The dead wreak revenge on the living paintings come alive spectral brides possess mortal men
and a priest devours human flesh in these chilling Japanese ghost stories retold by a master of
the supernatural. Lafcadio Hearn drew on the phantoms and ghouls of traditional Japanese
folklore - including the headless 'rokuro-kubi' the monstrous goblins 'jikininki' or the
faceless 'mujina' who stalk lonely neighbourhoods - and infused them with his own memories of
his haunted childhood in nineteenth-century Ireland to create these terrifying tales of
striking and eerie power. Today they are regarded in Japan as classics in their own right.
