Literature / Ugetsu Monogatari

Ugetsu Monogatari (雨月物語, Tales of Moonlight and Rain) is a collection of supernatural stories by Japanese author Ueda Akinari, wrotten in 1776. There have been several adaptations, including Ugetsu

Volume One

• Preface
  • This Is a Work of Fiction: author specifically asks readers not to take this stories to be true since he doesn't want his offsprings to be deformed (because creating fictional stories is the same as lying and brings bad carma)
• I White Peak (Shiramine)

Monk meets spirit of emperor and they speak about latter life.

• II Chrysanthemum Tryst (Kikuka no Chigiri)
  • Death Before Dishonor: Late to meeting hundrens miles away? Kill yourself! Spirit is much faster than a human!
  • "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Samon at the end.
  • Values Dissonance: Master of the house tries to prevent Samon from going to sick man because fever might be infectious. Samon answers: ‘How can diseases be transmitted by humans ? The idea is fit only for ignorant and common people.' This is very weird reading now.

Volume Two

• III The House Amid The Crickets (Asaji ga Yado)
  • Yamato Nadeshiko - Miyagi, beautiful and loyal, staying in her house because her husband promised to come back in autumn
• IV The Carp Who Came To My Dream (Muō no Rigyo)
  • Reincarnation: Temporal one? Old man dies, becomes carp and after carp dies comes back to his body.

Volume Three

• V Bird Of Paradise (Buppōsō)
• VI The Caldron Of Kibitsu (Kibitsu no Kama)
  • Cassandra Truth - early in the story Isora's parents use caldron divination to determine if match they made for their daughter is a good one. Answer is negative but they want to have their daughter married very much and so they decided it was because something went wrong in the divination process.
  • Love Triangle - Isora, her husband Shōtarō and his lover Sode
  • Murder the Hypotenuse - Sode dies because of Isora's ghost.

Volume Four

• VII The Lust Of White Serpent (Jasei no In)

Volume Five

• VIII The Blue Hood (Aozukin)
  • Love Makes You Evil - or turns you in the demon.
• IX Wealth And Poverty (Himpuku-ron)
  • Anthropomorphic Personifications - of gold