Horror Stories

Who has not heard of the really scary Japanese ghost stories? Movies like The Grudge have reached a very wide audience all over the world, with Hollywood even making their own version of it. Ask any fan, though, the Japanese original cannot be matched. In Japan, ghost stories were called kwaidan or kaidan. Though it refers to horror stories in general, the word kaidan has its roots in the Edo Period folktales.

Today, however, kaidan is not the commonly used term for this genre of stories. More often than not, movies and books focusing on this theme are referred to by the katakana hora or kowai hanashi in standard Japanese. For an old fashioned effect, authors use the term kaidan.

Stories under this genre often have plots that revolve around Buddhist concepts. As such, karma and ghostly vengeance abound. In these stories, ghosts have amazing powers that they use to wreak havoc in their human tormentor’s life. Sometimes, they not only target one person but humanity in general. Try watching one of these films or reading one of these books and you will fully see what kaidan is.
[tags]Japan, Edo Period, folktales, folklore, ghost stories, kaidan, kwaidan, hora[/tags]

Posted March 14th, 2007 by geisha | Comments Off

Ranobe

Anywhere in the world today, there seems to be a growing trend for light reading. What exactly does this encompass? It’s basically comic books that are like light novels. In Japan, they are called ranobe.

Publishers have no clear cut standards as to what really makes ranobe. However, in general, you would see that ranobe is characterized by a heavy emphasis on dialogue and illustrations. The plots of these novels are very straightforward and easy to understand. In short, there is not much thinking to be done when reading ranobe.

Ranobe extends to different genres. Romance and comedy are some of the more popular genres. However, ranobe also covers science fiction and fantasy. The main audience groups for this type of reading are teens and those in their 20s.

To attest to the popularity of these light novels in Japan today, several of them have already been made into movies. At present, there are plans to make more of them into the film format.
[tags]Japan, culture, books, novels, anime, illustrations, manga, ranobe[/tags]

Posted March 4th, 2007 by geisha | Comments Off