) was a Japanese author, scholar and '' waka'' poet, and a prominent literary figure in 18th-century Japan. He was an early writer in the '' yomihon'' genre an ...

(1776)

Background of the romanized translation

The word was popularised in

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

by Lafcadio Hearn in his

book A book is a medium for recording information in the form of writing or images, typically composed of many pages (made of papyrus, parchment, vellum, or paper) bound together and protected by a cover. The technical term for this physical arr ...

'' Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things''. The spelling ''kwaidan'' is a

romanization Romanization or romanisation, in linguistics, is the conversion of text from a different writing system to the Roman (Latin) script, or a system for doing so. Methods of romanization include transliteration, for representing written text, and ...

based on an archaic spelling of the word in

kana The term may refer to a number of syllabaries used to write Japanese phonological units, morae. Such syllabaries include (1) the original kana, or , which were Chinese characters (kanji) used phonetically to transcribe Japanese, the most p ...

- Hearn used it since the stories in the book were equally archaic. The revised Hepburn romanization system is spelled kaidan. When film director

Masaki Kobayashi was a Japanese film director and screenwriter, best known for the epic trilogy ''The Human Condition'' (1959–1961), the samurai films '' Harakiri'' (1962) and '' Samurai Rebellion'' (1967), and the horror anthology ''Kwaidan'' (1964). ''Sens ...

made his anthology film ''

Kwaidan 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'' refe ...

'' (1964) from Hearn's translated tales, the old spelling was used in the English title.

Plot elements

Originally based on didactic Buddhist tales, kaidan often involve elements of

karma Karma (; sa, कर्म}, ; pi, kamma, italic=yes) in Sanskrit means an action, work, or deed, and its effect or consequences. In Indian religions, the term more specifically refers to a principle of cause and effect, often descriptivel ...

, and especially ghostly vengeance for misdeeds. Japanese

vengeful ghost In mythology and folklore, a vengeful ghost or vengeful spirit is said to be the spirit of a dead person who returns from the afterlife to seek revenge for a cruel, unnatural or unjust death. In certain cultures where funeral and burial or crem ...

s (''

Onryō In Japanese traditional beliefs and literature, are a type of ghost () believed to be capable of causing harm in the world of the living, injuring or killing enemies, or even causing natural disasters to exact vengeance to "redress" the wron ...

'') are far more powerful after death than they were in life, and are often people who were particularly powerless in life, such as women and servants. This vengeance is usually specifically targeted against the tormentor, but can sometimes be a general hatred toward all living humans. This untargeted wrath can be seen in ''Furisode'', a story in Hearn's book '' In Ghostly Japan'' about a cursed

kimono The is a traditional Japanese garment and the national dress of Japan. The kimono is a wrapped-front garment with square sleeves and a rectangular body, and is worn left side wrapped over right, unless the wearer is deceased. The kimono ...

that kills everyone who wears it. This motif is repeated in the film ''

'' with a videotape that kills all who watch it, and the film franchise '' Ju-on'' with a house that kills all who enter it. Kaidan also frequently involve water as a ghostly element. In Japanese religion, water is a pathway to the

underworld The underworld, also known as the netherworld or hell, is the supernatural world of the dead in various religious traditions and myths, located below the world of the living. Chthonic is the technical adjective for things of the underwor ...

as can be seen in the festival of

Obon or just is fusion of the ancient Japanese belief in ancestral spirits and a Japanese Buddhist custom to honor the spirits of one's ancestors. This Buddhist– Confucian custom has evolved into a family reunion holiday during which people ret ...

External links

Ghoul Power - Onryou in the Movies
''Japanzine'' By Jon Wilks
Tales of Ghostly Japan
''Japanzine'' By Zack Davisson

'Mangajin #40'' by Tim Screech
Asian Folklore Studies: The Appeal of Kaidan Tales of the Strange.Information on ''The Kaidan Suite,'' a musical interpretation of kaidan by the Kitsune Ensemble.Hyakumonogatari.com
A website of translated kaidan
TheJapaneseHorror.com
Website with several translated Kaidan {{Authority control Buddhist folklore Japanese folklore * Japanese words and phrases