Hearn collects seventeen Japanese ghost stories (and a few nonfiction pieces about insects) in this 1903 volume. While most of these stories are translations from older texts, one was the first printed recording of a Japanese farmer's tale and a few others are Hearn originals. Included are accounts of ghosts who eat freshly deceased corpses, ghosts who look human during the day but stretch their necks and alter their faces at night, ghosts who bewitch their human targets, and many other ghastly figures.