KWAIDAN: STORIES AND STUDIES OF STRANGE THINGS
Listen as DJ Swales, author of BARATANAC, narrates this audio drama of personally selected Japanese ghost stories from Kwaidan. First published by Irish writer Lafcadio Hearn (Yakumo Koizumi) in 1904, Kwaidan is Japan’s most famous, widely read, and beloved collection of ghostly folklore and superstition. 
Inspired by Lefcadio's life and writings, DJ spent 6 months in Kyushu (based in Kumamoto) while drafting two of his own upcoming horror thriller novels (The Golem of Nagasaki and Radish). Kumamoto City was home to two of Japan's most noted novelists – Lafcadio Hearn and Natsume Soseki (also an eminent haiku poet and former resident of London's Bloomsbury).  
Lafcadio Hearn utterly embraced Japanese culture and became a naturalised citizen. DJ visited his old Samurai house many times – the only surviving example of its type in downtown Kumamoto (and now a museum dedicated to Lefcadio's life). 
Filmmaker Masaki Kobayashi released his highly acclaimed Japanese horror movie Kwaidan in 1964, based on (and named after) Lafcadio Hearn's collected Japanese folklore. Lafcadio's work saved many of these tales from being lost during Japan's rapid Meiji Restoration. 
Art work: The Night Parade of One Hundred Demons (Hyakki Yagyō) by Kawanabe Kyōsai.
Learn more about Lafcadio Hearn in this New Yorker article.

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