Kaidan

Kaidan (怪談) (sometimes transliterated kwaidan) is a Japanese word consisting of two kanji: 怪 (kai) meaning “strange, mysterious, rare or bewitching apparition" and 談 (dan) meaning “talk” or “recited narrative.”

Overall meaning and usage
In its broadest sense, kaidan refers to any ghost or horror story, but it has an old-fashioned ring to it that carries the connotation of Edo period Japanese folktales. Kaidan may have been influenced by its Chinese counterpart, a collection of ghost stories known as Liaozhai zhiyi 聊斋志异, or more popularly known as Liaozhai 聊斋.

The term is no longer as widely used in Japanese as it once was: Japanese horror books and films such as Ju-on and Ring would more likely be labeled by the katakana horā (ホラー) or the standard Japanese kowai hanashi (怖い話). Kaidan is only used if the author/director wishes to specifically bring an old-fashioned air into the story.

Hyakumonogatari Kaidankai and Kaidanshu
Kaidan entered the vernacular during the Edo period, when a game called Hyakumonogatari Kaidankai became popular. This game led to a demand for ghost stories and folktales to be gathered from all parts of Japan and China.

The popularity of the game, as well as the acquisition of a printing press, led to the creation of a literary genre called Kaidanshu.

Kaidanshu were originally based on older Buddhist stories of a didactic nature, although the moral lessons soon gave way to the demand for strange and gruesome stories.

Examples of Kaidanshu

 * Tonoigusa, called Otogi Monogatari (Nursery Tales) by Ogita Ansei (1660)
 * Otogi Boko (Handpuppets) by Asai Ryoi (1666)
 * Ugetsu Monogatari (Tales of Moonlight and Rain) by Ueda Akinari (1776)

Examples of Kaidan

 * Banchō Sarayashiki (The Story of Okiku) by Okamoto Kido
 * Yotsuya Kaidan (Ghost Story of Tōkaidō Yotsuya) by Tsuruya Nanboku IV (1755–1829)
 * Botan Dōrō (The Peony Lantern) by Asai Ryoi
 * Mimi-nashi Hōichi (Hōichi the Earless)

Background of the romanized translation
The word was popularised in English by Lafcadio Hearn in his book Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things. The spelling kwaidan is a romanization based on an archaic spelling of the word in kana - Hearn used it since the stories in the book were equally archaic. The revised Hepburn romanization system is spelled kaidan.

When film director Masaki Kobayashi made his portmanteau film Kwaidan (1964) from Hearn's translated tales, the old spelling was used in the English title.

Plot elements
Originally based on didactic Buddhist tales, kaidan often involve elements of karma, and especially ghostly vengeance for misdeeds. Japanese vengeful ghosts are far more powerful after death than they were in life, and are often people who were particularly powerless in life, such as women and servants.

This vengeance is usually specifically targeted against the tormentor, but can sometimes be a general hatred toward all living humans. This untargeted wrath can be seen in Furisode, a story in Hearn's book In Ghostly Japan about a cursed kimono that kills everyone who wears it. This motif is repeated in the film Ring with a videotape that kills all who watch it, and the film Ju-on with a house that kills all who enter it.

Kaidan also frequently involve water as a ghostly element. In Japanese religion, water is a pathway to the underworld as can be seen in the festival of Obon.

Films

 * Hideo Nakata's Kaidan 2007
 * Kaidan Shin Mimibukuro: Yirei Manshon 2007