If you’ve never read or heard of the Japanese ghost stories of Lafcadio Hearn, you are in for a real ghost story lover’s treat.  These stories are so dearly loved by the Japanese that they have come to be regarded in Japan as classics in their own right.

Our first story, “Jinkaninki,” is about a type of man-eating goblin; be forewarned—Japanese ghosts are not the flimsy apparitions that only rustle curtains and go bump in the night.  Japanese ghosts will tear one to pieces or pull one’s head off!

Our second story, “Mujina,” has a surprising and frightful ending.

Our final story, "The Story of Mimi-Nashi-Hoichi” is a tale about a blind poet and biwa player who performs for ghosts in the moonlight. 

A final reading about souls masquerading as butterflies is an interesting treatise in the voice of Lafcadio Hearn himself in which the cultural spirituality of butterflies is discussed.

And now, turn down the lights, and join us for Japanese Ghost Stories by Lafcadio Hearn….