70: Japan's got ghosts w/ Thersa Matsuura

As Halloween approaches, author, Bram Stoker Award nominee and host of the podcast "Uncanny Japan," Thersa Matsuura joins us to share her fascination with the Japanese supernatural, and reads us her version of one of Japan's most famous ghost stories, "Okiku and the Nine Plates."

Sponsor:
This episode is sponsored by Democrats Abroad Japan, a volunteer organization that helps Americans overseas register to vote. If you're a U.S. voter living abroad and haven't received your absentee ballot, or are afraid the one you've sent won't arrive in time, you're still in luck. An emergency backup ballot is your second chance! Head to VoteFromAbroad.org/fwab to learn how you can fill out and send in your backup ballot per your state's guidelines.

Read/hear more:

• Yuurei: Japanese Ghosts from Protective to Wrathful (Uncanny Japan)
• 10 days of J-horror: Films to get your fill of screams and scares (Mark Schilling, The Japan Times)
• 'Japanese Ghost Stories': The ghostly ascent of Lafcadio Hearn's tales of the supernatural (Damian Flanagan, The Japan Times)
• Unsolved mysteries: Japanese fans of the occult are engaged in a never-ending search for the truth (Alex Martin, The Japan Times)
• The story of Yotsuya Kaidan — The Ghost of Oiwa (Uncanny Japan)

On this episode:
Thersa Matsuura: Twitter | Podcast & Website
Oscar Boyd: Twitter | Articles | Instagram

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Photo: Utagawa Kuniyoshi's "Haunted Old Palace at Soma" (ca. 1845-46), in which a sorceress draws forth a giant skeleton to attack a warrior. | Private Collection