JAPANESE GHOSTS

Shannon News, 5 February 1926, Page 3

JAPANESE GHOSTS

CONCEPTIONS OF UNBEARABLE HORROR. The ghosts of old Japan is no way resemble the spooks of our own country (writes'F. Hadland Davies, In 'T.B.'s and Cassell's Weekly'). A skeleton . in a winding ■ sheet, a shadowy replica of a human being, mysterious footfalls and clanging chains present the stock-in-trade ol our far from intimdating display of the supernatural. There is the rokurokuhi ghost, usually a feminine creature whose head wanders about at night, ever peeping,, ever looking for something it cannot find. It is recorded that a voung man once married a. rokurokubi on account of her great beauty. On their wedding night he watched his wife by the light of an andon, and was horrified to see that her neck nearly 6ft long, Then neck and head began to whirl round the room faster and faster. Finally the head rested on the top of a screen and laughed. Many stories might be told of the .almost unbearable horror of Japanese ghosts. Though the blood-curdling [variety predominates, there are ghosts in the Land of the Rising Sun which provoke love and not feat-. \ There are the ghosts of little children Playing with stones in a cave by the sea, waiting for Jizo. their Divine Plavmate. There are the ghosts of lovers who come back when a certain kind of. incense is burnt and a •certain prayer uttered. Most beautiful of all is the bpint of the Cherry Tree. She is seen in the twilight of morning or evening in a misty blue robe, with the petals of cherry blossom floating through her vapory form. No one has been able to describe the beauty of her face. —Labcadio Hcarn wrote: "Seek to woo her—she is Echo. Seek to clasp her—she is Shadow; but her smile will haunt you into the. hour of dissolution and beyond—through numberless lives to come."