Halloween’s looming shadow will soon darken our doorstep, and with it comes an opportunity for the introverts among us to find refuge in creepy compendiums of critters that go bump in the night while hot-breathed trick-or-treaters pass their houses. If you prefer flipping through books to going outside, Folio Society, the folks behind that dragon-skin, leather-bound Game of Thrones book, has a collection of Japanese horror stories that will vex you.
Japanese Ghost Stories is a 200-page book featuring twenty classic yokai tales originally translated by 19th-century traveler and journalist Lafcadio Hearn (Kwaidan). Key among its fables are the long-necked Rokurokubi featured on the book’s cover, the snow ghost Yuki-onna, and the love story of Aoyagi, in which a samurai falls in love with a woman who isn’t what she seems. Classic. Folio Society’s hardcover edition of the yokai compendium is translated by Royall Tyler and illustrated by award-winning artist Yuko Shimizu. Check out io9’s exclusive preview of Japanese Ghost Stories below and see what delightful horrors await.
“Coming up with a good concept, or, at least a concept I am excited to materialize, is the most important and crucial part of the process,” Shimizu said in a press release. “After looking at a lot of old Japanese books and its formats, I wanted to make the illustrations look like a traditional Edo period EHON. These picture books are like an ancestor of manga. They are magazine format story books for adults that are heavily illustrated.
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