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鬼談百景

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我們生活的世界,多得是匪夷所思的事。
那可能是發生在你我度過青春時代的校園、窩了大半輩子的家、每天都會經過的路上,甚至,就發生在這一眼、這一瞬間……

「口耳相傳的怪談中,幽靈往往毫無理由地憑空出現。
它們身上有著怎樣的故事?我一直感到不可思議,而無從解釋正是怪談的魅力所在。」

半夢半醒之際,床邊有個半透明人影向我要水喝;爺爺病逝後,玄關的燈每天自動亮起迎接我;家裡養的貓數目總是不合;泡澡時浴缸中浮現男人側臉的輪廓;收音機的空頻道冒出女人的低喃「其實有件事想告訴你」;校園中的銅像手指遭切斷,打不開的倉庫傳出鋼琴聲,掃除時間的廣播夾雜尖叫;畢業旅行當晚,不斷響起跑到逃生門的腳步聲;結婚多年始終沒能懷孕,婆家熱心告知可前往野墓「撿子」;牙牙學語的女兒常凝望半空傻笑,還拿帶子綁住米飛兔的脖頸搖晃,開心地說「鞦韆」;枝垂櫻形成的簾幕隱約交纏淡紅和服影子,隨花朵日漸凋零,和服也變得骯髒老舊……

九十九個光怪陸離的人生片段,為你拾回日復一日消磨的好奇心,喚起你不曾察覺的,對恐怖事物的鄉愁。

316 pages, 単行本

First published July 20, 2012

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About the author

Fuyumi Ono

168 books327 followers
Kanji Name: 小野 不由美.

Fuyumi Ono (小野 不由美, Ono Fuyumi) is a Japanese novelist who is best known for writing the Twelve Kingdoms (十二国記, Juuni Kokuki) series, on which a popular anime is based. Her name after marriage is Fuyumi Uchida (内田不由美, Uchida Fuyumi), but she writes under her maiden name.

Ono was born in Nakatsu, Ōita, Kyūshū in 1960. She graduated from Ōtani University in Kyōto with a degree in Buddhist Studies, and in 1988 was employed by the publisher Kōdansha. Her debut story is titled Sleepless on Birthday Eve.

Ono is married to Naoyuki Uchida (内田直行, Uchida Naoyuki), a mystery novelist who writes under the pseudonym Yukito Ayatsuji (綾辻行人 , Ayatsuji Yukito).

Before she started work on Twelve Kingdoms, Fuyumi Ono wrote The Demonic Child (魔性の子), a horror novel about a boy from another world. She later worked certain events from this novel into the Twelve Kingdoms series. Short stories set in the various kingdoms include: Kasho, Toei, Shokan, Kizan and Jogetsu. In February, 2008, the first new Twelve Kingdoms short story, Hisho no Tori (丕緒の鳥) was published in Shinchosha's Yomyom magazine.

According to an interview at the Anime News Network, she is "currently rewriting a girls' horror series (she) wrote long ago."

- Wikipedia

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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
Profile Image for Mizuki.
3,368 reviews1,398 followers
March 13, 2017
99 spooky short stories in one collection! What more can I ask for?

Fuyumi Ono takes us all on a chilling ride with her collection of ghost/paranormal/spooky tales (it's noted that many of her stories are 'true experiences' collected from fans), and damn even when some of them are rather uneventful or unremarkable, still many more of them are so frightening and dark!

My favorite stories from this book:


Her Favorite

A family moved into a rented apartment, and their toddler daughter started talking about playing with a 'swing' a lot after they moved in.

The parents then bought their daughter a small indoor swing to play with, but the girl still wasn't entirely happy with her new toy.

Then one day, the mother saw her daughter wrapped a piece of rope around her doll's neck, then she started swinging the doll and called out happily: 'Swing! Swing!'

The mother was horrified and told her daughter to stop playing like this. Letting go of the toy, the little girl pointed her finger at an empty spot near the ceiling and cried: 'Swing! Swing!'

Stalking

A school girl walked home after school, when she walked through a park, a chill ran down her spine suddenly so she turned around, only to notice a male figure, half-hidden among the trees, and the man seemed to be spying on her.

Frightened, the girl called for help when a middle age man walked by.

'Hey, you!' The middle age man marched toward the hidden unknown man, but as the man walked closer, he stopped dead. He found out it wasn't a stalker hiding among the trees, it was a man hanging himself, long dead.

Upon discovery the horrible truth, the middle age man told the girl to go home at once. The girl ran all the way home, only to see the outline of the same male figure hiding among the brushes *right next to the door to her home*, standing very still.

The girl was terrified, not daring to go near the door to her own home in such condition, she did the only thing she could: scream.

Hearing her scream, the girl's mother rushed out, and suddenly the terrible, still male figure was gone.

For a long time afterward, the girl could still sense the strange and still male figure, standing among trees or brushes, spying on her...

Brother

A girl was ill and resting at home, as time passed she became bothered by a strange sense of being watched, and the house seemed to be getting colder and colder for no reason.

Frightened, the girl walked to the balcony, she saw a friend passing by, so she called out: "Can you come in?"

She explained to her friend as she led the latter into her home. "I'm ill."

By now she no longer had the strange feeling of being watched.

"Oh, so that's why your brother was comforting you just then? Such a good brother he is!" Her friend asked. " I saw him standing behind you, holding your shoulder on the balcony."

Of course the girl never has any brother.



More to come.
Profile Image for eijisimo.
64 reviews
August 11, 2024
「そして、花が消えると同時に姿を消してしまった、という。」

And so, it ends. This book will stay very close to my heart because it was a gift from a dear friend AND it opened my eyes to a brand new world.

Being someone who will always pick realistic interpretations of events, I found this book to be quite the joy to read, in fact. Some of the events sounded just ridiculous to me with how easily you could find "normal" explanations for them and, yet, those people found them to be indescribable in any other way than "a work of the supernatural forces". Despite everything, those stories painted quick and clear visions of those supernatural forces, the involved people's emotions and the background of it all.

TLDR; the stories are short and simple, yet they stick with you. Recommended book for those who only now begin to read Japanese works in their original form. Shout out to all the shadow men in this thing.
Profile Image for Vel.
68 reviews1 follower
October 21, 2022
鬼談百景 (Kidan Hyakkei or, roughly translated, "Hundred Demonic Stories") collection of various kaidan (a traditional Japanese format for ghastly stories) compiled and additionally edited and reworked by Fuyumi Ono. Each story in here is told in the shortest, most concise manner possible which still allows the reader to obtain sufficient context and dive into the atmosphere of the events described. Most stories are in the 2-3 page range, with some being just a page and some being 5-6 pages long.

Although they are short and simple, there's a certain charm to this format - the direct, simple writing combined with the way each story starts like "This happened when Mr. T was in high school" or "Mrs. Y heard this from a former classmate" makes the experience much more kaidan-like - the reader really feels like they're being told these stories by someone they know, they feel included in the general atmosphere of the 百物語怪談会 (hyakumonogatari kaidankai, or "a storytelling gathering of 100 kaidan," is a format of kaidan-telling which has the participants light up 100 candles and blow a candle for each story told - it is believed that once the final story is told and the last candle is blown, something supernatural may happen in the participants' presence). Some of the stories touch upon similar subjects, sometimes even in similar ways, but there is enough diversity that even if one story feels like a rehash of themes you've already read about, the next one will probably mix things up in a fun way.

The format of the hyakumonogatari kaidankai is key to the structure of this work. A fairly interesting aspect of it is that despite being called
"Hundred Demonic Stories," it contains only 99 stories. That is for a reason. It was announced and published together with a new novel of Ono's, a horror mockumentary novel called 残穢 (Zan'e, lit. "Lingering Corruption"), which is meant to make the reader doubt if it isn't describing real events just like the kaidan of the 実話 (jitsuwa, "real stories") type recorded in this book. The readers of both books are meant to treat Zan'e as the final story, the one which is the culmination of the ritual and which is charged with supernatural meaning. I am really looking forward to reading it, unsurprisingly.

Outside of these general ramblings, I have to also say that I really enjoyed the afterword by Junji Inagawa, a somewhat famous kaidan-teller. It was insightful and had some spooky stuff of its own to offer!

A comprehensive list of my favorite stories, as well as short one-sentence descriptions (or teasers?) of them:
マリオネット (Marionette) - A teacher recalls a strange suicide case he witnessed.
隠れ鬼 (Hide and seek) - It is said that the kids who play hide and seek at dusk will be spirited away.
続き部屋 (The Room Beyond) - A student wakes up late at night and realizes that a dark space has replaced the wall by his bed.
鬼 (Devils) - Someone recalls what they would always see in the dark main hallway of their house as a child.
K階段 (The K Stairs) - It is said that a spirit haunts these stairs, but is that all?
香水 (Perfume) - In the nearly empty bus, two women sitting behind a student begin to behave weirder and weirder.
非常階段 (Emergency Stairs) - At the inn, someone descends the stairs.
どろぼう (Thief) - A bizarre tale about a possibly woman.
お気に入り (Her Favorite) - A little child really wants to play a game called "swing" with her mom.
さずかりもの (Blessing) - A woman is recommended an unorthodox method to conceive.
電話ボックス (Telephone Box) - A telephone box in the mountain, close to a supposedly haunted location - what could go wrong if you enter it?
トンネル (Tunnel) - Why is the lively tunnel suddenly deserted?

...and more. I got tired of listing them halfway through, hahaha. I may update this list in the future.
Profile Image for 空.
792 reviews14 followers
July 8, 2024
It was an interesting and enjoyable collection. There were some fairly creepy stories, but there were some where I was like “ … literally you’re just imagining things” or “why would you even do that”, but otherwise pretty fun.

✦✧✦✦✧✦✦✧✦

Edit 8th July 2024

The sleeve for this edition reads “読み終えたとき、経異が起こる―” in the tradition of the 百物語 (one hundred supernatural tales, I guess is the official translation), where after the 100th story something occurs. It seems fitting to have read this book again at the start of summer, when ghost stories are everywhere in Japan land. (I’m excited to participate in Choshi Railway’s お化け屋敷電車! Fingers crossed!)

The day I was going to finish reading it, I woke up to a loud bang that sounded like it came from inside my room. But there was nothing anywhere in my room that could have fallen over, and my door and windows were closed because I had the A/C on.

… But then it turned out my housemate dropped his wallet on the second floor while he was getting ready to go to the office, so, I guess, so much for that. Also I think I’m supposed to have finished the whole book in one day with a +1 to hit the “100” threshold. Still, it’s fun to think about while you draw closer to the end of the book.

Now, ONO Fuyumi is the author of one of my favorite series, 営繕かるかや怪異譚. With this book I feel like she shows off her prowess as an author — being able to write a short story that’s actually scary/creepy without having a lot of room to go into why it’s scary. Of course she pulls a lot from placing unusual things in usual situations, and if you have some background or visual idea of the setting, it probably hits harder.

Anyway, on to my favorite stories in this collection:

増える階段 (multiplying stairs) — Two youths test the legend of the “multiplying stairs” at their school, to unfortunate results.

マリオネット (marionette) — One teacher describes what a body hitting concrete sounds like.

一緒に見ていた (we watched together) — Was this not part of a Netflix adaptation? A teacher who is guarding the room where a student had committed suicide (waiting for the ambulance to arrive) feels the door to the room behind him open. But there’s nothing there except the body.

隠れ鬼 (hide and seek and tag) — There is a reason why children are warned not to play hide-and-seek from dusk onwards, in this town at least.

続き部屋 (the endless room) — A girl wakes up to see that her room has … gotten bigger.

白い画布 (white canvas) — There’s a white canvas in the art room, supposedly painted by a teacher who killed a student.

開かずの放送室 (the forbidden broadcasting room) — The old broadcasting room in the school is a “forbidden” room. Sometimes it opens … even if the key to its lock was lost years ago.

どこの子 (where are you from) — A teacher who stays behind in school at night finds out he isn’t alone.

青の女 (blue woman) — F’s house had been haunted by a ghost in her youth, but thinking back on it in her adulthood, she realizes some things about that ghost.

特別な二階 (second floor special) — An exchange student in Canada gets a great deal on an apartment — but the deal is only for apartments on the second floor.

お気に入り (favorite) — Y’s daughter’s favorite game is “swing”, but … her understanding of “swing” is different from that of the adults around her. (Children are creepy. And Japan wonders why their birth rate/population is declining? Tsk.)

追い越し (overtake) — One night on a late-night drive, U and his friend see a woman in a white dress.

トンネル (tunnel) — K’s brother, and his three friends, meet what they think is an accident while driving through a tunnel. But the accident isn’t the only strange thing they encounter.

髪あらい (kami-arai) — F has always been told by her grandmother to clean up her hair when she takes a bath, but she doesn’t like it. She’s about to find out why her grandmother’s so noisy about it.

足音 (footsteps) — U begins to hear strange sounds in his apartment after he finds, and listens to, a cassette tape (!) of scary stories.

廃病院 (abandoned hospital) — Three young men set out to find an abandoned hospital — and they, unfortunately, find it.

仲間入り (another friend) — T takes a break in the middle of preparing for a culture festival, in middle school. He sees his friends waving to him from afar.

レインコート (raincoat) — A high school student upsets some offerings at an intersection where an accident has recently taken place … and immediately after begins to be followed by a small child in a yellow raincoat.

雨女 (rainbringer) — One rainy day, on her way home from school with her hands full, K encounters a lady walking beside her.

(big brother) — Feeling sick, O rushes home, but she can’t shake the feeling that she isn’t alone.

密閉 (airtight) — K’s closet doors won’t stay shut.

来訪 (visit) — Someone is standing outside K’s (a different one) apartment — someone barefoot in the middle of winter.

ガラスの中 (inside the glass) — H goes for a drink with his sempai to a bar his sempai frequents, but then spies something strange in the cupboard, behind its glass doors.

(mirror) — T’s school’s principal is staying late at school one night when he goes to the bathroom.

尾けてくる (followed) — S finds someone strange in the nearby park.
Profile Image for Shea Chen.
312 reviews1 follower
November 9, 2023
《鬼談百景》99篇怪談+長篇小說《殘穢》=完成真正的百物語。現在已經完成了99%的進度,唯獨就差《殘穢》沒有讀過了(最近就開始閲讀)。在《鬼談百景》這本書裏面怪談質量參差不齊,有的真的會給人背脊發涼的感覺,因爲上班緣故,大部分讀書時間都是在晚上,自己一個人待在家裏靜靜的體驗各種各樣的怪談,有時就會不自覺的回頭看看旁邊床底下或者櫃子的黑暗縫隙裏是否有著令人害怕的目光在盯著自己呢?!説一下最喜歡的10個怪談,排名第一的當然是《鞦韆》,其他的就是《雨衣》《雨女》《密閉》《尾隨》《紅衣女人》《花廉》《來訪者》《長衫女》《大概五隻吧》(這9篇不分前後)。
Profile Image for Karin.
38 reviews
May 12, 2022
love it! been a fan of her since my schooling days and this just tops the cake.
读着读着莫名就产生了恐惧感, 真的有点开始害怕了.
但是是我喜欢读的怪谈之一,所以没有后悔读起来!
每一篇带着的恐怖指数不一样,却不会比较少,所以,很值得一读.
46 reviews9 followers
April 29, 2025
didn’t finish. It’s scary but alao dragged down by it being antidotes
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