Customer Reviews

Japanese Gothic Tales

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Kyoka's tales define Japanese Gothic: masterpieces of Japanese Ghost Stories and, at the same time, short stories about love which exceeds death's boundries. "The Surgery Room" is a vivid tale of a surgeon torn between saving his patient's life or letting her die with her secrets. In "Osen and Sokichi" a boy finds salvation in a prostitute only to learn later the terrible price of sacrifice. "One Day in Spring" chronicles the passion between two loves: one which transcends time and threatens to literally trap others in the flowing lines of their poetry. Finally, in "The Holy Man of Mt. Koya"--the best story--we learn of a mountain seductress who tempts a monk to forsake his vows and, possibly, his humanity. Unlike Banana Yoshimoto and other modern writers who can only write about their boredom with life, Kyoka gives us a compelling description of the Japanese and their culture: what they love to fear.

"Japanese Gothic Tales" might be a slightly misleading title for this collection of four of Izumi Kyoka's short stories. While they are gothic in the sense of being somewhat in the style of gothic literature, they are not really gothic in the modern sense of the word. In other words, this is not a straight forward collection of horror stories. Kyoka may very well be Japan's Edgar Allen Poe, as has been maintained before, but if so it is because of his effective use of atmosphere and the short story, rather than his themes.

Instead of horror, it is a sampling of Kyoka's unique and somewhat complicated style of storytelling. His use of layers and misdirection, of drifting back and forth in time and story without offering life-lines to the readers creates an atmosphere of disquiet far more than any ghosts of monsters. Kyoka is particularly difficult to read even for native Japanese speakers, and he is incredibly difficult to translate.

"The Surgery Room" offers a traditional Japanese tale of impossible love and the consequences it leads to. More than anything, it reminds me of one of Road Dahl's adult short stories. Sharp and cutting like a scalpel.

"The Holy Man of Mt. Koya" is probably the most straight forward tale, and rates the cover of the book. A mountain ghost story that is both chilling and thought-provoking. Excellent.

"One Day in Spring" is a complicated tangle, drifting back and forth between characters, stories and life-times. It revisits the familiar thread of love outside your caste, and the only possible solution. A very sad story, with subtle Buddhist undertones. It is the longest story in the book.

"Osen and Soichi" is a tale of maternal infatuation that is often found in Japanese literature. The character of the prostitute/surrogate mother who suffers for her charge. Of course, there can be no happy ending.

The translator, Charles Inouye, has done a superb job rendering Kyoka into English, as well as providing informative Forwards and Afterwords, discussing the tales and Kyoka's place in Japanese literature.

The four stories by Izumi Kyoka (one of Japan's most interesting and eccentric modern authors) included in this book are truly excellent, haunting in almost every sense of the word: Creepy and spooky, reverberating with untold depths, recurring obsessively in imagery, and hard to forget. For all intents and purposes this is the first book-length translation of Kyoka's fiction into English, and so it's appropriate that the four stories sort of capture the span of Kyoka's artistic development in microcosm: "The Surgery Room" is an early work by Kyoka that somewhat resembles the naturalist fiction of the time, concerned with serious social issues and the sordid side of life--many of Kyoka's perennial themes are here in embryo within this melodramatic tale, but it is clear that he hasn't quite found his footing yet. "The Holy Man of Mount Koya" is his most famous work and justly so, and here we see Kyoka's themes spelled out with the most narrative clarity ever--he hit the nail right on the head with this archetypal story of temptation and transcendence. "One Day in Spring" develops these themes in similar ways to the prior story, but Kyoka gets very surreal and imagistic in his writing style here--imagine a traditional Japanese ghost story, a haunting no drama, and an episode of "The Twilight Zone" blended together with a dash of Salvador Dali and you might get something like this complex story. And this weird writing style also informs "Osen and Sokichi" which otherwise in basic premise is similar to the first story.

Charles Inouye's introduction and conclusion are extremely helpful in placing Izumi Kyoka in context and in interpreting the stories in an illuminating but not high-handed manner. And his talent and craftsmanship as a translator are incredible. One could ask for no better introduction of Izumi Kyoka to the English-speaking world than this little volume.

The stories in this book go from moral teachings to mythical and spiritual experiences. There's romance, but not in the usual, clasic novel way. Every tale in this book has deep meaning and a stay in touch with everyday life, letting you wondering: what would you do if this happend?

I enjoyed it immensely. I'm taking a seminar in Japanese Gothic Literature taught by the translator of this book, Charles Inouye. Of course, my review may come across as biased, so I'll try to be as critical as possible.

First off, I'm a twenty-something white male from the Midwest, with little knowledge of Japan and Japanese Culture. Despite this, I found the stories rich, entertaining, and sometimes beautiful. The writing is surprisingly contemporary and moves the stories along quickly.

My qualms with this book are the lack of annotations. There are many references to Buddhism, Japan's Geography, and Japanese words I was unfamiliar with. This made it difficult to understand the significance of some of the descriptions. I'm sure scholars of Japanese studies will appreciate the readings more than a novice like myself. With that said, I still recommend this book to anyone with an interest for the Japanese Gothic genre. Also, the stories won't necessarily scare you. Expect good fiction, not forced Stephen King-like terror.