Tale
Tales of Moonlight and Rain
雨月物語
Ueda Akinari · 1776
Synopsis
Nine tales in which ghosts and spirits appear, according to a blog devoted to independent cinema. At Matsuyama, a monk meets the spectre of Emperor Sutoku, full of anger against his enemies; a warrior has promised a friend to see him again on the day of the chrysanthemum festival; a man leaves his wife to go and sell silk and returns only seven years later; a father and son meet on Mount Kōya the ghosts of a dead court; a younger son falls in love with a white serpent that has taken the form of a woman.
Context
The collection was woodblock-printed and published in five volumes in 1776, but its preface is dated 1768; the author worked on it for nearly eight years, according to the British encyclopaedia, which distinguishes it from the popular tales of the time, where the text mostly accompanied the image, by the care given to style. Its sources are in part Chinese, foremost a fifteenth-century collection by Qu You, to which are added episodes from the Japanese tradition. Two of the tales inspired a 1953 film, awarded a Silver Lion at Venice, by Mizoguchi Kenji.
Who it is for
Nine short, independent tales, to be read one by one, for those who like ghost stories and the fantastic of old.
Prizes and reception
A collection translated into French by René Sieffert as early as 1956, and into English by Kenji Hamada, Leon Zolbrod and Anthony Chambers.
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