In this episode, we (myself, my brother, and our friend "Trunks")discuss Japanese ghosts. A weird error occurred with my recorder during the main session, and the first 22 minutes of audio was lost. I had to use the camera audio for that portion.
NOTES (see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNgOZ7uyns8&t=1721s for complete notes)
-To elaborate on the intro, ghost tales can also more generally show you what concepts INTEREST (not just scare) people.
-Apologies for all mispronunciations or wrong emphasis. Two key words I realized I got wrong for example: yurei (should be more like YOO-RAE), kaidan (should be more like KAI-DAHN).
-According to author Zack Davisson, some folklorists do not include yurei as yokai (Davisson 2013). I think I agree with his approach (along with others he cites) in which yokai encompasses both monsters/creatures and entities such as yurei. Many, including Davisson and Matthew Meyer, would define any supernatural phenomena with roots in Japanese folklore as yokai.
-A Japanese author who writes historical supernatural fiction (Miyuki Myabe) said of the Edo period in a Japan Times interview, “Life was hard and short,” and that people “understood death might be just around the corner. In fact, I believe this is what contributed to the development of Japan’s scary storytelling tradition” (Alt 2014).
-Not sure why I said “strange OR supernatural” as every kaidan I’ve heard was supernatural.
-Zack Davisson points out on his blog site that most broadly, kaidan were any old-fashioned strange tales, meaning they were not just the scary or gruesome ghost stories. They "can just as easily be funny, or strange, or just telling about an odd thing that happened one time” (Davisson).
-Okiku is often spoken highly of (in the Himeji-based legends especially) for her faithfulness and bravery. Other times she is depicted more simply as a wronged woman.
-Author Zack Davisson says that although you could argue Himeji's Okiku story came from the previous castle based on its supposed dates, the Okiku well is “almost certainly of a later origin”, as only a gate apparently remained of the previous castle (Davisson 2015).
-The urban legends about asking for Oiwa’s blessing on productions often seem to say to visit her grave rather than her shrine in Yotsuya, Shinjuku, Tokyo. It seems that some (online) may be mixing up/combining her grave with her shrine. She is supposedly buried at Myogyoji temple in Sugamo, Toshima-ku, Tokyo.
-Quotes from Lafcadio Hearn and his wife Setsu were read from Paul Murray's introduction to Japanese Ghost Stories. The Hearn quotes were from On Poetry and "The Eternal Haunter." Setsu's was from "Reminiscences" (Murray 2019).
-According to editor/biographer Paul Murray, “[Hearn’s] works became popular in his adopted homeland after their translation into Japanese in the late 1920’s, where his role in collecting and preserving folklore was much appreciated"(Murray 2019).
-Mujina are badgers with magic powers. Sometimes they may take the form of a faceless “ghost" to scare humans. A faceless “ghost" is called a nopperabō (Meyer).
SOURCES
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1XCq3LOs5YvQOOdNoco0YT4mKtbjmby6O0HEykVj8GT0/edit?usp=sharing
MUSIC
-Halloween 2017 Available at: youtu.be/aYeuCKoTc3k Beat by chrishayesmusic.co.uk
-Yurei (Japanese Horror Background Music)
- Krao SINISTER - VIVEK ABHISHEK