science

Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things

Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things rather than just read about it. In short: Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things (怪談, Kaidan; also archaic romanized Kwaidan), often shortened to Kwaidan ("ghost story"), is a 1904 book by Koizumi Yakumo (Lafcadio Hearn) that features several Japanese ghost stories and a brief non-fiction study on insects. It was later used as the basis for a 1964 film, Kwaidan, by Masaki Kobayashi.

Key takeaways

Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things (怪談, Kaidan; also archaic romanized Kwaidan), often shortened to Kwaidan ("ghost story"), is a 1904 book by Koizumi Yakumo (Lafcadio Hearn) that features several Japanese ghost stories and a brief non-fiction study on insects. It was later used as the basis for a 1964 film, Kwaidan, by Masaki Kobayashi.

Stories Hearn declares in his introduction to the first edition of the book, which he wrote on January 20, 1904, eight months before his death, that most of these stories were translated from old Japanese texts. However, a farmer in Musashi Province told him the tale of Yuki-Onna ("Snow Woman"). Legends of Yuki-Onna could be found throughout Japan and predate Kwaidan (including Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan), though Hearn was unaware of them having previously been written and his version of a harmful Yuki-Onna is original. "Riki-Baka" is based on a personal experience of Hearn's. While he does not declare it in his introduction, "Hi-Mawari" – among the final narratives in the volume – seems to be a recollection of an experience in his childhood (it is, setting itself apart from almost all the others, written in the first person and set in rural Wales).

"The Story of Mimi-nashi Hōichi" "Oshidori" "The Story of O-Tei" "Ubazakura" "Diplomacy" "Of a Mirror and a Bell" "Jikininki" "Mujina" "Rokurokubi" (description of folktale) "A Dead Secret" "Yuki-Onna" "The Story of Aoyagi" "Jiu-Roku-Zakura" "The Dream of Akinosuke" "Riki-Baka" "Hi-Mawari" "Hōrai"

Insect studies Hearn studied and wrote extensively on insects. The last section of Kwaidan contains three essays on insects and their connection to Chinese and Japanese beliefs.

Butterflies: Personification of the human soul. Mosquitoes: Karmic reincarnation of jealous or greedy people in the form of Jiki-ketsu-gaki or "blood-drinking pretas". Ants: Mankind's superior in terms of chastity, ethics, social structure, longevity and evolution.

See also Ghost stories Hoichi the Earless

References

External links

Sacred-Texts.com's digitized edition of the book. Kwaidan at Project Gutenberg Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things public domain audiobook at LibriVox

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things

In research: Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1904 short story collections, Books about Asian mythology, Books adapted into films, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things in simple terms?

Why does Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things.