J Horror Tales

The reading I chose for J Horror was Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things. I enjoyed these readings a lot especially the one chapter, Oshidori. Each chapter was like a different lesson in life. Oshidori was my favorite because a man sees a pair of oshidori together and he decides to shoot and kill the male one. Later that night the man had a dream of a woman coming to him telling him he took her partner from her. After he awoke he went down to the lake where he shot the duck and he seen the female swimming alone. The duck swam up to him and ripped itself inside out. I took that as a lesson. Every action you do or make has some sort of a reaction to something else. Not even just that, but he has taken an animal’s life partner, that’s cruel as hell! 

Another one I really like was the first story, The Story of Mimi-Nashi-Hoichi. The blind man recited the biwa for the priest whenever he wanted. One night someone strange came and tricked him into reciting over a grave to raise an evil spirit. The priest had caught him and told him the spirit was going to rip him to pieces unless he was covered in blessings. He had to remain still and quiet so the evil spirit wouldn’t see him. The writings made him invisible but the spirits tore his ears off because the priest forgot to write on his ears. Another lesson learned, don’t trust anybody! Whether, it was the strange man tricking him into raising the evil spirits of the dead or the priest being forgetful.

 I really enjoyed these stories because they were life lessons but described in a disturbing way. Making people think different ways about things. J Horror is definitely one of my new favorite things.