Kwaidan: The Black Hair

This is a traditional story "kwaidan"—a Japanese ghost story—that Lafcadio Hearn shared in one of his books entitled Kwaidan.

Hearn’s history is shared here, along with another Yurei (ghost) story he collected.

The Japanese ghost story I share here-- The Black Hair is the original—this story is re-told in the modern-day film Kwaidan.

There was an impoverished samurai who lived in the capital city. His fortune changed when a foreign lord summoned him into service.

The Black Hair

The samurai gladly accepted his offer, but instead of taking his wife of many years with him, he abandoned her and took another woman he desired with him.

Many years later, the samurai, no longer in the service of the lord, returned to the capital city.

The samurai found himself longing for his old wife. One night at midnight, he returned to the old house, where he had lived with her.

In the autumn moonlight, he saw the gate to his old home was ajar. He went in and saw his wife sitting silently by herself.

To his joy, she expressed no resentment or bitterness toward him for his ill use of her. Instead, she greeted him with happiness.

The film version.

The samurai, now overwhelmed with gratitude, swore to her he would never leave her again. He said nothing could part them in the future.

Pleased with the happiness he now saw in her eyes, the samurai embraced his wife, and the two fell asleep in each other’s arms.

Bright sunlight awoke the samurai the next morning. He saw the house was more run-down than it had appeared in the moonlight.

He looked down at his wife, who was still lying in his embrace. To his horror, he found he was holding a corpse where only bits of flesh still clung to the bones.

The skull was wrapped in long black hair.

The samurai leaped to his feet and rushed to the neighbor’s house.

He asked, “What happened to the woman who lived next door?”

They told him, “She was abandoned by her husband many years ago. She died just last summer from an illness, brought on by her sorrow at this loss.”

Since there was no one to care for her or give her a funeral, her body remained where she had died.

A traditional Japanese belief is if a dead person is not given a proper funeral with respect after they die—they often return as a Yurei to seek revenge.

Lafcadio Hearn’s A Dead Secret, Part ll

Lafcadio Hearn

Lafcadio Hearn wrote one of his most popular books, Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things, just before he died in 1904.

This book is better known today by the title, Kwaidan, which means “Ghost Story” in Japanese.

Hearn in his introduction to the first edition of this book explains that most of the 17 ghost stories he includes. he translated from old Japanese texts.

One story included in Kwaidan is entitled, A Dead Secret. This story uses the classic premise that ghosts sometimes return to take care of “unfinished business.”

 A Dead Secret

A long time ago a merchant who lived in the rural province of Tamba had a daughter called O-Sono.

O-Sono’s father observing she was both pretty and clever decided to send her to Kyoto where she could be trained in the polite accomplishments taught to young ladies in the capital.

After O-Sono finished her education, she married a merchant named Nagaraya who she lived with happily. The couple had one child--a son.

Sadly, O-Sono in her fourth year of marriage fell ill, and died.

On the night of his mother’s funeral her son announced to the rest of the family, that he had seen his mamma upstairs. She had smiled at him but had not said a word.

Becoming afraid he had run away.

Members of the family then went upstairs, to O-Sono’s room. By the light of a small lamp, they were startled to see the figure of the dead mother.

She was standing in front of a tansu, a chest of drawers, which still contained her clothes and ornaments.

Her head and shoulders were seen clearly, but from the waist down her figure faded into invisibility.

Afraid now too, the family members left the room. They consulted together downstairs. O-Sono’s mother-in-law stated that maybe she was so fond of her things she could not bare to part with them.

She suggested they give O-Sono’s belongings to the parish-temple so that she could rest in peace.

The family agreed and the drawers of the chest were emptied quickly and the items were taken to the temple.

But O-Sono’s ghost came back the next night, like before she stood before the tansu. She also came back the night following and the night after that, in fact, she returned every night-- leaving the household in fear.

The mother-in-law then went to the chief priest at the Zen temple and asked what could be done.

This priest a very old wise man felt that there must be something O-Sono was anxious about either in or near her tansu.

The mother-in-law insisted the chest was empty. The priest promised to come to the house that night and keep watch in the room.

When he arrived he announced it would be best if he kept vigil alone. When O-Sono appeared he noted she had a wistful look and her eyes were fixated upon the chest.

He announced to her that he was there to help. “Perhaps in the tansu there is something that you feel anxious about. Shall I try and find it for you?”

The shadowy figure appeared to give her consent with a slight nod of her head. The priest then went through each of the four drawers but found nothing.

He noted the figure continued to gaze wistfully at the chest. It suddenly occurred to him that there might be something hidden under the paper which lined each drawer.

He searched the chest from top to bottom. In the last drawer he found--a letter. “Is this the thing that troubles you?” O-Sono’s gaze fixed upon the letter.

“Shall I burn it for you?” O-Sono then bowed before him.

He promised her that he would burn it that very morning. “No one shall read it, except myself.”

The figure then smiled and vanished.

The priest reassured the family as he descended the stairs that they need no longer worry. “She will not appear again.”

And she never did.

The letter was a love note O-Sono had written during the time she studied at Kyoto. The priest burned it and her secret died with him.

In Part l of Lafcadio Hearn’s A Dead Secret I share more information about him and his writing.

Lafcadio Hearn’s A Dead Secret, Part l

小泉八雲

“Lafcadio Hearn is almost as Japanese as haiku.”

            --From Tuttle’s “publisher foreword” to Hearn’s editions

The Writer

Lafcadio Hearn

Lafcadio Hearn’s flight from Western materialism brought him to Japan in 1890. He became a Japanese citizen taking the name--Yakumo Koizumi--and married the daughter of a samurai family.

He was born on the Greek island of Lefkas in 1850. His father was an Anglo-Irish surgeon and a Major in the British army. His mother was Greek.

At age 6, when his parents divorced, Hearn went to live with a great-aunt in Dublin, Ireland. At age 16, he lost sight in his left eye, and soon after, his father died.

Hearn was forced to leave school when his aunt declared bankruptcy. At 19, he moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, where he became a newspaper reporter.

In 1877 Hearn moved to New Orleans, where he lived for ten years and continued to write--specifically a series of articles.

He gained success with his literary translations. Harper Publishing Co. sent him on assignment to the West Indies from 1887-89. He wrote two novels during this period.

In 1890 he decided to go to Japan, where he befriended Basil Hall Chamberlain. At Chamberlain’s encouragement, he taught English at a middle school.

He married and taught at another middle school where he wrote his book Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan published in 1894.

He then secured a journalism position with the English-language Kobe Chronicle.

With Chamberlain’s assistance in 1896 he was given a position at Tokyo’ s “Imperial” University where he taught English Literature.

Hearn’s most famous books include: a collection of lectures Japan: An Attempt at Interpretation, 1904, Exotics and Retrospectives, 1998, In Ghostly Japan, 1899, Shadowings, 1900, Japanese Miscellany, 1901, and Kwaidan, 1904.

He died in 1904, at the age of 54 from heart failure.

Hearn with his wife, Koizumi Setsu.
He always was photographed
in profile so his left eye
could not be seen.

The Great Interpreter

Hearn admired Japan for its beauty and tranquility. He loved its customs and values. A confirmed “Japanophile,” he lived in Japan for the rest of his life.

His keen intellect and his clear writing style made him the quintessential go-to source for the western world about “all things Japanese.”

Lafcadio Hearn’s artful translations of traditional Japanese Ghost, stories are why they are known outside of Japan today.

In Part ll of Lafcadio Hearn’s A Dead Secret, I share one of my favorite ghost stories translated by him in his book, Kwaidan.

Evil Ghost: Yuki-onna--Snow Woman

This traditional ghost legend is the subject of many books, comics, films, and animation in Japan. Lafcadio Hearn’s definitive book written in 1904, about Japanese ghosts, includes the tale of Yuki-onna—meaning snow woman. 

This particular ghost traditionally freezes or kills her human victims. Up until the 18^th century Yuki-onna was always betrayed as evil, a spirit that preys upon unsuspecting humans. 

More recent tales focus on her beauty, she is betrayed with more humanlike traits. Even more recently, she is described as having vampire-like characteristics. 

But it is the more traditional tales that are fascinating.

She appears at night during bad snowstorms. She is described as very beautiful and appears wearing a white kimono. Other legends state she actually is nude, with only her face and hair standing out. She is often described as being very pale or even transparent for her figure blends in with the snow that surrounds her.

Despite her beauty, it is said her eyes terrify mere mortals. She is seen as she floats across the snow, never leaving footprints. In yet other tales, it is stated she has no feet—a trait common to female Japanese ghosts. 

It is believed that at any sign of danger, she just turns into a cloud or mist or even snow. She is associated with snow because she died in a snowstorm.

In many tales, Yuki-onna appears to travelers that find themselves trapped in snowstorms. She does not help these unfortunate souls. Instead, she turns them into frost-covered corpses. 

Or she simply leads these lost travelers astray, so they die of exposure. 

In other stories, she is described as holding a child. When her victim takes this child to help her, they become frozen in place. It is said parents looking for lost children often fall victim to this tactic.

Even more frightening tales are told about Yuki-onna. In these stories she invades homes, blowing in the door. It is said this chilly gust of wind kills the mortals inside while they sleep. * 

Being heartless, she enjoys watching her victims die. Other tales state she kills her victims to take their “life-force.” 

Yuki-onna is even sometimes betrayed as a kind of succubus that preys on weak males, to drain, or freeze them through sex or a kiss.

She is sometimes betrayed as having a softer side. In the popular Lafcadio Hearn version, she actually spares one of her victims. She then takes on a mortal appearance to marry him. 

Most surprising is when he betrays a promise, he made to her, she still spares his life.

In Hearn’s story, two woodcutters becoming lost in a particularly bad snowstorm. One woodcutter is young—Minokichi, the other is old—Mosaku. These two men come upon an isolated hut in the mountains where they take refuge and sleep. 

Mosaku is awakened to find a stunning young woman wearing white clothes, gazing down upon him. She breathes on him, and he freezes to death.

Yuki-onna then approaches the young Minokichi to breathe upon him. But she stops struck by his “beauty.” She decides she will not kill him, but as he wakes, she warns him that he must not tell any living soul that she has spared his life. She then explains if he betrays her, she will return and kill him.

A few years later Minokichi meets a lovely young woman named Oyuki—yuki meaning snow. He falls in love and marries her. She is a good wife, and the couple have several children. They manage to live happily together, and Minokichi notes his wife does not appear to age. 

One night after their children are in bed, Minokichi tells his wife that she sometimes reminds him of a mysterious woman he had met years before.

He describes the beautiful woman to his wife, and states he didn’t know if his memory was just a dream, or if this woman was a “Yuki-onna…” 

After he finishes his tale, Oyuki stands up abruptly. “That woman you met was me! I told you that I would kill you if you ever told anyone about that incident. However, I can’t kill you because of our children.” 

She then starts to melt, “Take care of our children…”** Then she just disappears. It is said Minokichi never saw her again.

* Some legends state she must be invited in first. 

** This version states that Minokichi was saved because he was a good, and kind father.