Read A Gathering of Spirits: Japan's Ghost Story Tradition: From Folklore and Kabuki to Anime and Manga for Free Online

while the older sister and the rest of the household figured out what to do with it. They decided to take the body to the crematory at Toribeno. They put the body in a coffin, put the lid on the coffin, then loaded the coffin onto a carriage.
    When they got to the crematory, they noticed that the lid on the coffin was crooked, and that the coffin seemed lighter. This was because there was no body inside it! They retraced their steps, and there was the younger sister’s body, in her old room.
    The mourners talked all night about what to do, and finally decided to try again to cremate the body. Early the next day they put the body into the coffin, put the lid on the coffin again, then waited to see what would happen. By sunset, though, they were truly frightened to see that the body was out of the coffin and back in the younger sister’s room. They simply couldn’t move it.
    One frustrated mourner scolded the body: “This is what you want? You like it here? Then we’ll leave you here!”
    They took up the floor of the front room, dug a hole, and lowered the younger sister into it. They filled in the hole, leaving a large mound. Then everyone moved out of the house, since nobody wanted to stay there with the corpse of the sister. The house fell into ruin and eventually disappeared, but nobody lived anywhere near the mound. Terrible things happened to anybody who lived near it. After about fifty years, somebody built a shrine over the mound, and they say that the shrine is still there.
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    There are two things to note about this story. As said above, the younger sister’s spirit is rooted to the spot where she died, even though there wasn’t any violent trauma as with the soldier struck by lightning. The story did note, however, that, although the younger sister was unmarried and had no consistent lover, she did entertain “occasional, casual visitors.” Perhaps it was memories of pleasure, rather than pain, that kept her attached to that place.
    Second, we are reminded that there is a way to deal even with persistent spirits: perform a good work of some kind. Recall the disciple of the Buddha who was advised to perform good works to free the spirit of his mother from the realm of the Hungry Ghosts. Of course, you could also be aggressive about it and recruit an exorcist to deal with the spirit. Just be sure that the spiritualist you hire is strong enough to deal with the spirit, because it could turn into quite a struggle. In any event, one thing that you seldom hear in Japan, even in the 21 st century, is that “there’s no such thing as ghosts.” Most Japanese know better.
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     14. The Hungry Ghost
    The nature of compassion, especially in Buddhism, is to reject hatred, disgust or revulsion, as they get in the way of enlightenment. This is the case in a story from Kwaidan by Lafcadio Hearn; the story is titled “Jikininki,” which means “man-eating spirit.”
    This story is set in Mino province, and tells of a Zen monk named Musou Kokushi, who lost his way in the mountains while on a pilgrimage. He continued to wander aimlessly until, just at sunset, he saw a small hut on top of a hill. He recognized it as an anjitsu, a hermitage just big enough for one person, where a Buddhist monk could pass the night in solitude.
    When he got there, however, he found that the hermitage was already occupied by an elderly, fierce-looking priest. Still, Musou asked if he could stay there for the night; the old priest harshly told Musou “no,” but directed him toward a small farming village in the next valley. Musou soon found a group of five or six houses and asked for the headman of the village. He was shown to a room in one of the houses, and was given food and bedding. Exhausted by his travels, he went to sleep early that night, but was awakened just before midnight by sounds of crying. A young man with a lantern came into the room, and told the monk that the young man who stood before him was formerly the family’s