The Appeal of "Kaidan", Tales of the Strange

Abstract

Kaidan are tales of the strange and mysterious, often considered by contemporary Japanese to be frightening ghost stories. During the Edo period (1600-1867), kaidan enjoyed great popularity. Gatherings called hyakumonogatari kaidankai (Gatherings for One Hundred Kaidan Tales), in which people told one hundred stories to induce a supernatural phenomenon, were common among all classes of people. The popularity of oral-derived literature, which reflected the popularity of kaidan, reached a peak in the middle of the eighteenth century. Kaidan told orally and in print were a favorite leisure activity for people living in Edo Japan. The A. attempts to elucidate the appeal of kaidan in the Edo period as a leisure activity that provided entertainment to the Japanese with (1) frightening parody, (2) explanations for the inexplicable events in daily life, (3) exoticism, and (4) mild criticisms of social and political institutions.