Cultural background: KAIDAN is the origin of J-Horror

KAIDAN has its origin in Japan’s Heian Period (794-1185 CE), where people believed that the spirits of high-ranking nobility killed in political battles came back to haunt those who defeated them. Thus, KAIDAN were believed to be a collection of “eerie happenings,” and were not fictional. It is a deeply rooted cultural tradition to believe in the presence of ghosts and inhuman creatures.

But the Edo period (1603-1868) was when KAIDAN took off as a form of entertainment, regardless of class or status. During this time, the style of Hyaku Monogatari Kaidan (One Hundred Ghost Stories) became popular in which one hundred candles are lit at dusk and the story teller blows out one candle at the end of each story until all are extinguished. When the final candle was out, people could expect to feel the presence of a ghost. This form was particularly popular amongst Samurai, as a way to test their bravery. The three most famous KAIDAN stories, “Yotsuya Kaidan,” “Sarayashiki,” and “Botan Doro” were told during this time period, and will be included in the ZTP’s KAIDAN performance.

During the Meiji period (1868-1912), KAIDAN became known globally thanks to a westerner named Lafcadio Hearn, a Greek born Irish immigrant who married a Japanese woman and became a Japanese citizen under the name Yakumo Koizumi. Hearn’s fascination with Japan’s ghost stories led him to research and retell them in his own way. Some of his versions of Kaidan are also included in this performance.

The Kaidan tradition continues in Japanese culture through live story telling, literature, Kabuki theatre, visual art, music, video games, manga and horror films.

Illustrations by Hokusai Katsushika (the man famous for the 36 Views of Mount Fuji) from Hyakumonogatari Kaidan (100 Ghost Stories).

Who was Lafcadio Hearn?

Patrick Lafcadio Hearn (1850 – 1904) was a Greek and Irish writer, translator, and teacher whose work played a significant role in the introduction of the culture and literature of Japan to the Western world.

Hearn was born on the Greek island of Lefkada but moved to Dublin, where he was abandoned first by his mother, then his father, and finally by his father's aunt (who had been appointed his official guardian). At the age of 19, he immigrated to the United States, where he found work as a newspaper reporter in Cincinnati and later in New Orleans. From there, he was sent as a correspondent to Martinique in the French West Indies, where he stayed for two years. In 1890, Hearn traveled to Japan, where he met and married Setsuko Koizumi. He became a Japanese citizen, officially registered as Yakumo Koizumi 小泉八雲, and lived there the rest of his life. They had four children.

Hearn's writings about Japan offered new insight into Japanese culture, especially his collections of legends and ghost stories, Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things. Many of the ghost stories were first told to him by his wife, Setsuko, but Hearn continued researching them and wrote a collection, adding his imagination to what he could find. Kwaidan, brought some of these ancient stories to other parts of Japan for the first time and later became famous internationally.

After living in Shimane and Kumamoto, Hearn and his family moved to Tokyo, where he taught English Literature at Tokyo Imperial University and was a lecturer at Waseda University, before he died. His grave is in Zoshigaya Cemetery in the Toshima district of Tokyo, and the Lafcadio Hearn Memorial Museum is in his old residence in Shimane.

He is much celebrated in Japan to this day.