Tonight’s story is a classic ghost story. The ghost has all of the standard elements: the white kimono, the disheveled, long hair, blackened teeth; and she visits every night and stares into the window! Ooh, I just got chills!
I especially love the nonchalant response by Tōshirō at the end. “Oh yeah, that’s my wife.” And Kyūan noping right out of there and back to Kyoto is icing on the cake.
Fantastic! Enjoy this one.
The Ghost of Shimazu Tōshirō’s Wife
A man named Shimazu Tōshirō from Owari Prefecture was a disciple of Shundō and a great reciter of noh, and frequently performed in front of audiences. One of his friends was a man from Tsu in Ise named Kyūan, who frequently constructed gardens. He was Tōshirō’s best friend, and one day he visited him in Owari to talk about the good old days.
It was the middle of June, and they hung up a mosquito net and told stories late into the night, and before long Tōshirō fell asleep. Kyūan wasn’t yet able to fall asleep when he saw a woman around 40 years old, with disheveled hair as long as her body, blackened teeth, and a white kimono gazing longingly through the lattice window. Kyūan thought for sure that this woman must be Tōshirō’s longtime mistress, so he pretended not to notice her, and by dawn she was nowhere to be found.
The following night the same thing happened. Kyūan, filled with uneasiness, waited impatiently for dawn to break. In the morning he told Tōshirō everything that had happened. “Clearly you have an arrangement with this woman to come and see you at night. From tonight on, I will sleep in a separate room,” he said.
Tōshirō replied, “This is an embarrassing story, but I will tell you. When I was in Kyōto I had a fling with a woman, and I ended up I bringing her back home with me, and we were together for three years. However, one day she became sick and died. Yet she still visits me from time to time, as if her attachment to me remains.”
Kyūan was astonished. He was originally going to stay for two or three more days, but he suddenly packed up and said goodbye, and returned to Ise.
Kyūan passed away in the Kan’ei period (1624-44).