HORROR AT NIGHT

 

Hello there, today, as a celebration of halloween, I would like to talk about three things that, according to Japanese folklore, happend during the night.

I just expect you to enjoy these stories, and i wish you a happy halloween.

ŌMAGATOKI

Also known as the hour of meeting evil spirits.

This is the twiligh hour between the sun setting and the point in which the sky is completely dark, the moment between night and day in which none of them is complete, when shadows swallow everything and your eyes begin to play tricks on your mind, and the border between the sekai, the human world, and the ikai, the other world is thinner and the evil spirts can move freely between the two world: that is the moment when yōkai, yūrei and all the dark things can come to human world.

The appearance of yōkai during this momento is said to be accompanied by a few signs: a sudden cold wind blowing, a strange smell in the air, a sudden onset of darkness or even a sudden chill that causes one’s hairs to stand on end.

We must not forget that humans and spirits usually have separate existences in different worlds, and when those worlds crash, things tend to become chaotic, particularly for humans.

In order to avoid meeting these evil spirts that appear during the night, people would head home, as soon as the un set, and stay inside until morning, but, woodcutters sleeping in mountain huts hear something cutting down the tres at night, and find no evidence of it in the morning, they also speak that phantom waterfalls can be heard where there are no waterfalls for miles around, also they speak of strange laughter and voices of inhuman things echoed throughout the forests.

Sometimes, children who wandered away from the village and got lost in the moutains could be spirited away by otherworldly things and taken to another world,  sometimes they return years later...

The first tales of encounters between humans and spirits come frome woodsmen, travelers and peoplewhose livelihoods forced them away from the safety of their homes and villages at night, these people would return to their homes in the morning tellin stories ofeerie experiences after twilight, and with time, these stories developed into the earliest superstitions.

HYAKKI YAGYŌ

Also known as hyakki yakō or the night parade of one hundred demons. This parade travels travels throughout Japan, appearing on inauspicious nights each month

The hyakki yagyō is the dreaded night parade of one hundred demons, an event when all the supernatural creatures leave their homes and parade through the streets of Japan in one massive spectacle of utter pandemónium, in some ways, it resembles a traditional Japanese festival filled with songs and chants, dancing, and merriment. The parade is said to be led by nurarihyon, nozuchi, and otoroshi.

Usually the interactions of the hyakki yagyō involve humans that are fool enough to be outside during the nights of the parade or just curious enough to peek out of their windows in hopes of catching a glimpse of the supernatural, these humans are either killed or spirited away by the monsters as a sort of punishment for looking upon that which must not be seen.

Acording to Shūgaishō (a medieval Japanese enciclopedia)the only way to keep safe from the night parade should it come by your home is to stay inside on the specific nights associated with the Chinese zodiac on which the night parade is said to be held. Those who hear the pandemonium parade pass by their homes should chant this magic spell:

KA-TA-SHI-HA-YA, E-KA-SE-NI-KU-RI-NI, TA-ME-RU-SA-KE,

TE-E-HI, A-SHI-E-HI, WA-RE-SHI-KO-NI-KE-RI

HINODE

The Hinode is the sunrise, the break of dawn, and the end of the power of the evil spirits over the human world, the momento when the light of the sun banishes yokais, ghosts and demons back to the places from which they came and as a result, as the morning light fills the shadows, unknown things no longer lurk and strange shapes no longer hide among the trees.

The time of meeting evil spirits is over and the world is safe for humans…

Where can you find the information about Japanese ghost on the Internet?: you can check the web: https://yokai.com/

RECOMENDATIONS FOR HALLOWEEN 2024

 Hello there, today, as we are finally in October, I would like to recomend you a couple of things for next halloween, enjoy the festivity.

THE FACE IN THE GLASS: THE GOTHIC TALES OF MARY ELIZABETH BRADDON (MARY ELIZABETH BRADDON)

This first recomendation brings us a collection of tales about gohst and supernatural.

The book will help you spending a good time, but I must say that when I read it (between the end of 2023 and the begining of 2024) my impression about it was that the stories were a bit irregular: there were a few ones that were quite good, but there were others not so good, in the sense that they did not give that sense of horror that you will find in other recopilation of stories of this tipe.

Personally, I recomend you this book, just for that stories that are relatively good

THE LAST VOYAGE OF THE DEMETER (2023)

In this second point, we find a film base on a specific chapter of the novel Dracula by Bram Stoker, specifically the chapter centered in the diary of the ship mentioned in the title, which, acordind to the plot of the novel, tranasports Dracula from his castle in the Carpathians (in Romania) to Whitby (in the United Kingdom)

This film is quite effective, in the sense that all the characters are stuck in a small space with something that begins killing the animals they heve in the ship and then it begins killing all the people travelling with it, plus the atmostphere is quite dark, part of the plot takes place during the night, which makes the situation quite more unconfortable.

I am not sure if I have recomended it, but I want to recomend you that if you haven’t read the book, give Dracula (and the story Dracula’s guest) a chance, you will enjoy deading it,

THE WARLOCK’S HAIRY HEART & THE TALE OF THE THREE BROTHERES (FROM THE TALES OF BEEDLE THE BARD BY J. K. ROWLING)

These recomendations come directly from Harry Potter’s universe, both tales come from the volume The tales of Beedle the Bard, and both of them are quite intresting.

The first one follows a wizard who decides that love is a burden so he locks his heart in a trunk with horrible consecuences.

The second one (the tale of the three brothers) is told on the last book (Harry Potter and the deathly hallows) of the Harry Potter series, and follows three brothers who are able to win death, who, in return, gives them a gigft to each one.

Both tales are quite dark, the first one, as I mentioned before is centered on the consecuences of the decission taken by the wizard and its consecuences (which are really bad), while the second tale, reflects, as the own book mentions, on the problems brought from trying to avoid death.

CORALINE (NEIL GAIMAN)

This last recomendation comes from the imagination of Birtish autor Neil Gaiman, and it follows a child name Coraline who feels lonely, after she moves, with her parents, to a house in which she finds a strange door that goes to a world very similar to the “normal” one and in which, everyone seem happy to have her around.

In the case of this short book, the story is really terrifying mainly because the author plays with a normal family and a weird world, quite similar to Coraline’s house and family and in which she can get whatever she wants, the problema is that nothing is what it seems.

This book has been adapted into a stopmotion film, with the same title, and it also has a parody on a Halloween special from The Simpsons (I think it was titled Coralisa)

 

THE FALL BOOKTAG

Hello there today I want to bring you this booktag I have found on Instagram (you can find the link to the original booktag here), and as I think it can be interesting I want to share my answers with you.

I hope you enjoy this content

A BOOK WITH AN ORANGE COVER.

In this point, I would like to mention the Spanish edition of Harry Potter and the prisoner of Azkaban by J. K Rowling, in which they show Harry and Hermione with Buckbeak framed in orange.

Also, I would like to mention the books of the orange series of el barco de vapor (lit. The steam boat) which are a relative known (they are still published today) in Spain, these are children books that use a  color code (White, blue, orange and red) to show the “difficulty” of the books, this is: the extention of the texts and if they have (or not) drawings inside.

A FAVOURITE FANTASY BOOK/SERIE.

In this point I would like to poin to The Nightrunner by Lynn Flewelling, a series composed by seven books that follows the noblesmen and spies Alec and Seregil during their adventures trying to protect the kingdom where they live.

In fact, I read these books a few years ago totally by chance, mainly because I found one of them and it cought my antention and I began t oread the serie, up to now I still think that was one of the best decisions I have made related to fantasy, I did laugh non stop, mainly thanks to Seregil’s personality and some situations he puts himself into, also this is really well balance with other situantions which are quite hard to read, not because of blood spilling o similars but because are a bit hard to digest

A COZY READ.

How could I not mention The neverendind story by Michael Ende or Papyrus (El infinito en un junco by its original title) by Irene Vallejo?

As many of you would know the neverending story follows Bastian Baltasar Bux through his journey in Fantastica where he will save the Childlike Empress and her kingdom by giving her a new name.

The second one is a non fiction book that speaks about Literature and all the problems faced to preserve it from destrution.

Personally I see both books as love songs dedicated to books and literature, even more, I strongly advice you to read Papyrus  with a notebook and a pen to take note of all the books mentioned throgh its pages by its author

A BOOK YOU'RE INTIMIDATED TO START.

I would lik to mention the book Queen Victoria: twenty – four days that changed her life by Lucy Worsley.

In the case of this boo I feel a bit intimidated because this is a non fiction book, as I said on a previous post, I am not an English native speaker, and I fear that the book might be very technicall, even when I have seen some of the documentary shows the autor has shot through the years and I do  love her program BBC Lady killers with Lucy Worsley

A BOOK ON YOUR FALL TBR.

Recently I have been recomended t oread the book One hundred years of solitude by Colombian author Gabriel García Márquez, centered in the Buendía Family.

At the moment of writing this, I have not begin to read it, but I already have an idea of what I shousd expect of the autor (I read a few years ago Chronicle of a death foretold), but, when i read the book I will tell you my opinion

A SPOOKY READ.

At this poin I want to highlight the book The five: The untold lives of the women killed by Jack The Ripper by Hallie Rubenhold, a non fiction book centered in the lives of the five women oficially killed by Jack the Ripper, the book is quite good and gives a thought on why these women were living on the streets of the Victorian London and how mistreated they have been when they were killed and through the years, maybe this book isn´t a spooky book in a sense of telling us a traditional horror story, but, as I have said above, it gives goosebumps just thinking about the horrible death faced by these women and the treatment they have received, I just want to mention that in recent years I have seen youtube channels and podcast in Ivoox usingg this book as part of the biblography.

JAPANESE GHOST STORIES (HIROKO YODA)

 

Many of the ghost stories of Japan came to the fore during the Edo period with its famous woodblocks of ukiyo – e, the floating world.

This collection of Japanese ghost stories brings together fantastic tales of vengeful spirits, mountain – dwelling phantoms, man – eating oni, haunted trees, and child-rearing ghosts, with stories such as Yuki-Onna, Hoichi the Earless, The Ghost of O-Kiku from The Bancho Sarayashiki, the sorry tale of O-Iwa from the Yotsuya Kaidan, The Peony Lantern and The Ghost Who Bought Candy. Japan has a long and ancient custom of sharing stories of the supernatural, brought to fashionable prominence in the Kaidan literature of the Edo period, now presented here for the modern reader.

THE AUTHOR: HIROKO YODA

Hiroko Yoda is a Japanese entrepreneur, translator, writer, folklorist, and president of the localization company AltJapan Co., Ltd.  She was also a Tokyo city editor for the CNN travel website CNNGo. She is a translator of video games and the author of numerous books about Japanese history and culture. She is particularly known for her pioneering work contextualizing yokai  culture for English-speaking audiences

Informtion from: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiroko_Yoda

THE BOOK

Hello there, I know it’s been a while since I last posted, but, here we are again, the intention is to try and publish more often tan I have been doing lately.

Going to the topic, today, I wanted to talk about the book Japanese Ghost Stories by Japanese entrepreneur, translator, writer and folklorist Hiroko Yoda, which, as you have read above, is a recopilation of ghost stories from Japanese folklore.

In the case of the different tales I think they are really effective, mainly because, Japanese have a special hability with horror since the are able to create a ghost from a simple daily objet, people who are in their mid thirties might remember the film ringu (and its late occidental versión the ring) that was able to create a really unconfortable situation with just a video tape.

Another good thing about this book is the selection of tales, that mix tales with daily objets and vengeful spirits that come back from death to haunt, and maybe kill the ones who hurt them in life (this is the case of Oiwa and Okiku).

I would recomend you this book, if you like horror stories, and if you are intrested in Japanese folklore

FIRST READING INITIATIVE

Hello there, I know it’s been a while since my last post, but I don’t have much time, and not much to talk about, but today i’d like to talk about the first readin initiative of the year: the Asian March.

This initiative pretends to approach readers to Asian writters, by reading books written by Asian writters or settled in Asian countries.

Keeping all this in mind I would like to recomend some books related to this initiative.

My first recomendation would be The carriage of women by Anita Nair, a book settled in India, that tells us the stories of a group of women during a travel by train across the country.

The second recomendation would be East Wind, West Wind by Pearl S. Buck, settled in China, the novel let the reader see the contrast between Chinese cultura and Occidental cultura at the begining of the Twentieth Century.

My last recomendatin would be the book A geek in Japan by Héctor García, in its pages the author speaks about his experience living and working in Japan and the contrast between Japanese culture and Spanish culture

In this small article I just wanted to talk about this initiative and to make some recomendations related to it.

FIRST READINGS OF 2023

 Hello there, first of all I want to wish you a very happy new year, and second, I know it’s been a while since my last post, but I have been quite busy for the last months, but, finally I had some time to write a new post.

In this post I am going to talk about my two first readings of the year, I am currently rading both, so I am just going to give my first impressions of both readings.

The first one is The ink black heart  by Robert Galbraith (we all know it is J. K. Rowling’s pen name) the latest Cormoran Strike’s novel, in this book, Cormoran and Robin, his partner at the agency, will have to investigate the murder of Eddie Ledwell, who was the co – creator of an online show, while her partner gets seriously injured.

The second one is the firts volumen of death note, the manga that follows the fighting between Light Yagami/Kira and prívate investigator L.

In both cases, I am enioying their readings, in the case of The ink black heart I have read the previous books and I love tem (I speak beyond the controversial affirmations of the autor, actually, like many other people I have my oppininon about all that, but this is not the time or the place to talk about it), personally I think that all the books are adictive from the begining and it is hard to stop reading them, while in the case of death note, it is also a certain Reading, mainly because I have already watch the anime show and the live action movies around it, so I know for sure that I will like reading this.

Once again happy new year, and I will try to publish more often during this year

RECOMENDATIONS FOR HALLOWEEN 2022

 

Hello there, I know it’s been a while since my last publicatio, but I have been a Little bussy, today I am bringing you some readings for Halloween, I do expect you’ll find them interesting, lets begin

THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW (WASHINGTON IRVING)

This first tale bring us to a really calm village settled in a valley called Sleepy hollow, here we find a group of Dutch settlers who love horror stories and legends, and their most famous ghost is a headless rider, who lost his head during the Independence war against England; one day Ichabod Crane, the new teacher arrives to the villaje and falls in love with Katrina Van Tasel, a rich heiress, but he will have to race with other man for Katrina’s love, until one All Hallows day when Katrina’s father gives a party where everyone tells ghost stories, and all this makes Ichabod feel terrified, which would be worse when he goes back home…

Quite well known short story by Washington Irving full of imagination and horror elementes: a small valley that seems a peacefull place until night falls and the ghost rider appears looking for his head.

Apparently there is a small base in reallity, since the valley actually exist, and the story of the rider might have a real base on a battle that took place there.

CARMILLA (JOSEPH SERIDAN LE FANU)

In this second short story, we find a family which recibes a strange girl, at the begining all the situation seems normal until an old friend of the family comes to visit them and then they will find the girl is not what she seemed at first.

One of the classic vampire tales, it is quite interesting thanks to the picture of the female vampire we can see during the whole story.

MAESE PÉREZ EL  ORGANISTA (GUSTAVO ADOLFO BÉQUER)

In this case we find a short story settle in Sevilla (Spain), here we se how Maese Pérez, the organist of the Cathedral of Sevilla, will go to play the instrument when he is deathly sick, while he is playing maese Pérez will die and the following year the people will have a surprise during the Christmas mass.

This is an example of the Spanish romanticism, and actually I am not sure if it is translate into Engish, but it is a good example of a ghost story, specially when the story goes on and we can see how everything ends

I do really expect you to find any of this stories interesting to read in Halloween