{"id":648,"date":"2018-11-05T22:31:44","date_gmt":"2018-11-05T22:31:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ds.guilford.edu\/classes\/religion\/288-2018f\/?page_id=648"},"modified":"2018-12-18T20:45:57","modified_gmt":"2018-12-18T20:45:57","slug":"why-english-and-japanese-ghosts","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/ds.guilford.edu\/classes\/religion\/288-2018f\/yurei-the-lady-in-white\/why-english-and-japanese-ghosts\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Compare English and Japanese ghosts?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Lafcadio Hearn<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Lafcadio Hearn<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Lafcadio Hearn (Patrick Lafcadio Hearn, Yakumo Koizumi\/\u5c0f\u6cc9\u516b\u96f2) is a Japanese researcher and writer. Born in Greece, he was brought up in Ireland, worked in the United States, and had citizenship in Japan. He is famous as the author of “Kwaidan,” a collection of literary works focused on monsters. These ghost stories are widely known even now, such as “ROKURO-KUBI,” “YUKI-ONNA,” and “MIMINASHI-HOICHI,” which are based on his work. These strange works are Yakumo’s summaries of stories which he heard from his wife, Setsu. Koizumi married Koizumi Setsu, a samurai’s daughter, and after a few years they moved to Kumamoto Prefecture in Kumamoto City, Hyogo Prefecture Kobe City. At the age of 45, he began his career at the the Tokyo Imperial University (later the University of Tokyo) as an English teacher. After his retirement, Natsume Soseki took his place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Natsume Soseki, Japanese writer<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Natsume Soseki,1912<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

1867-1916 Novelist and Professor of English literature <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He had been studying in the UK as an international student. Meiji 33. In Meiij<\/g> 36 he became a lecturer at Tokyo Empire, and took the “literature theory” and “the 18th century English literature theory”. “I am a cat” announced in “Hototogisu” in 38 years gained popularity, and it is rewritten as a dedicated writer to the Tokyo Asahi Newspaper Company at the age of 40.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both Natsume Soseki and Lafcadio Hearn taught at Tokyo University, and their works are very popular in Japan. We would like to highlight the similarities within their writings as a comparison between ghost stories within the English and Japanese traditions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Broken Promise\u201d by Hearn and \u201cTen Dream nights\u201d by Soseki Natsume<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Story plots<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The broken promise<\/strong> by Hearn<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Ghost Terrorizing Her Murderer
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At death’s door, a wife begs her husband, a samurai, \u201cPlease do not marry again.\u201d The samurai promises this. The wife requested that the samurai build her grave in one corner of the garden and put bells in the grave. However, the samurai’s family members required him to remarry. The samurai stated, “When I started to feel a reasonable affection for my new wife \u2026. It is about seven days after marriage.” The samurai was required serve a night shift. That night, the ghost of his previous wife stood on the new wife’s bed. She heard the sound of a bell, and the old wife said, “Leave this house, but do not say anything about me, or I will surely kill you.” The wife was scared, and threatened to tell her husband, but the old wife said that it was not possible to get divorced. The ghost of the previous wife appeared the next day as well. At last the new wife told her husband everything. Her husband set another samurai to guard his new wife at night. However, the samurai guard went to play a Japanese board game, “Go,” in the next room. The samurai guard heard the sound of a bell, but could not move his body. Then the samurai and the other guards fell asleep against their will. The next morning, the samurai husband came back to the new wife’s room, and saw her dead body, decapitated. The head was not slashed as if with a sword, but torn off. The husband tried to wake up the samurai guards, but could not. When they followed the trail of blood, they came to the old wife’s grave. The ghost of the old wife was standing by her grave, holding the severed head of the new wife. The bells buried in the old wife’s grave were found around the new wife’s neck. The husband angrily slashed at the ghost with his sword, and she disappeared. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first night of “Ten nights of <\/strong>dream<\/strong><\/g>” by Soseki Natsume<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A man dreams that just before death, a woman says “I will come to see you in one hundred years.” After her death, the man buries the woman, and attempts to wait. Several days pass, and when the man loses count of the days, a hundred lilies bloom from the grave of the woman. The man knows that one hundred years have passed. Though the man waited one hundred years, it had only felt like a moment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the woman was living she had long black hair, and rosy cheeks, showing the life within her. When she died, however, these attributes that brought life to the woman’s appearance went away, and were replaced by the blooming lilies to represent that life. The man’s joy at seeing the lilies represents the beauty of eternal love. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The plots within these stories are similar;<\/g> but they have different endings. This shows the cultural differences between how life and death are viewed within Japan and England.  The picture below is “The Execution of Lady Jane Grey,” which Natsume wrote about during his travels in London. This image gives the viewer a sense of fear and sorrow for the execution of the young woman pictured. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Paul Delaroche, 1797 – 1856, The<\/g> Execution of Lady Jane Grey,1833
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In this website, we have explored the Japanese yurei<\/em><\/g> and English legends of “The Lady in White.” We enjoyed scrutinizing how the social norms regarding womanhood and misogyny matter in ghosts legends.  Both Japanese and English female ghosts have suffered tragic lives when they were alive and human beings. The cultural aspects, we could deepen the understanding of how each one of Japanese traditional arts relates to the building of concrete images of yurei<\/em><\/g>. It is our opinion that as both Japan and UK are islands, they can foster the originality for its religious and cultural lives. Overall, yurei<\/em> and  Lady in White,<\/g> can be the intriguing subjects for further research. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bibliography<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Hearn, Lafcadio. Kwaidan :<\/g> Stories and Studies of Strange Things. Boston, MA: Tuttle, 2005. 2005.
Natsume Soseki. Ten Nights of Dream ;<\/g> Hearing Things ;<\/g> the Heredity of Taste. Translated by Aiko Ito\u0304 and Graeme Wilson. Tut Books, L. Rutland, Vermont: Charles E. Tuttle Company, 1974.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

King, F. “The Tower of London, by Natsume Soseki.” Spectator -London- Weekly-<\/em> 9207, no. 9207 (2005): 35<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Natsume, S\u014dseki, and Marvin Marcus. Reflections in a Glass Door :<\/g> Memory and Melancholy in the Personal Writings of Natsume S\u014dseki<\/em>. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2009. 2009. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Image Bibliography<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Natsume, Soseki. n.d. Portrait of Natsume Soseki. Soseki No Omoide. National Diet Library. http:\/\/www.ndl.go.jp\/portrait\/e\/datas\/307_1.html.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paul Delaroche, 1797 – 1856. 1833. The Execution of Lady Jane Grey. Place: The National Gallery, London, Bequeathed by the Second Lord Cheylesmore, 1902. https:\/\/library-artstor-org.ezproxy.guilford.edu\/asset\/ANGLIG_10313766349.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Suzuki Tokoku, Japan, Tokyo, 1846-1913. late 19th-early 20th century. Ghost Terrorizing Her Murderer. Sculpture, Netsuke. Place: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, California, USA, Raymond and Frances Bushell Collection, M.91.250.239, http:\/\/www.lacma.org\/. https:\/\/library-artstor-org.ezproxy.guilford.edu\/asset\/AMICO_LACMA_103887217.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\nThe Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Print Collection, The New York Public Library. “Lafcadio Hearn.” New York Public Library Digital Collections. Accessed November 30, 2018. http:\/\/digitalcollections.nypl.org\/items\/510d47df-de8d-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Page written and created by Nozomi K., Branwyn M., and Sophie P.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Lafcadio Hearn Lafcadio Hearn (Patrick Lafcadio Hearn, Yakumo Koizumi\/\u5c0f\u6cc9\u516b\u96f2) is a Japanese researcher and writer. Born in Greece, he was brought up in Ireland, worked in the United States, and had citizenship in Japan. He is famous as the author of “Kwaidan,” a collection of literary works focused on monsters. These ghost stories are widely … <\/p>\n

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