Today we look at the stories portrayed in the 1964 Japanese ghost story anthology film, Kwaidan.
Kwaidan is a 1964 Japanese anthology horror film directed by Masaki Kobayashi. It is based on stories from Lafcadio Hearn’s collections of Japanese folk tales, mainly Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things (1904), for which it is named. The film consists of four separate and unrelated stories.
“The Black Hair” (黒髪, Kurokami) is adapted from “The Reconciliation” and “The Corpse Rider”, which appeared in Hearn’s collection Shadowings (1900).
An impoverished swordsman in Kyoto divorces his wife, a weaver, and leaves her for a woman of a wealthy family to attain greater social status. However, despite his new wealthy status, the swordsman’s second marriage proves to be unhappy. His new wife is shown to be callous and selfish. The swordsman regrets leaving his more devoted and patient ex-wife.
Dude trades in his loving and faithful wife for a chance at riches and status.
He decides to go the high-maintenance route….
Dude succumbs to the effects of prolonged exposure to his high-maintenance wife.
The Woman of the Snow
“The Woman of the Snow” (雪女, Yukionna) is an adaptation from Hearn’s Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things (1903).
Two woodcutters named Minokichi and Mosaku take refuge in a boatman’s hut during a snowstorm. Mosaku is killed by a yuki-onna. When the yuki-onna turns to Minokichi, she sympathetically remarks that he is a handsome boy and spares him because of his youth, warning him to never mention what happened or she will kill him. Minokichi returns home and never mentions that night.
One day while cutting wood, Minokichi meets Yuki, a beautiful young woman travelling at sunset. She tells him that she lost her family and has relatives in Edo who can secure her a job as a lady-in-waiting. Minokichi offers to let her spend the night at his house with his mother. The mother takes a liking to Yuki and asks her to stay. She never leaves for Edo and Minokichi falls in love with her. The two marry and have children, living happily. The older women in the town are in awe over Yuki maintaining her youth even after having three children.
To quote Dowager Countess Violet Crawley, played by Maggie Smith: “You men are so easy.”
Hoichi the Earless
“Hoichi the Earless” (耳無し芳一の話, Miminashi Hōichi no Hanashi) is also adapted from Hearn’s Kwaidan (though it incorporates aspects of The Tale of the Heike that are mentioned, but never translated, in Hearn’s book).[citation needed]
Hoichi is a young blind musician who plays the biwa. His specialty is singing the chant of The Tale of the Heike about the Battle of Dan-no-ura fought between the Taira and Minamoto clans during the last phase of the Genpei War. Hoichi is an attendant at a temple and is looked after by the others there. One night he hears a sound and decides to play his instrument in the garden courtyard. A spectral samurai appears and tells him that his lord wishes to have a performance at his house. The samurai leads Hoichi to a mysterious and ancient court.
Hoichi the Earless is the longest segment of the anthology. It has tales interwoven within tales, incredible sound-stage productions of ancient Japanese naval battles, intricate historical tapestries, beautiful cinematography of turbulent shorelines, choreographed swordsmanship, musical storytelling using traditional instruments and melodies, royal courts, life and rituals in a Buddhist temple, and a very sympathetic main character, Hoichi.
In a Cup of Tea
“In a Cup of Tea” (茶碗の中, Chawan no Naka) is adapted from Hearn’s Kottō: Being Japanese Curios, with Sundry Cobwebs (1902).
Anticipating a visit from his publisher, a writer relates an old tale of an attendant of Lord Nakagawa Sadono named Sekinai. While Lord Nakagawa is on his way to make a New Year’s visit, he halts with his train at a teahouse in Hakusan. While the party is resting there, Sekinai sees the face of a strange man in a cup of tea. Despite being perturbed, he drinks the cup.
Our research team did a brief overview of Shinto, an element of Japanese life and culture that greatly influenced these ghost stories.
Basically, we read the Wikipedia article, which is fascinating. Shinto defies classification – is it a religion?
A polytheistic and animistic religion, Shinto revolves around supernatural entities called the kami (神). The kami are believed to inhabit all things, including forces of nature and prominent landscape locations. The kami are worshipped at kamidana household shrines, family shrines, and jinja public shrines.
Although historians debate at what point it is suitable to refer to Shinto as a distinct religion, kami veneration has been traced back to Japan’s Yayoi period (300 BC to 300 AD). Buddhism entered Japan at the end of the Kofun period (300 to 538 AD) and spread rapidly. Religious syncretization made kami worship and Buddhism functionally inseparable, a process called shinbutsu-shūgō.
Shinto is primarily found in Japan, where there are around 100,000 public shrines…. Most of the country’s population takes part in both Shinto and Buddhist activities, especially festivals, reflecting a common view in Japanese culture that the beliefs and practices of different religions need not be exclusive.
There is no universally agreed definition of Shinto. According to Joseph Cali and John Dougill, if there was “one single, broad definition of Shinto” that could be put forward, it would be that “Shinto is a belief in kami”, the supernatural entities at the centre of the religion.
Little emphasis is placed on specific moral codes or particular afterlife beliefs, although the dead are deemed capable of becoming kami. The religion has no single creator or specific doctrine, and instead exists in a diverse range of local and regional forms.
