Well, It's A Ghost!

I've added a little Widget thingie to my blog so you can check out some old posts. I don't really see how they're related to the current post, but it does look kind of cool and you get to dig into my archives.

A commenter in a previous post asked about wells and Japanese Ghosts. A modern take on spooky wells would be Ringu, of course but sorry I have no info on Totoro . But it just so happens that I recently copied a Ghost story from an English lesson I gave last year. Here is the truncated version:

番町皿屋敷 (Bancho Sara-Yashiki = The Story of Okiku")

お菊は青山鉄山の家に、女中として働いていました。ある日家宝である十枚の高価な陶器の皿を片付けているとき、お菊はうっかりその皿の一枚を割ってしまいました。怒った青山はお菊を殺し、その死体を古井戸に投げ捨てました。その後毎晩お菊の幽霊が井戸から現れ、皿をゆっくり九枚まで数えると、突然悲痛なすすり泣きを始めるのでした。それは何度も何度も繰り返され、青山を苦しめました。ついに青山は気が狂い、お菊の復讐は果たされたのでした。

Okiku wa Aoyama Tessan no ie ni, jochuu to shite hataraite imashita. Aruhi kahou de aru juu-mai no kouka na touki no sara o katazuketeiru toki, Okiku wa ukkari sono sara no ichi-mai o watte shimaimashita. Okotta Aoyama wa Okiku o koroshi, sono shitai o furuido ni nagesutemashita. Sonogo maiban Okiku no yuurei ga ido kara araware, sara o yukkuri kyuu-mai made kazoeruto, totsuzen hitsuuna susurinaki o hajimeru no deshita. Sore wa nandomo nandomo kurikaesare, Aoyama o kurushimemashita. Tsuini Aoyama wa ki ga kurui, Okiku no fukushuu wa hatasareta no deshita.

Okiku works as a maid at the home of the samurai, Tessan Aoyama. One day while cleaning a collection of ten precious ceramic plates, which is a family treasure, she accidentally breaks one of them. The outraged Aoyama kills her and throws the corpse into an old well. Every night afterwards, Okiku's ghost rises from the well, slowly counts out nine plates and then breaks into heartrending sobs, over and over and over again, tormenting the samurai. Finally, vengeance is wrought when Aoyama goes insane.

I found a silent Pop-up version of the story that is very faithful to the above...



But it needs a soundtrack, so I recommend this!



Need a smattering of specters for you? Here you are...