The Folio Society’s newest release is one that should appeal to fans of classic horror stories. Lafcadio Hearn’s short story collection Japanese Ghost Stories is getting a lavish new hardcover edition, featuring illustrations by The Unwritten’s Yuko Shimizu.
With Japanese Ghost Stories going up for preorder soon, IGN can exclusively debut some of Shimizu’s gorgeous illustrations. Check them out in the slideshow gallery below:
Japanese Ghost Stories features a translation by Royall Tyler and a new introduction by Japanese novelist Yoko Ogawa. Here’s the official description of the book:
JAPANESE GHOST STORIES features twenty transportive and sometimes terrifying tales, including “The Story of Aoyagi,” in which a young samurai falls in love with a mysterious woman only to discover she is not what she seems; “Oshidori,” the haunting tale in which a mandarin duck mourns the loss of her lover, who was shot and killed by a hunter’ “The Dream of Akinosuké,” in which a man becomes the king of an ant kingdom; and “Rokuro-Kubi,” an action packed story in which a monk battles five flying heads.
In JAPANESE GHOST STORIES, the dead wreak revenge on the living, paintings come alive, spectral brides possess mortal men and a priest devours human flesh. These tales draw on the phantoms and ghouls of traditional Japanese folklore—including the headless ‘rokuro-kubi’, the monstrous goblins ‘jikininki’ and the faceless ‘mujina’ who stalk lonely neighbourhoods. The stories are massively popular in Japan and highly regarded by folklore aficionados and horror enthusiasts alike.
“Lafcadio Hearn’s 19th-century ghost stories are famous throughout Japan and are part of that country’s culture of the supernatural. I love the way we’ve taken something traditional and given it a modern twist,” said Folio Society Editor Mandy Kirby in a statement. “At first glance, you might think Yuko Shimizu’s illustrations are from the time of Hokusai, but look closer and you can see that they have modern touches, and the cover is unmistakably 21st century. One of Japan’s contemporary novelists, Yoko Ogawa, has provided an introduction in which she talks about Japan’s obsession with ghosts and demons, and how unsettling and scary these stories actually are. She’s right – they are absolute gems of the supernatural, the perfect read for the ghostly season.”
Orders for Japanese Ghost Stories will open on the Folio Society website on October 13.
In other Folio Society news, the company is also releasing a stunning new edition of Anthony Bourdain’s classic memoir Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly.
Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on BlueSky.