Ayakashi: Yotsuya Kaidan
The opening story of Ayakashi, Yotsuya Kaidan, is a retelling of the kabuki play by the same name, which, in turn, is based on the most famous Japanese ghost story of all time. Lady Oiwa was a virtuous young woman, and the wife and daughter of samurai. When his lord died, her future husband, Iemon, turned thief and stole from his coffers, using the stolen money as a gift to persuade Oiwa's father to allow their marriage. When he learned the money was stolen, Oiwa's father took her back into his household, even though he was penniless by then, and oiwa with child. In vengeance, Iemon hunted down Oiwa's father and killed him, planning to blame bandits for the crime.
Meanwhile, Oiwa's adopted sister, Osode, was forced to sell herself to a high class brothel due to their father's poverty, and can only hope that her fiance will eventually be able to buy her back. However, a peasant, Naosuke, has always lusted after Osode and attempts to force her, but is stopped by Osode's fiance(who seems rather understanding aboutt he whole brothel thing, really.) In revenge, Naosuke kills a man wearing the fiance's clithes the same night Iemon kills Oiwa and Osode's father, and the two arrange it to look like the men were attacked by bandits, and promise the sister's they will get revenge for them if they return as their wives, and both couples settle into domestic poverty.
Iemon, however, loses patience with Oiwa, especially once their child is born, providing another mouth he can't provide for, especially given Oiwa's determination to retain her pride as a well bred samurai woman. In the meantime, Iemon has caught the eye of Oume, a rich young woman who decides she wants him as her own, and who sends Oiwa a poison, in the guise of a medicine, which horribly disfigures her. Iemon leaps at this excuse to cast her aside, and announces that he will marry Oume, and that Oiwa must remove herself and their child from his home. In despair, Oiwa kills herself, swearing vengeance on both Iemon and Oume, and alltheir families(except her son, of course.)
Anyone remotely familiar with ghost stories is familiar with some variation of what happens next, and for that matter, can probably guess what's ahead for Osode, too. The point with such a well known tale is not the what, but the how. Now, sometimes, this doesn't work for me, but here it does. Narrating Yotsuya Kaidan is Tsuruya Nanboku, the man who wrote the kabuki play in 1825. As he relates Lady Oiwa's sad and dark tale, he also relates the history surrounding it, as well as the legends surrounding the legend. It's not so much simply a new telling of the story as it is the myth of both Lady Oiwa, and her story. It's just as much history, culture and legend as it is ghost story, and that, as well as a near perfect blending of story and style, is what makes it work so well. There is also a Mysterious Narrator who allows Tsuruya Nanboku to relate the tale to us, even though, as he points out, he's been dead for over a hundred years.
And have I meantioned before that it has an awesome soundtrack, and the Yotsuya Kaidan was designed by Yoshitoka Amano? The opening credits are actually mostly composed of his illustrations. Observe:
Click to viewOf course, they're converted into slightly more conventional animation, BUT STILL!
I am now torn between starting Avatar when I get home, and watching the second story, Tenshu Monogatari, which is one of those "Mortal falls into Very Very Forbidden Love with a goddess" stories.