Haunted Japan

A delightfully creepy telling of Japanese ghost stories--some traditional, some experienced by the author firsthand. Since time immemorial, spooky tales of the supernatural have been a staple of folklore around the world. Japan is no exception, and has a particularly rich heritage of legends about ghostly creatures and ghoulish events, both malignant and benign. To prepare this book on Japan's ghosts, demons and paranormal phenomena, author Catrien Ross collected accounts of eerie and terrifying happenings from every part of Japan. Along the way, she visited the unquiet grave of Oiwa, the beautiful wife of a murderous, unfaithful husband, and climbed to the summit of sacred Mount Osore, a Japanese gateway to communicate with the dead. The result is an unparalleled set of insights into the hidden corners of the Japanese psyche--a world filled with blind female shamans, trees that grow human hair, weeping rocks, and even a graveyard where Jesus is said to be buried. Ross has included modern as well as traditional tales in Haunted Japan to offer the reader the full range of yokai and yurei tales. Along the way, she also delivers terrific entertainment--including lots of good, old-fashioned goosebump stories, as well as some hair-raising surprises that Japanophiles and aficionados of the supernatural will love.