【百物語①】What is “Hyakumonogatari”? −「百物語」って？−

Do you know “Hyakumonogatari”? This can be translated in the words “one-hundred stories”. However, it is not just the stories. Those are needed to be kwaidan, which means the ghost stories. This is one of the Japanese traditional style of kwaidankai (*1). The origin of “Hyakumonogatari” was Muromachi era (1330s~) and it became popular in Edo era (~1860s). There were some different rumors, but one of them was that it is more popular among samurai. Samurai’s occupation was to fight, so they needed to be bold. Then, “Hyakumonogatari” was used to prove their courage.

Then, let’s see how they conducted this kwaidankai, “Hyakumonogatari”. First, on the night of the new moon, they gathered with a few people in someone’s house without swords. Second, they arranged three empty rooms in a row, and they entered the edge of them. The room they gathered was needed to be dark, as well the middle room. In the remotest room, they prepared one-hundred candles. Third, they talked kwaidan in turn. When one of them finished talking kwaidan, he went to the remotest room with fumbling, and blew out one candle, and came back. It is said that when 100th kwaidan was finished, and all the candles were blow and the true darkness came, something that is strange would appear…

Although there were also different rumors of style of “Hyakumonogatari” (or I explained it roughly), this is one of Japanese traditional culture. If you are interested in it, why don’t you try doing? Maybe, you can encounter something…