Strange Houses

Uketsu’s writing resonates with the tropes and characteristics that separate Japanese horror from Western traditions of horror. Unlike American or British horror, which often relies heavily on violence or shocking imagery to elicit fear, Japanese horror preys on the reader’s psychology to suggest dread and build suspense. As a result, many modern Japanese horror stories are framed as mysteries, often involving supernatural elements that allude to traditional Japanese folklore.

Modern Japanese horror evolved from the Edo- and Meiji-era folktale known as kaidan, which translates to “strange narrative.” While kaidan could broadly refer to any kind of supernatural horror story, it featured certain tropes that came to define the genre, including vengeful ghosts and curses that haunt people long after someone has died in a wrongful way. In 1776, the story collection Ugetsu Monogatari (Tales of Moonlight and Rain) by Ueda Akinari codified some of these elements, adapting traditional Chinese and Japanese folktales.

The influence of kaidan is evident in modern Japanese horror like Koji Suzuki’s seminal 1991 novel, Ring. Ring concerns a cursed videotape, which is later revealed to have been created after a young girl with psychic powers was wrongfully killed and thrown down a well. Unlike the eventual film adaptation that gave antagonist Sadako Yamamura her iconic ghostly appearance, the novel never depicts the way the cursed videotape kills its viewers. Suzuki instead relies heavily on the ambiguity of the victims’ deaths to drive intrigue and dread as the protagonists draw closer to the curse’s seven-day deadline. A similar approach can be seen in more realist suspense fiction by Edogawa Ranpo, such as his story, “The Human Chair.” Where Ring injects uncanniness into home video technology, “The Human Chair” defamiliarizes everyday furniture by imagining a person who brags about the pleasure of hiding himself inside the chairs he builds for his clients.

Uketsu’s novel fits squarely into this tradition by building its entire plot around ambiguous speculation. The protagonist, a stand-in for the author, wants to understand the rationale for the strange design of the house he has encountered, but he finds that the answers to his questions are increasingly macabre and unsettling. Though the novel never depicts the murders that take place in the houses, it strongly suggests them via the character Kurihara’s speculations.

As the backstory of the family at the center of the novel is revealed, other classic elements of Japanese fiction emerge, including revenge as a driving force for several characters. Though Uketsu’s novel leans more realist than supernatural, it still utilizes the supernatural mode to drive suspense. In one instance, a neighbor looks out of his house to see a ghostly boy standing in the window of the house that Uketsu is investigating. Later on, a woman posing as a shaman convinces another character that he has been cursed by the vengeful ghost of his late wife. This motivates him to carry out a deadly ritual that continues to be practiced over several generations.