In this book, famed author Lafcadio Hearn presents 14 fascinating stories-including deathless ghosts and yokai, local folklore and haunted places, as well as Buddhist traditions. This edition includes a new foreword by Michael Dylan Foster which explains the book's importance as a Japanese cultural and literary classic.

The Japanese have two kinds of ghosts in their folklore-the spirits of the dead and the spirits of the living. In Ghostly Japan examines both and, in the process, offers a fascinating window into Japan's supernatural and spiritual world.

The 14 stories include:
●"Fragment"-A young pilgrim encounters a mountain of skulls and is shown a terrible truth
●"Ingwa-banashi"-On her deathbed, a dying wife bequeaths to her young rival a sinister and horrific gift
●"A Passional Karma"-A spectral beauty transcends death to return for her handsome samurai lover
●"Story of a Tengu"-A priest saves the life of a Yokai monk and is granted a wish, but the outcome is not as expected

霊の日本
再話作家の第一人者であるハーンが日本の霊を描く14編をまとめた短編集。「振袖」、「焼津にて」、「悪因縁」など、伝説からエッセイまで幅広く扱った本書は、霊やご先祖様と交わる古き良き日本を垣間見ることができます。また、ハーンは作品において、ただの「おばけ」ではない“日本の八百万の神々と源を同じくしている物の怪”と“失われた日本の姿”の存在を伝えています。日本の文化や文学における本作品の重要性を解説した新しい序文も必見です。