Original Ghost Stories

"Can you write a ghost story?"

When my husband asked me this, I wondered what it was about, and after hearing the details, it turned out he was going to be a storyteller at a night walk event.

Ghost stories were a field I was interested in, so I decided to give it a try.

When you think of ghost stories, you think of Lafcadio Hearn. There are places associated with him scattered throughout Tottori Prefecture. Then, there are the Japanese folktales I watched in anime as a child. That chilling, atmospheric fear is something I can still vividly recall even now that I'm an adult.

Since I was doing it anyway, I wanted to create something related to the local area, so my husband and I worked on the details together. As a result, we decided to have a kappa appear.

There is a kappa legend about the Hino River that flows through the western part of Tottori Prefecture, and since the temple where the ghost story event was being held is also near the Hino River, we thought, 'That's it!' (laughs)

Japanese folktales always had a moral woven into them, so I wanted to hide something like that in what I was writing this time. It's not just about being scary; Japanese folktales also have lessons.

The night walk participants ranged from kindergarteners to their parents. Although the level of fear would differ, my goal was to finish a story that would give everyone a chill.

As a result, thanks to my husband's excellent delivery, it was a huge success! I even received some wonderful feedback from the organizers.

And to my surprise, I even heard from a local resident who said, 'I've heard a story like that before,' which made me think, 'Are you serious?!' They even told me the real place names, which gave me goosebumps (laughs).

"Where is the shrine?"
"Is the kappa coming!?"
"What should we do if we hear a patter... patter sound?"

I was told about reactions like these from the children, but

"I'm not playing in the Hino River anymore"

I was happy that the part I wanted to serve as a lesson really got through to them.

My own children also said, 'We want to hear the ghost story Mom made,' so when my husband told it to them as practice, they started crying for real (laughs). Even though they saw me thinking about it and writing it, and knew it was a story Mom made up, scary is still scary. They said such sweet things. I'll even sleep with them tonight!

It seems the children who participated in the night walk also said, 'What should I do if a kappa appears on the way home?' and I was happy that I was able to leave them with just the right amount of fear.

For a while, there might be a quiet kappa boom among the night walk participants.