[New post] The Corpse Rider

Colin Dickey posted: "Colin Dickey | Longreads | October 2019 | 14 minutes (3,729 words) "The daimyō's wife was dying, and knew that she was dying." So begins Lafcadio Hearn's uneasy and unsettling ghost story, "Ingwa-Banashi," gathered first in his 1899 collection, In Ghostl" New post on Longreads The Corpse Rider by Colin Dickey Colin Dickey | Longreads | October 2019 | 14 minutes (3,729 words) "The daimyō's wife was dying, and knew that she was dying." So begins Lafcadio Hearn's uneasy and unsettling ghost story, "Ingwa-Banashi," gathered first in his 1899 collection, In Ghostly Japan, and republished this year in a new Penguin Classics anthology edited by Paul Murray. As the daimyō explains to his wife that she is dying and preparing to leave "this burning-house of the world," he offers her any final rites she may request. She asks him to summon one of his concubines, the nineteen year-old Yukiko, whom, she reminds him, she loves like a sister. Yukiko arrives, and the dying woman tells her that one day she will rise in rank and be made the honored wife of the daimyō, a fortune that the low-born Yukiko cannot believe. As her last request, the daimyō's wife asks Yukiko to carry her out to the courtyard to see a cherry tree in bloom — obligingly, Yukiko lowers her back and allows the old woman to wrap her arms around her, to carry her. Once she has grasped hold of Yukiko, though, the old woman laughs, clutches tight, and, with her dying breath tells Yukiko: "I have my wish for the cherry-bloom — but not the cherry-bloom of the garden! … I could not die before I got my wish. Now I have it! — oh, what a delight!" Read more of this post Colin Dickey | October 24, 2019 at 8:00 am | Tags: Books, ghosts, Horror, Japan, Lafcadio Hearn, translation | Categories: Arts & Culture, Books, History, Nonfiction, Story | URL: https://wp.me/p4KhvY-yq4 Like Unsubscribe to no longer receive posts from Longreads. Change your email settings at Manage Subscriptions. Trouble clicking? Copy and paste this URL into your browser: http://longreads.com/2019/10/24/the-corpse-rider/ Thanks for flying with WordPress.com