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Category: Story 

Folklore Story Time: The Sea Monster of the Oki Islands (Ep. 198)

Tokoyo took the white robe off the younger girl and put it on herself. She then knelt before the figure of Buddha, and prayed for strength and courage to slay the evil god, Yofuné-Nushi. Then she drew a small and beautiful dagger, which had belonged to one of her ancestors, and, placing it between her […]

100 Ghost Stories in the Dark: Why Summer Is Ghost Season in Japan (Ep. 197)

Imagine an August night in old Edo, Japan. The heat is still clinging to the walls, the cicadas are screaming outside, and there is no air conditioner or electric fan.  You’re sitting there as the sun goes down, no breeze to be had. What do you do?  Well, you could light one hundred candles. Invite […]

Creepy Story Time: “By the Japanese Sea” — Lafcadio Hearn (Ep. 195)

“By the Japanese Sea” It is the fifteenth day of the seventh month–and I am in Hokii. The blanched road winds along a coast of low cliffs–the coast of the Japanese Sea. Always on the left, over a narrow strip of stony land, or a heaping of dunes, its vast expanse appears, blue-wrinkling to that […]

Utsuro-Bune: The Hollow Ship Revisited (Ep. 193)

Have you ever heard the account of the Utsuro-bune — the Hollow Ship — that appeared off the coast of Japan in the early 1800s? Today, drawing from all the old records, I want to take you back to that beach. You are there with all your fishermen friends when something round and utterly bizarre […]

The Ghost-Playing Actor Who Became a REAL Vengeful Ghost: Kohada Koheiji (Ep. 191)

Did you know that not all Japanese ghosts are jealous, vengeful women? No. Some are jealous, vengeful men. And in the ghost story I’m going to talk about today, you’ll get — as a bonus — a couple handfuls of bloody, severed, rotting fingers, too. Let me tell you about Kohada Koheiji.  Intro:  Hey hey, […]

Everyone Has a Throat Buddha: Nodohotoke and a Story: “The Buddha Bone” (Ep. 189)

In this episode, I talk about the nodo-hotoke, or “throat Buddha”—a phrase that means one thing while you’re alive and something quite different after death. We’ll look at the Buddha bone found after cremation in Japan, the funeral ritual of placing bones into the urn with long chopsticks, and the beliefs and taboos surrounding it. Then I’ll read my dark story “The Buddha Bone,” originally published in Weird Horror Issue 7. Content warning: this episode discusses death, cremation, and funeral customs.

Hōichi the Earless: A Lafcadio Hearn Reading (Ep. 182)

Today I read to you one of Lafcadio Hearn's most famous stories: "Mimi-nashi Hōïchi" or "The Earless Hōïchi." Why did the blind monk Hōïchi lose both ears in such a horrific fashion? It's a tale of ghost samurai, Buddhist sutras, and a terrible price paid for a moment's oversight.

Ame-onna – Rain Woman’s Original Ghost Story (Ep. 180)

In this Halloween special episode, I explore the rain woman yokai's evolution from Toriyama Sekien's courtesan metaphor to a grief-stricken mother searching for her stolen child. Then I share my original story "Rain for Days" - because Ame-onna never had her own ghost story until now.
Uncanny Japan episode featuring Ame Onna, the Rain Woman ghost story

Story Time: “Go-Away Monkey” (Ep. 159)

Okappa, a young woman living in a town ravaged by disease, encounters a traveling performer, Hanshiro, and his monkey, Fukumimi.
monkey wearing kimono wearing chain on ankle, large tengu mask
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About The Uncanny Japan Podcast

Speculative fiction writer, long-term resident of Japan and Bram Stoker Award finalist Thersa Matsuura explores all that is weird from old Japan—strange superstitions, folktales, cultural oddities, and interesting language quirks. These are little treasures she digs up while doing research for her writing.

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