[Fragments of Japanese History "kakera" vol.16] From the Edo period, Japan's traditional way to cool down is "that story" that makes your spine freeze

Yesterday, Hachiman in Gujo City, Gifu Prefecture, recorded a scorching heat of over 40°C. My room was also unbearably hot, so I chose this theme to talk about something that might make us feel even a little cooler. In the Edo period, when there were no air conditioners or electric fans, how did people overcome this heat? One of the methods Edo people chose to cool off was, surprisingly, "ghost stories."

Hyakumonogatari: A game where you get closer to the supernatural with every light extinguished

"Hyakumonogatari" is a game where multiple lamps are lit, and one is extinguished each time a ghost story is finished. It was said that when all the lights were out and the room was enveloped in darkness, a real supernatural event would occur. While the origin is unclear, there is a theory that it has its roots in "courage tests" where those serving their lords in the samurai society would gather at night to tell ghost stories to test their bravery.

In an era without air conditioning or even electric fans, the chill that made your spine shiver from fear was a way to get cool.

Yotsuya Kaidan, actually debuted as a "summer tradition"

The "Tokaido Yotsuya Kaidan," which can be called synonymous with Japanese ghost story plays, was first performed at the Edo Nakamura-za theater in 1825 (the 8th year of the Bunsei era). The author, Tsuruya Nanboku IV, was the mastermind who established ghost stories, which had often been performed in spring or autumn, as a summer program.

There seem to have been theatrical business reasons behind this. Theaters without air conditioning saw a drop in attendance during the summer. So, Nanboku took advantage of the psychology of customers seeking to cool off and marketed ghost story plays as the main summer attraction. Incidentally, it is said that the story of "Yotsuya Kaidan" incorporates events that are believed to have actually occurred during the Genroku era as a model.

The plot of the story is as follows: Iemon, a son-in-law adopted into the family, betrays his wife, Oiwa, and poisons her to arrange a marriage with the granddaughter of a neighbor. Oiwa, whose face becomes hideously disfigured upon learning of the betrayal, meets a tragic end, and her ghost drives Iemon to a mad death.

"Yotsuya Kaidan" continues to be told in various forms even in the Reiwa era today. Not only does it continue to be performed as a staple of Kabuki, but a modern production was also staged at the Cocoon Kabuki in Shibuya in 2016. In Rakugo, the version by Sanyutei Encho is also famous. Beyond that, it continues to be repeatedly adapted across genres, from stage plays, movies, and television dramas to paintings, manga, and animation. A single ghost story play born as an Edo "summer cool-down" continues to make people "shiver" while changing its form 200 years later.

And that "summer = ghost story" business model continues to this day in the Reiwa era. Sadako, who became a horror icon overnight with the 1998 movie "Ring," and Kayako and Toshio from Takashi Shimizu's "Ju-On" series—these characters born from the J-Horror boom that occurred in the late 1990s have also had new works released and been passed down, centered around the summer. The "summer horror business" initiated by Tsuruya Nanboku, taking the form of Sadako in her white dress that burns into your retinas and never leaves, or the cursed house, is still active 200 years later.

I myself was of the generation right in the middle of this boom. I was terrified, but I remember pretending to be fine and putting on a brave face because I was embarrassed to be scared in front of my friends.

Overlapping with Obon, the meaning of requiem

There are also religious reasons behind why ghost stories became established in the summer. Obon has been considered a season when spirits, including not only ancestors but also those without family, return to this world. It is thought that summer ghost stories had an aspect not just as entertainment, but as a "requiem performance" to appease such spirits.

Entertainment to cool off, theatrical gimmicks, and prayers for the repose of souls. Multiple reasons overlapped to form the current image of "summer means ghost stories."

The world's wisdom for "cooling down" is mainly architecture and civil engineering

There is also a lot of wisdom for enduring the heat overseas. However, when I looked into it, most of the approaches were "physically creating coolness through architecture and civil engineering."

Badgir (Persia/Windcatcher) This is a tower that means "wind catcher" in Persian. It is a mechanism that catches the wind at the top of the building, sends cool air into the room through internal ducts, and allows hot air to rise and be discharged outside. It is a natural ventilation cooling technology that uses no electricity and emits no carbon dioxide.

Yakhchal (Persia/Ice Pit) Around 400 BC, Persian engineers built these huge outdoor refrigerators in the desert. There was an ice storage space underground in the dome-shaped building, where ice made in winter was preserved until summer.

Stepwell/Baoli (India) This is a well where you go down deep underground via stairs. Due to the underground structure that sunlight does not reach and the heat of vaporization of water soaked into the rocks, the temperature deep in the well is 6 to 7 degrees lower than on the surface. It was also used as a summer retreat for royalty during the summer.

Japan also had "physical" wisdom for cooling down

Japanese wisdom for cooling down is not just psychological. The "Nihon Shoki" (Chronicles of Japan) from the Nara period contains a description of a "himuro" (ice house) used to store ice in Tsuge, Nara. In Tenri City, Nara Prefecture, the ruins of the "Tsuge Himuro," considered the oldest in the country and built approximately 1,300 years ago, still remain today. Wooden tablets excavated from the site of the residence of the aristocrat Prince Nagaya even recorded details such as the scale of the ice house and the thickness of the ice. The concept of storing ice made in winter and taking it out to use in summer is surprisingly similar in both timing and concept to the Persian yakhchal mentioned earlier.

In the Heian period, Sei Shonagon introduced "shaved ice"—ice shaved into a metal bowl and topped with amazura (vine syrup)—as an "elegant thing" in her work "The Pillow Book." At the time, ice was a super-luxury item that only aristocrats could afford. The roots of today's shaved ice culture, which I introduced in vol. 12, go back this far.

While the ice house was a cooling method for the aristocracy, a more familiar physical wisdom that spread among the common people was "uchimizu" (sprinkling water). Originally one of the manners of the tea ceremony, it is also said to have had the meaning of purifying the path for the gods if you go back further. However, in the Edo period, it spread among the common people and became established as a custom of sprinkling water at entrances and on roads. The "heat of vaporization" effect, where water absorbs surrounding heat as it evaporates, actually has the effect of lowering the temperature. Even in modern surveys conducted in Sumida Ward, Tokyo, results have shown that when uchimizu is performed simultaneously over a wide area, the temperature drops by an average of about 0.5 to 0.7°C. It was truly a "three birds with one stone" wisdom that combined the practical aspect of suppressing dust, the spirit of hospitality to guests, and the effect of cooling down.

A concept unique to Japan, unparalleled in the world

Wind towers, ice storage houses, underground wells—when looking at cooling wisdom from around the world, one notices that many of them are technologies that "physically cool the air or water." On the other hand, while Japan had the physical solution of the ice house, it also created the concept of the Hyakumonogatari (One Hundred Ghost Stories) to "psychologically feel cool." As far as I have researched, I have not found any culture overseas that has the concept of "getting cool through fear." If Japan alone was "tricking" itself into feeling cool through the emotion of fear while the rest of the world was physically fighting the heat, I think that is truly unique wisdom.

Experiencing it for yourself: If you are looking for this year's "Hyakumonogatari"

The culture of Hyakumonogatari continues to travel across the country in various forms even in the Reiwa era. A prime example is the "MYSTERY NIGHT TOUR 2026 Junji Inagawa's Ghost Story Night" by ghost story legend Junji Inagawa. It is a large-scale tour that will visit 30 prefectures from July 24 to November 15, 2026.

The Tokyo performance will be held on September 21 (Mon/Holiday) and 22 (Tue/Holiday) at the Tokyo International Forum. The Fukuoka performance will be held from September 29 (Tue) to October 4 (Sun) in an extraordinary space: the Noh stage inside the Sumitomo Shrine. Performances are also scheduled in Nagoya (Aichi Prefecture) and Osaka (Osaka Prefecture) during the tour period, but since detailed schedules are updated as needed on the official website (inagawa-kaidan.com), please check the performance dates for your area.

However, Mr. Inagawa's ghost stories are not the type that rely on direct, screaming terror, but rather are evaluated as a "live experience" that gradually builds up fear through his unique storytelling style (onomatopoeia like "hita hita hita" and exquisite timing). It is suitable for those who want to feel a chill while enjoying the art of storytelling and being enveloped in the sense of unity of the entire venue.

If you are looking for more direct terror, the direction changes, but there are other options. For "true ghost stories" based on actual events, there is the "100-Tatami Mat Ghost Story Meeting 2026" (held on August 7 and 8, 2026) told by ghost storyteller Daion Miki. If you want a physical horror experience rather than a slow-burn one, I recommend Fuji-Q Highland's "Super Scary Labyrinth of Fear." It is a haunted house said to be the longest and scariest in history, with a total length of about 900m and a duration of about 50 minutes, where you can experience cooling down through screams rather than through the art of storytelling.

Whether you cool down slowly through the skill of the narrative, get cold sweats from the rawness of a true story, or cool down by screaming—please try to find which type of "fear" suits you. While it is nice to listen to scary stories while cooling off in an air-conditioned room, it might be interesting to follow the example of the people of Edo and try freezing your spine while turning off the lights one by one.