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Yurei Attack!. Hiroko Yoda
Читать онлайн.Название Yurei Attack!
Год выпуска 0
isbn 9781462908929
Автор произведения Hiroko Yoda
Жанр Сказки
Серия Yokai ATTACK! Series
Издательство Ingram
2. Long, stringy, unkempt hair.
Hair, particularly hair that grows out of control, is a common feature of Japanese ghost stories.
3. Crazed/aggrieved expression.
What, were you expecting a warm smile?
4. Dangling hands.
Don’t let the limp wrists fool you. They aren’t an indication of weakness, but rather a signal that you’re dealing with the dead.
5. White kimono.
The kimono of the dead are folded in the opposite manner of that of living people. (For example, the usual left-over-right lapel style would be right-over-left for a body at a funeral.)
6. Hitodama.
Although literally translated as “human souls,” these weird fireballs are generally considered manifestations of ghostly phenomena rather than actual spirits. They are commonly seen alongside yurei.
7. Lack of feet.
The absence of a physical connection to the ground is a hallmark yurei characteristic.
CHAPTER ONE
Sexy & Scary
Some of the Japan’s most famous ghosts are women. These ladies put the “fatale” in “femme fatale.”
Sexy & Scary: 01
OIWA
Sexy & Scary: 01
OIWA
Name in Japanese: 於岩
Origin: Yotsuya Kaidan (The Horror of Yotsuya)
Gender: Female
Date of Death: 1636
Age at death: Early 20s (Estimated)
Cause of death: Suicide
Type of ghost: Onryo
Distinctive features: Right side of face horribly scarred; Bald spots, with hair falling out in clumps; Occasionally portrayed as having one eye
Place of interment: Myogyo-ji Cemetery, Tokyo
Location of haunting: Tokyo
Form of Attack: Constant manifestations. Provocation of injuries similar to her own.
Existence: Based in part on a true story
Threat Level: Extremely High
Claim to Fame
Hands down the single most famous ghost chronicled in the pages of this book. A supernatural superstar for well over a century, she has inspired legions of imitators — most recently Sadako, from the hit J-Horror novel and film series “Ring.” Without a doubt, Oiwa's ragged tresses and ruined face are the first thing many Japanese think of when they hear the word “yurei.”
The Story
Coherent English summaries of Oiwa’s story are few and far between. Read on and you’ll understand why. Her most famous turn, the 1825 kabuki “Tokaido Yotsuka Kaidan,” packs more twists into a few hours than a modern TV miniseries does into an entire season.
Oiwa is married to Iyemon, a disgraced samurai. After the couple has yet another row, Oiwa’s father takes her home. Iyemon sets up a private meeting to beg for forgiveness, but Oiwa’s father reveals proof that Iyemon stole money from his former government job. Enraged, Iyemon stabs Oiwa’s father to death.
Oiwa’s sister Osode is happily married to a loyal man named Yomoshichi. But Naosuke, the neighborhood medicine peddler, carries a torch for her. In a coincidence of the sort that only happens in kabuki, Naosuke picks this very night to murder his rival. (Getting all this?)
When Oiwa and Osode stumble on the respective scenes, Iyemon and Naosuke convince the two that the victims were killed in robberies. They console the ladies by promising they’ll get their revenge on whatever villains perpetrated these foul deeds. And so life goes on, with Iyemon and Oiwa reunited, and Osode and Naosuke able to court Osode.
But fickle, philandering Iyemon quickly loses interest in Oiwa after she gives birth to their child, and begins focusing his amorous attentions on Ume, the daughter of a high-ranking government official. Frustrated by his marital status, Iyemon bribes a masseuse to seduce his wife in an attempt to trump up grounds for divorce.
Meanwhile, Ume takes matters into her own hands by sending Oiwa a little baby-shower gift: a powerful poison disguised as a medicinal cream.
The poison does its job: the skin sloughs off Oiwa’s face and her hair pulls out in clumps, leaving her horribly disfigured. The masseuse can’t bring himself to carry out the deed, and blows the lid off of Ieymon’s intrigue as Oiwa gazes upon her ruined face in a mirror.
She commits suicide while coldly proclaiming a curse on the soul of the man who’d wronged her. Iyemon responds by nailing her corpse and that of a lawman (who he also kills after the man comes sniffing around about a certain vial of missing poison) to a door, and hurls them into the Kanda River to make it seem as if the pair had died in a love-suicide.
The Attack
Things take a turn from “soap opera” to “spooky” on Iyemon and Ume’s wedding night, when Oiwa’s furious apparition manifests in the conjugal suite, causing Iyemon to lash out wildly and accidentally kill his bride. In the hallway another appearance causes him to mistakenly cut down her father. Pursued by the remainder of the household, he hurls Ume’s mother and her servant into a canal, where both drown.
Iyemon doing his thing, on the cover of the program from a 1925 Kabuki production of “Yotsuya Kaidan”
Meanwhile, Naosuke finally gets his wish when Osode agrees to sleep with him. But the minute the pair bed down, Yomoshichi’s ghost appears in the room. Naosuke wrestles with the phantom intruder, accidentally killing Osode in the melee. And in yet another twist, it turns out that she was none other than his long-lost sister! Shocked (and presumably grossed out), Naosuke commits suicide.
Iyemon continues to be confronted by the deformed visage of his dead wife; she appears everywhere, even in the form of the paper lanterns swinging over his head. On the run and destitute, he attempts fishing for some food, only to hook the door he’d thrown in the river earlier, still festooned with the now horribly rotting corpses of his victims. Ghostly voices fill his ears as he runs far, far from the city to an isolated cottage on the ominously named Snake Mountain. Still he is unable to escape. Oiwa’s face haunts him from the windows, walls, floor, even the trees