In the late 1800s, Lafcadio Hearn collected and retold strange and wonderful ghostly tales from old Japanese legends. In these stories, a blind poet must perform for members of a dead royal family; an old man gives up his life in exchange for blossoms on a wilting cherry tree; a man trying to comfort a strange woman crying in the dark recoils in horror on seeing her face; and a mandarin duck haunts the hunter who shot her companion. These are timeless and hair-raising stories in which humans and ghostly creatures co-exist. This new edition, with an introduction by Ruskin Bond, will leave readers spellbound.