Some Japanese Ghosts

by Lafcadio Hearn

'The body was cold as ice; the heart had long ceased to beat: yet there were no other signs of death.'

The phantoms and ghouls of Japanese folklore are in this book driven back into the world of the living. Mysterious brides melt into mist, paintings come alive, and man-eating goblins barter for redemption. Traditional Japanese folktales and legends, infused with memories of Lafcadio Hearn’s own haunted childhood, are here masterfully retold.

Genres: Horror, Classics, Fiction, Short Stories, Japan, Literary Fiction, Japanese Literature

112 pages, Paperback

Published April 17, 2025

About the author

Greek-born American writer Lafcadio Hearn spent 15 years in Japan; people note his collections of stories and essays, including Kokoro (1896), under pen name Koizumi Yakumo.

Rosa Cassimati (Ρόζα Αντωνίου Κασιμάτη in Greek), a Greek woman, bore Patrick Lafcadio Hearn (Πατρίκιος Λευκάδιος Χερν in Greek or 小泉八雲 in Japanese), a son, to Charles Hearn, an army doctor from Ireland. After making remarkable works in America as a journalist, he went to Japan in 1890 as a journey report writer of a magazine. He arrived in Yokohama, but because of a dissatisfaction with the contract, he quickly quit the job. He afterward moved to Matsué as an English teacher of Shimané prefectural middle school. In Matsué, he got acquainted with Nishida Sentarô, a colleague teacher and his lifelong friend, and married Koizumi Setsu, a daughter of a samurai.
In 1891, he moved to Kumamoto and taught at the fifth high school for three years. Kanô Jigorô, the president of the school of that time, spread judo to the world.

Hearn worked as a journalist in Kôbé and afterward in 1896 got Japanese citizenship and a new name, Koizumi Yakumo. He took this name from "Kojiki," a Japanese ancient myth, which roughly translates as "the place where the clouds are born". On that year, he moved to Tôkyô and began to teach at the Imperial University of Tôkyô. He got respect of students, many of whom made a remarkable literary career. In addition, he wrote much reports of Japan and published in America. So many people read his works as an introduction of Japan. He quit the Imperial University in 1903 and began to teach at Waseda University on the year next. Nevertheless, after only a half year, he died of angina pectoris.

Reviews

[Luke Glasspool · Rating 5 out of 5]

You mind if a white boy speaks a little Japanese tonight?

[Nour (FREE PALESTINE) Books]

"The body was cold as ice; the heart had long ceased to beat: yet there were no other signs of death."

hard to rate this because some stories were amazing (sanjo has my heart) and some were meh (yukiko 💔)
5/5 based on vibes tho 🔥

it was so interesting though and I had so much fun reading it <3

"Sanjo shaved his head and became a priest."

[Tindra · Rating 3 out of 5]

kort bok men fin och intressant att få dyka djupare i en annan kultur, en samling av japanska legender och spökhistorier.

3/5⭐️

[Dario Boen · Rating 2 out of 5]

voor een boek over Japanse folklore was de intrigue echt niet aanwezig. alle verhalen hebben een mega simpele happy end en zijn eigenlijk ook niet spannend. met uitzondering van Kwashin Koji waren deze verhalen over geesten allerminst wat ik verwacht had van dit boek. De verhalen van Yokai die ik tot nu heb gelezen waren stuk voor stuk goed, maar de geesten die hier in voor kwamen zijn veel nichere lokale geesten en de verhaalstof zou zo een niche vertellingen kunnen redden uit de vergetelheid ma das in deze gevallen niet gelukt vrees ik.

[mei! · Rating 2 out of 5]

ik vond de verhalen lowkey erg saai en ook erg kort (ik weet dat het short stories zijn maar hier was barely een buildup voordat het verhaal al eindigde). had hogere verwachtingen dus ben wel een beetje teleurgesteld.

[Granger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very enjoyable stories from 100+ years ago, very quaint and spooky and cultural and Japanese.

[Varya Mishra · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm a sucker for whimsical tales of folklore, so this was a very entertaining read for me. There were some moments of very beautiful imagery, which really captivated me and made me want to keep reading, and there were some stories that did not really lead to anywhere but were a fun time. And then there were some very interesting stories that personally had no meaning, they were just there.

However, it is a great book and I would definitely recommend it to anyone who likes this genre, or just wants to know a little bit more about Japanese culture and philosophical thoughts around death, life and rebirth, morality and goodness. It really makes you think.

[Kathryn McCarrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this introduction to ghost tales outside of my knowledge and definitely learnt a lot from reading this book! Some tales I admittedly was already familar with but each tale had a message which nearly always related to moral standing - a pleasant change from what I'm familar with. Would recommend and would read again!

[Jason Pollard · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tbh maybe should have just re-read Kwaidan! Pretty unrewarding from a raw storytelling perspective, but worth a quick read for a handful of great moments ("hold this corpse's hair and don't let go even when she wakes up and runs on all fours" is objectively sick as hell).

[Benjamin Brooker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Realised it took a month to get through this, but a nice little one to revisit here and there. I mentioned it before, but this is extremely well written considering it was first published around the beginning of the 20th century.

[Virgil · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not bad, but very dry

[Joe Crawford · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Tereza Vítková · Rating 3 out of 5]

a light read that did not leave a mark on me

[Aaron Grossman · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very enjoyable collection of Japanese ghost stories, each no more than a few pages. A light read, and one that helps contextualize other Japanese horror/supernatural stories that I'm familiar with.

[Apollos Michio · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some Japanese Ghosts by Lafcadio Hearn is a collection of short Japanese folktales and legends involving ghosts and spirits. These tales are deeply rooted in the Japanese culture and history, featuring samurais, paintings that come alive, man-eating goblins, and spirits that appear in different earthly forms. 🇯🇵

Some of the stories are quite heartwarming, especially those depicting romance between lovers, while others are slightly more unusual and intriguing. Overall though, I think the collection is somewhat forgettable. Nevertheless, it can be a fun experience to read a tale a day as a bedtime story, provided you are not easily unsettled by such stories! 👻

[naabilaputri · Rating 3 out of 5]

bacaan ini nggak cocok buat kalian yang suka sama cerita dengan ending penuh closure. karena kumcer ini memuat mitos/legenda mengenai hantu Jepang yang sayangnya banyak banget ending menggantungnya. ada satu bab yang bahkan dia sengaja nggak menuliskan endingnya!! *sumpah ini kesel banget sih

karena buku ini gak ditulis sm orang Jepang, jadi aku rasa cerita-cerita yang ada dalam Some Japanese Ghosts jadi "kureng" magis. karena itu bedasarkan hasil penelusuran si penulis sendiri.

meski begitu narasi penceritaannya dari pov orang ke-3 jadi kayak lagi baca dongeng. bahasa inggris yang dipakai dalam buku ini adalah inggris-inggris, jadi agak gampang-gampang susah untuk beberapa istilah yang kita nggak familiar.

seremnya kurang dapet karena ceritanya banyak menggantung, tp kalau untuk memperluas khasanah hantu Jepang dan segala istilah zaman dulu sih oke. cukup ringan untuk sekadar dibaca sebagai buku selingan.

[Bente]

grappig boekje. Sommige verhalen eindigen met de schrijver die zegt "ik weet niet hoe ik dit verhaal moet eindigen dus dit is het einde", andere stoppen vlak voordat de 'clue' naar boven komt om maar te zeggen dat ze het geheim niet kunnen weggeven en andere stoppen omdat er eigenlijk niks gebeurd. Een beetje rage bait af en toe dus haha, maaaaaar niet op een vervelende manier. Je wordt gewoon een beetje voor de gek gehouden.

zit een beetje te twijfelen of ik de gehele Penguin Archive wil hebben... Dan kan ik die veel beter in een keer halen dan boekje voor boekje. Alleen dat voelt altijd zo stom.

[Zuuru · Rating 4 out of 5]

I know it's not really something surprising, but it's a nice note to make of the fact that every culture takes inspiration from their old tales. Case in point - the concept of a dark-haired girl in a well; vengeful pre-death curses that "live" a life of their own; objects carrying the desires of their owners. I've read a fair amount of Japanese novels at this point and I see all of these themes carried on in more modern - 20th Century 'til today - stories. Very comforting, in a way, like a reminder of humans bowing towards the creativity of their ancestors.

[katie dxcky ⋆˚⊹♡ · Rating 3 out of 5]

i absolutely lovedddd some of these stories!! i initially picked this up because i wanted to learn more about japanese folklore and the theme of this collection was so interesting to me, but for me it was a bit hit or miss. some of the stories just ended so abruptly i was like huh??? lol. but maybe that’s the style!

either way, middle rating because sometimes it was really interesting, but other times it left me a bit flat. this is also my first time reading a book like this, so maybe the style of short stories just isn’t for me!!

[Andrew Lynch · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting little snapshot of Buddihist ghost stories, that fall into 3 categories; love, greed and nature. Some stories felt abrupt in ending and had nothing to say where there were others that could have been expanded on.

For a gift, it was a good one as I would not have gone out of my way to read this but now that I have it has me interested to find similar books of Japanese myths/folklore.

[Iðunn · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Shall I burn it for you?" he asked. She bowe before him. "It shall be burned in the temple this very morning" he promised "and no one shall read it, except myself" The figure smiled and vanished...
The letter was burned. It was a love-letter written to O-Sono in the time of her studies at Kyoto.

В тази малка книга са събрани стари японски легенди за призраци. Част от разказите не ми допаднаха, затова и давам такава оценка.

[Bethnoir · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are ideas and concepts in this book that I find really alien and I love it. Tales retold from many centuries ago, when goblins, dragons and spirits were represented as normal parts of life, the stories are short, but memorable.
The most upsetting thing, to me is the terrible role of women, possessions to be married off, expected to be quiet, uncomplaining and good and always serve whichever man they now belong to, mirror monsters have nothing on that.

[Georgia · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is such a quaint little book filled with interesting ghost stories from Japan. I loved this insight into Japanese culture, as the stories were nothing like British ghost stories would have been! Whilst they were very short - this 99 page book had 20 stories in - there was an endearing quality to the tales and I enjoyed reading them!

[Hannah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Humbled by the fact I know nothing about Japanese history or folklore but thoroughly enjoyed these short stories with ghosts, demons, all sorts. Felt reminiscent of English a level Angela Carter and for that alone it’s a good time !

notable quote: ‘when the wish is there, the eyes can say as much as the mouth’

[Kyle Bartsch · Rating 4 out of 5]

These Japanese tales mask their horror elements as lessons to be learned, like an ancient proverb. The spookiness comes in when the lessons don’t seem obvious. Some of these stories don’t really have a moral, they just feel like retellings of events. This blurs the lines of what is real and what isn’t, subconsciously and makes them really unsettling. Good little book. Spooky.

[Sally · Rating 3 out of 5]

Impulse purchase at bookshop. I gather these are collected folktales by this Greek/Irish writer. They’re told in that old fashioned way (set up paragraph and then the strange thing that happens) but some spooky tales, nevertheless. Interesting from the perspective of ‘this history of ghost stories’ as told around the world.

[Prasad GR · Rating 4 out of 5]

In just a few pages of crisp, evocative prose, Hearn rewards the reader with wonderful glimpses of Japanese myth and folklore through these stories. It’s only fitting that some of the stories are open ended. We meet ghosts, phantoms and spirits out to seek revenge, redemption, or to fulfil their longings and desires.

[Julius Cramer Andersen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Spændende indblik i en anden kultur.
Meget blandet, hvor gode de enkelte historier var. Det er også meget de samme temaer, der går igen i mange af historierne.
Kwashin Koji (historie 17 af 20) må være det ultimative eksempel på én, der har vundet i livet

[Edwin Richards · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very short (about an hour) little anthology of old ghost tales. Nothing actually horror related, but it was a super interesting glimpse into traditional japanese folklore and religious customs from between the 16th to 19th centuries!

[Andy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very enjoyable short folktales and legends. Well worth reading.