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IKIRYŌ: Tales of the Living Ghost
You don't have to die to become a ghost.
In Japan, the most terrifying spirits aren't the dead—they're the living. When jealousy festers, when betrayal cuts deep, when love turns to obsession, the soul doesn't wait for death. It tears free from the body and hunts. This is the ikiryō—the living ghost—and Japan has believed in its power for over a thousand years.
IKIRYŌ: Tales of the Living Ghost draws you into six haunting stories from classical and Edo-period Japan, where scorned lovers, abandoned women, and forsaken men unleash something far more dangerous than anger. Their spirits—still tethered to breathing bodies—cross impossible distances to torment, possess, and destroy.
---
What Awaits You
Six chilling tales that reveal the dark psychology behind Japan's most feared supernatural phenomenon—each one exploring the terrifying What happens when emotion becomes so powerful it takes on a life of its own?
A noblewoman's jealousy that poisons everyone her lover touches—including herselfA divorced wife whose bitterness follows her ex-husband's new family to the graveTwo young women whose obsession with the same boy tears them from their own bodiesA forsaken youth in Edo's pleasure quarters whose heartbreak becomes a deadly curseA servant girl whose hidden passion commits murder while she sleepsA woman who waits seven years for a promise, then flies across Japan in a single night to exact her revenge in the fleshThese aren't ghost stories. They're stories about what we become when we can't let go.
---
Perfect for readers who
Japanese folklore and supernatural traditionsPsychological horror and dark fantasyClassical literature from The Tale of Genji to Edo kaidanFilms like Ringu, Ju-On, and KwaidanAnyone fascinated by the shadows of the human heart
---
Faithfully adapted. Culturally authentic. Impossible to forget.
Drawn from sources spanning a millennium—including The Tale of Genji, Konjaku Monogatarishū, and Edo-period collections—these tales have been carefully adapted to preserve their atmospheric dread and psychological complexity while making them accessible to Western readers. Each story is accompanied by Author's Notes exploring the cultural and historical context of Japan's living ghost tradition.
The body remains. The spirit escapes. And someone will pay.
Get your copy now—if you dare to discover what the living can do when the soul breaks free.
In Japan, the most terrifying spirits aren't the dead—they're the living. When jealousy festers, when betrayal cuts deep, when love turns to obsession, the soul doesn't wait for death. It tears free from the body and hunts. This is the ikiryō—the living ghost—and Japan has believed in its power for over a thousand years.
IKIRYŌ: Tales of the Living Ghost draws you into six haunting stories from classical and Edo-period Japan, where scorned lovers, abandoned women, and forsaken men unleash something far more dangerous than anger. Their spirits—still tethered to breathing bodies—cross impossible distances to torment, possess, and destroy.
---
What Awaits You
Six chilling tales that reveal the dark psychology behind Japan's most feared supernatural phenomenon—each one exploring the terrifying What happens when emotion becomes so powerful it takes on a life of its own?
A noblewoman's jealousy that poisons everyone her lover touches—including herselfA divorced wife whose bitterness follows her ex-husband's new family to the graveTwo young women whose obsession with the same boy tears them from their own bodiesA forsaken youth in Edo's pleasure quarters whose heartbreak becomes a deadly curseA servant girl whose hidden passion commits murder while she sleepsA woman who waits seven years for a promise, then flies across Japan in a single night to exact her revenge in the fleshThese aren't ghost stories. They're stories about what we become when we can't let go.
---
Perfect for readers who
Japanese folklore and supernatural traditionsPsychological horror and dark fantasyClassical literature from The Tale of Genji to Edo kaidanFilms like Ringu, Ju-On, and KwaidanAnyone fascinated by the shadows of the human heart
---
Faithfully adapted. Culturally authentic. Impossible to forget.
Drawn from sources spanning a millennium—including The Tale of Genji, Konjaku Monogatarishū, and Edo-period collections—these tales have been carefully adapted to preserve their atmospheric dread and psychological complexity while making them accessible to Western readers. Each story is accompanied by Author's Notes exploring the cultural and historical context of Japan's living ghost tradition.
The body remains. The spirit escapes. And someone will pay.
Get your copy now—if you dare to discover what the living can do when the soul breaks free.
189 pages, Kindle Edition
Published December 29, 2025
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