The Snow Woman and Other Yokai Stories from Japan

by Noboru Wada, William Scott Wilson (Translator), Haruna Wada (Illustrator)

An extraordinary collection of Japanese folk tales, many in English for the first time!

This book contains 79 stories from the Japanese collection Tales from Shinshu , compiled and edited by award-winning author Noboru Wada. It features traditional tales of yokai, ghosts, mountain witches, demons and apparitions frequently sighted in and around the mountainous Shinshu region in central Japan, such




These stories have been passed down for generations from grandparents to their grandchildren, sitting around the hearth on cold and snowy winter nights. They are well-known throughout Japan and are believed by the inhabitants of Shinshu to have actually occurred in the distant past!

Genres: Horror, Short Stories, Fantasy, Ghosts, Japanese Literature, Japan, Fiction

288 pages, Paperback

Published April 16, 2024

Reviews

[Seb · Rating 5 out of 5]

DNF ~50%

This book isn't for me. It is a cultural work of collecting traditional stories that have been passed down through the centuries in the spoken word.

I thought it would be a way to get into that culture and discover its depths. I was wrong: the goal is to preserve tradition before it disappears. The public is supposed to know about the folklore to fully appreciate this collection.

It is a great work and it should have been hard work to collect and transcribe all these stories while maintaining their original form. It deserves the five stars I give it. I just can't go on and pretend I'm enjoying it, though.

[Jammin Jenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this set of short stories from Japan focusing on ghosts and other paranormal activities. It teaches some cultural and moral lessons to us all. I want to thank the author, the publisher, and Edelweiss+for giving me an e-copy of this book, in return for an honest review.

[Summer Seeds · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 Stars

I don’t know if my issue is with the stories themselves or the translation, but it was a struggle getting through this collection. It read very awkwardly.

[DC Palter · Rating 5 out of 5]

The title of this collection of Japanese ghost stories, The Snow Woman and Other Yokai Stories from Japan, is a little misleading. All of the 77 folk tales collected here by Noboru Wada and translated by William Scott Wilson come specifically from the Nagano region.

Every place in Japan is unique, but Nagano is especially so. Spanning the Japan alps that make up the backbone of Japan, in the modern era of swift shinkansen and fast highways connecting Nagano to the big coastal cities, the region has become renowned for world-class skiing, luxurious hot springs, wine vineyards, apple and chestnut orchards, and the longest life expectancy of any prefecture in Japan. But for most of history, Nagano, or Shinshu or Shinano as it was long known, was a poor, snowy region of long, cold winters where isolated villagers eked out a difficult existence.

This landlocked prefecture was mostly covered in forest, with small villages scattered amidst the mountains. Food was scarce and accidents common, the perfect breeding ground for stories of the supernatural.

Noboru Wada is the perfect guide to the folklore of this region. Not only did he grow up in Nagano City and graduate from Shinshu University, but from 2011 to 2017, he was the director of the Kurohime Fairy Tale Museum. He is a prolific author of ghost stories, traditional folk tales, and science fiction for children.

Among the 77 stories in this collection are many classic creatures of Japanese folklore: dragons living in the lakes, shape-shifting kitsune foxes and tanuki, red-faced oni, kappa, yōkai of all sorts, and of course in Nagano, yamamba mountain witches. Beware when beautiful women materialize out of the snow and fall in love with woodcutters and charcoal makers in their warm cabins.

If you’re familiar with Nagano, you’ll recognize the settings of many of the stories, from Lake Suwa, the Tenryū River, and Matsushiro Castle, to the mountain peaks of Asama, Ontake, Hotaka, Garyū, Togakushi, and Iizuna, to the towns of Shiogiri, Sonohara, and Auzaka.

The stories are charming, and most are short, typically only 1 or 2 pages each, and quite simple. They make for interesting dinnertime reading. They might be less suitable for bedtime reading as they can be brutal in their killing of human-like monsters. These are not Disneyfied Grimm’s fairy tales, though they do teach many of the same morals of honesty and hard work.

Among my favorites were:

--The Legend of the Snow Woman: In the title story, in the middle of a snowstorm, a woman knocks on a hunter’s door. Don’t ask why a beautiful young woman is out in the storm.

--Melon-Child Princess: If you like the story of Momotaro — Peach Boy — how about a melon princess? An old lady finds a melon inside a box floating down the river that turns into a cute little girl. Later, a demon comes and ties her up to steal her princess’s robe.

--The Sake-Buying Yamamba: There are 2 sake dealers in this village, one on each side of town. Which one should the yamamba witch visit to buy her sake?

The capable translation was done by William Scott Wilson who has written or translated over 20 books focusing on samurai culture, and been awarded a commendation from the Foreign Ministry of Japan and inducted into the Order of the Rising Sun.

I especially enjoyed the beautiful black & white woodblock prints by Wada’s daughter, Haruna Wada, that illustrated the collection. They were perfect for this book.

My one nit with this collection is that some of the stories, especially the ones near the end, seemed to have little to do with yōkai or the supernatural, and some were even set in post-war Japan. While interesting stories on their own, they seemed out of place in this collection.

But that’s a minor nit for a great collection of ghost stories from Nagano. The book was published by Tuttle and makes a great addition to their many wonderful books on Japanese yōkai, fairy tales, and folktales.

[Aether · Rating 2 out of 5]

Serviceable, but it honestly reads one of two ways:

-Either it was written for a younger audience with the same stilted/hyper-simplified and awkward writing you'd expect in a children's book (honestly, at times it felt like I was reading something from a chat AI with how awkward an unnatural it sounded)

OR

-It was translated super literally without any sort of localization and editing to make it sound more natural in English

Because of this, I didn't make it very far. It was just unpleasant to read. There's so many other options for Yokai stories that you can do MUCH better.

[Travis · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an enjoyable collection of Japanese folktales, mostly focused on spirits and monsters. Some were stories I had encountered elsewhere before, others were new or at least a new variant of a familiar premise. There is some oddity in phrasing from time to time, and I'm unsure if it is a reflection of the original writing, or a product of the translator (in his intro, he proposes "shape-shifter" as a legitimate translation of obake, so I feel a bit uncertain of him.

[Nells · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars overall

It was an ok book, there were some really good and interesting stories but the majority of them were dull and I felt myself loosing interest in them. The art was really cool and the stories were short which meant I didn’t have to drag myself through stories I didn’t like but that also meant that I sped through stories I was interested in.

I would recommend if you like short stories and Japanese mythology and overall all things spooky

[Ashley Hana · Rating 5 out of 5]

YOU CAN'T TELL ME ABOUT A BUTTOCKS STROKING GHOST AND THEN NOT GIVE ME THE STORY?!
Haha, other than that though, I really enjoyed all these stories. Some were creepy, some wholesome and some had my jaw on the floor, or giggling to myself.
It's nice to have a collection of all these stories that have been told over time.

[Nicki · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting as an introduction to Yokai. I did find not all the stories held my attention, though. The style it was told in too, which I understand was mean to be as if spoken, was not really to my taste either.

[Stuart Iversen · Rating 3 out of 5]

A Grimm-lite collection of Japanese tales. I speak a bit of Japanese, and I suspect this has been translated a bit too literally, giving it a somewhat stilted feel at times. However, there are some fun stories, and once I got into the rhythm, it bothered me less.

[Ella · Rating 3 out of 5]

Perfectly serviceable collection of yokai tales! Would recommend this particularly as a read-aloud for older children who enjoy scary stories and for campfire ghost tales.

[Milo Le · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good but the stories get repetitive after a while as they are mostly 1-2 pages long. This could definitely use better editing and cut down the length of the book

[Michelle Chan · Rating 2 out of 5]

A collection of folktales

[Alan Bach · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some of the prose in the dialogue and internal monologues are awkward, but otherwise the storytelling was good if a bit terse. Outside of the last section of the book there were several interesting stories in each section, and the topic matter of yokai is appreciated, since yokai are quite prevalent in Japanese culture, yet it is frustratingly difficult to find books outside of this one that have translated into English stories about them.