Oriental Ghost Stories by Lafcadio Hearn

This is yet another excellent collection in the Wordsworth Mystery and Supernatural series. Hearn is an American writer who moved to Japan and wrote stories from his adopted homeland that depicted Japanese and Chinese legends and folk tales.
This collection is very interesting and a different sort of read to the typical Western ghost stories of the same period (end of the 19th, start of the 20th century). The introduction talks of how the stories are reminsicent of fables and this is true, but there is also a streak of horror that makes them something unusual. As well as looking back to traditional folk tales, these stories show where the modern Japanese horror that we are familiar with now, through films like The Ring, comes from.
The main difference with the stories I usually read that stood out is that Western ghost stories have backgrounds; there is a history behind the haunting that is explained, for example a tragic event has left its mark, a person wronged returns from the grave for vengeance, or some elemental force has been unwittingly unleashed by a curious innocent. The explanations may not always be rational but they are there. These Japanese and Chinese tales are different: things just happen. Spirits, demons and goblins (but don't think cute little green creatures with big eyes; these tend to be disguised as human and hungry for human flesh) are an accepted part of life. Walk down the wrong road and you will fall prey to them. Act wrongly in your life and you will become them.
The influence of Buddhist mythology is strong in these stories and they reminded me of Wu Cheng'en's Monkey (in the translation by Arthur Waley), a collection of stories about a Buddhist priest trying to find enlightenment in the company of Monkey (anyone who was a child in the 1970s and '80s will know the TV series that they inspired). In these stories Monkey comes across many an ogre or monster who will happily devour any passing human and these ghost tales are the same.
The writing style is similar to Monkey; the tales are simply told, however they often containing stark and shocking images such as a ghostly samurai ripping the ears from an inoffensive musician. There is little attention to creation of spooky atmosphere or time given to lavish gothic descriptions. The shock of the story is often the point of these tales, not the atmosphere created along the way.
And it is these flashes of surreal horror that make them stand truly apart from Western ghost stories. For instance this from Mujina:

'"O-jochu, do not cry like that!... Tell me what the trouble is; and if there be any way to help you, I shall be glad to help you." (He really meant what he said; for he was a very kind man.) But she continued to weep,- hiding her face from him with one of her long sleeves. "O-jochu," he said again, as gently as he could,- "please, please listen to me!... This is no place for a young lady at night! Do not cry, I implore you! - only tell me how I may be of some help to you!" Slowly she rose up, but turned her back to him, and continued to moan and sob behind her sleeve. He laid his hand lightly upon her shoulder, and pleaded:- "O-jochu! - O-jochu! - O-jochu!... Listen to me, just for one little moment!... O-jochu! - O-jochu!"... Then that O-jochu turned around, and dropped her sleeve, and stroked her face with her hand; - and the man saw that she had no eyes or nose or mouth,- and he screamed and ran away.'

The stories are a fascinating glimpse of another land's culture and history; Samurai warriors meet with ghosts and goblins while on missions for their lords, wandering buddhist priests are given shelter which turns out to be not so well meant. Hearn explains all the points that will puzzle a western reader in expansive footnotes; I feel I have learnt a lot about Japanese and Chinese culture from reading these stories. Hearn is a writer who is not now well known but I would like to read more by him and learn more about Japanese and Chinese culture and folklore.