WEEK3 Kwaidan

I’m a kind of person who enjoy watching Kurosawa’s Dream, playing Shakuhachi(Bamboo flute) and reading about Zen, so I’m not surprise why I could easily appreciate series of Japanese folk tales from Kwaidan, in fact I’m familiar with many of them. I doubt that it’s totally the effect of my oriental background, I’ve seen many people from non-Japanese and non-eastern culture that deeply understood and appreciate Japanese deep culture. My pattern of world views just seems to connect with Buddhist philosophy and animism similar to Shinto quite well. 

These Japanese horror tales shares a lot of similarities to Thai indigenous horror as there are presence of the concept of Karma, states of one spirit and Buddhist Monks as representatives of balance bringer. Animism seems to integrate quite well with Buddhist in many Asian countries, however, one cultural trait that makes Thai folk culture quite different from Japanese folk culture seems to be the political influence that come later in the history. Both Thai and Japanese has a long history of glorifying Monarch as a heavenly figure but Thai metropolitan culture tend to overshadowed folk culture a lot more because of the political policies. Japanese successfully preserve their past by allowing them to be reconstruct materialistically while keeping the same spirit (example could be seen with ancient palace that has been issued to be reconstruct every 4 year with the same exact floor plan) while Thai method of preserving tend to keep the same exact material and structure on it’s spot without permission to re-study and reconstruct.

One other aspect that create a distinct difference between Japanese and Thai culture is the natural pattern and view of nature. Thailand is known to be located in tropical area in which crops can grow all years with lots of flat land available for it, while Japan has much harsher seasons and environments. Through Japanese eyes, life is much more fragile and nature is both beautiful and terrifyingly powerful. In Kwaidan and in many Japanese literatures, nature and nature of life has always been a huge statement and big part of the narrative. There is a philosophy that directly explain that aesthetic called Yugen. There is an example of a very old Thai folk tale I’ve read that actually contain the same essence, though the style tend to be forgotten through time and I’m hoping that I could revive it in the future.