Description
This excerpt from a book about Japanese culture discusses the Kwaidan, a type of Japanese ghost story. The Kwaidan are stories that convey the enduring mystery of traditional Japanese culture and the world of the samurai. In this particular Kwaidan, the story revolves around a woman, the Lady of Tamiya, who is betrayed and sold into the floating world of the brothels. She is eventually avenged and still remembered today in a Tokyo shrine popular with women who seek her protection.
Kwaidan are what Lafcadio Hearn called "stories and studies of strange things" - eerie tales which convey the enduring mystery of traditional Japanese culture and the world of the samurai. In this volume, de Bennevilles rendition of the Yotsuya Kwaidan of Shunkintei Ryuo paints a picture of life in the capital city of Edo among samurai of the highest class, jostling for power at the court of the Shogun. At the heart of the story is the Lady of Tamiya, a daughter of the samurai who is sold by her brutal husband into the floating world of the brothels, from which she escapes only in death. Thereafter, the Lady is avenged as misfortune relentlessly overtakes all who betrayed her, and she is still remembered today in a Tokyo shrine popular with women who seek her protection. More than any history,
kwaidan reveal the inner morality of the samurai code.
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