A Gathering of Spirits: Japan's Ghost Story Tradition: From Folklore and Kabuki to Anime and Manga (31 page)

[
64
] There’ll be more about vampires in chapter 29.

[
65
] There’s more about the
School Ghosts
in chapter 21.

[
66
] http://www.ghostvillage.com/legends/spiritphotography.shtml, accessed February 22, 2007.

[
67
] http://www.richardchalfen.com/wip-jhm.html, accessed February 22, 2007.

[
68
] http://hudson.co.jp/mobile/eng/jp/imode/horror/index.html, accessed February 22, 2007.

[
69
] For one English version of the story, see http://web-japan.org/kidsweb/folk/ofuda/ofuda.html, accessed February 9, 2007.

[
70
] Anyone familiar with “The Three Ofuda” recognizes that this is actually an echo of the story. To escape the witch, the boy says that he has to use the witch’s bathroom. While there, he takes one of the ofuda, puts it on the wall, and asks it to protect him. When the witch tells the boy to hurry up, the ofuda answers in the boy’s voice, which gives the boy a chance to escape. This is one of the scenes parodied in
Negima!

[
71
] In movies such as
Ju-On
(known in America as
The Grudge
), a house can be haunted without being deserted.

[
72
] Another such film,
The Great Youkai War
, was directed by the very edgy Japanese thriller director Takashi Miike, and was set in Sakaiminako, the hometown of Shigeru Mizuki, creator of the long-running spirit-manga
GeGeGe no Kitaro
. Mizuki puts in a cameo appearance, as do his characters.

[
73
] Plausibility is achieved here in part by bringing in a flock of traditional Japanese ghosts, ancient and modern. In the first episode alone, the group of children at the center of the story encounter a walking Ninomiya statue, Toilet Hanako, a man-faced dog, a headless ghost on a motorcycle, a Teke-Teke (see chapter 27), and much more…

[
74
] Inada Shiho & Ono Fuyumi. 2006.
Ghost Hunt
, vol. 5. New York: Del Rey, p. 151.

[
75
] Short for “bishonen”—literally, beautiful boy; to put it more simply, a hunk.

[
76
] Shibuya is also a very hip neighborhood in Tokyo, a center of commerce, entertainment, hi-tech and youth culture.

[
77
] It makes sense, however, to remember that Nagasaki, a center of Christian activity in Japan, would speak Kansai Japanese.

[
78
] In the first episode of
Gakkou no Kaidan
, just before the opening credits, as the ghost attacks a night watchman, the camera jumps to the front of the school; a statue of Ninomiya can be seen to the right of the door. Later in the episode, the statue has apparently moved on its own into the school. Ninomiya definitely got around; according to school ghost stories, so does his statue.

[
79
] Billy Hammond, “The School Restroom Ghost—Hanako-san”, http://tanutech.com/japan/hanako.html, accessed October 25, 2006.

[
80
] This is part of a long and ribald tradition of making fun of Buddhist monks as oversexed. The young monk Miroku in Rumiko Takahashi’s
InuYasha
is another example, since we forever see him caressing some female tush out of reflex and uttering the lamest of come-ons: “Will you bear my children?” He has about as much luck as Ryudo. We’ll visit Miroku in a later chapter.

[
81
] Actually, the Akio who we see seduce Tokiko is only one aspect of Anthy’s brother, but that’s a topic I discussed in the
Utena
chapter of
Anime Explosion
.

[
82
] This also parallels the Japanese “take” on vampires; see chapter 29.

[
83
] Fan service, the gratuitous display of breasts, butts, and underpants, was a hallmark of
Love Hina
, in which a college-bound boy lives in a rooming house with 5 girls and a hot spring in the back yard. In
Negima!
, there are 30 girls in Negi’s homeroom class, multiplying the possibilities accordingly.

[
84
] Bullying in anime/manga covers a wide spectrum, from physical to psychological abuse. In
Hikaru no Go
, Akira Toya, a prodigy at the game of go, joins his junior high school go club as a first-year student; the intimidated older students try to put him in his place by ordering him to play two games simultaneously—without looking at the boards. An extremely unrealistic example of
ijime
occurs in the romantic-comedy manga
Hana Yori Dango
(a complicated pun) by Yoko Kamio, in which the hazing at an elite high school ranges from pelting students with garbage to (apparently) attempted rape. When the heroine of the series stands up to the bullies, not only do they start to back down, but one of them falls in love with her!

[
85
] http://www.sunfield.ne.jp/~mike/essays/ijime.htm, accessed November 4, 2006.

[
86
] Reid, T. R.
Confucius Lives Next Door: What Living in the East Teaches Us about Living in the West
. 1999. New York: Vintage, pp. 130-131.

[
87
] It’s no coincidence that the two sempai (upperclassmen) are named after prominent manga artists: Osamu Tezuka, creator of
Astroboy
and countless other titles, and Ryoko Ikeda, creator of
The Rose of Versailles
. It’s a deliberate in-joke and tribute.

[
88
] Shinobu doesn’t want any part of trying to exorcise Misako, saying he’s not a “youkai-basutaa”—a Japanese-English combination word meaning “ghost-buster.”

[
89
] This title is wickedly parodied in Bisco Hatori’s
Ouran High School Host Club
.

[
90
] Much of the following is thanks to Michael Dylan Foster’s “Strange Games and Enchanted Science: The Mystery of Kokkuri” in
The Journal of Asian Studies
, volume 65 number 2 (May 2006), pp. 251-275.

[
91
] Kokkuri-san or –sama is a multi-layered pun. The phonetic readings of the Chinese characters in the name Kokkuri mean “fox” (ko), “dog” (ku) and “tanuki” (ri). (For the special history of the tanuki, an animal often mistranslated into English as “raccoon” or “raccoon-hound,” please see my book
Anime Explosion: The What? Why? And Wow! Of Japanese Animation
.) In this case, “ku” refers not to a literal everyday dog but the
tengu
or heavenly dog, a nature spirit sometimes described as having crow-like features, and is also pictured as human but with a very long nose. The verb kokkuri means to tilt or to nod, and refers to the kokkuri-san’s planchette tipping one leg up when answering a question. Thus, the name kokkuri-san could be rendered in English as “Mister Wobbles.”

[
92
] I like to think of this as an in-joke; “ee tou” is one of those phrases Japanese say while thinking, as in, “Let’s see, what was her name again?”

[
93
] A variety of cherry tree that bears twin blossoms.

[
94
] This was still during the Tokugawa or Edo period of Japanese history, when the country isolated itself from western science and technology, including medicine. Because the Netherlands were among the few countries willing to trade with Japan on its terms, interest in anything western came to be known as “Dutch studies.” In this case, a Dutch physician may refer to the doctor’s nationality, but definitely is a euphemism for a doctor of western medicine.

[
95
] The cycle of twelve animals in the Chinese calendar doesn’t just apply to years. The day is divided into twelve two-hour periods, governed by the same cycle. The Hour of the Ox (2 to 4 a.m.) is especially regarded as the time when ghosts have control. Their power diminishes at the Hour of the Tiger (4 to 6 a.m.)

[
96
] In Japan, one is not considered legally an adult until the year in which one turns twenty. This is usually commemorated on January 15 of that year in the Coming-of-Age Day (Seijin no Hi) ceremony.

[
97
] Anime News Network press release of Jan. 7, 2004 (www.animenewsnetwork.com/article.php?id=4492); perhaps there’s a
manga
out there based on the movie starring Patrick Swayze, Demi Moore and Whoopi Goldberg.

[
98
] The most potentially offensive thing about this movie is that the doll’s features are modeled on a cartoon-y version of a Negro; still, as the entire movie is based on sexual humor rather than the possibility of ghosts, the racial caricature probably should not be taken too seriously.

[
99
] This parallels a gag in Satoshi Kon’s 2003 movie
Tokyo Godfathers
, an anime parody in many respects of the classic John Ford western
Three Godfathers
, complete with Christmas symbolism. In this case, one of the three misfits who find an abandoned baby on Christmas Eve is Hana, a middle-aged drag queen. At one point, he returns to the drag bar where he used to work, and tells the “mama-san” that he’s now homeless because his lover is dead. Mama-san asks the dramatic question: “AIDS?” Hana shakes his head: “He slipped on a bar of soap.”

[
100
] The following is from Benj Vardigan, “The Thrill of the Haunt”, in
Shojo Beat,
vol. 3 #2 (January 2007), p. 184.

[
101
]http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Hiroshige_Benzaiten_Shrine_at_Inokashira_in_Snow.jpg, accessed January 19, 2007.

[
102
]http://www.jref.com/practical/kichijouji.shtml, accessed January 19, 2007.