Views of Life and Death in the Ghost Tales of the Edo Period

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  • 江戸の怪談にみる死生観
  • エド ノ カイダン ニ ミル シセイカン

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Abstract

Many people would probably agree that ghosts are one of the most interesting subjects in Japanese thought and culture, and a subject that has always drawn interest from abroad. In addition to considering the remarkable popularity the ghost theme has enjoyed, another interesting perspective presents itself which involves a comparison of the ghost-related culture in different societies of the world. Because death is a universal phenomenon, the problem of the unhappy dead and ghosts appears throughout the world, across both geographical and temporal boundaries. Therefore, with ghosts being established as an important focus for scholarship, the author offers one perspective on the topic in this paper. In this article, the question of why ghosts and ghost-related culture came to be so popular in the Edo period will be addressed. It goes without saying that fearful tales of the dead have been told in all periods and places. On the Japanese archipelago, however, the majority of these tales have their origins in the early modern period or later. Why is it that ghost stories and tales of the supernatural in Japan emerged predominantly in the early modern and modern periods, when society was undergoing a process of secularization? The author will answer this question by a comparison of the customs of the Japanese medieval and early modern periods, taking account of the changes which occurred relating to tombs and funerary practices. In searching for the cause of the large-scale emergence of ghosts in the early modern period, the author will also highlight the shift in Japanese cosmology which occurred between the medieval and early modern periods.

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