Ueda Akinari

mansion. Tōbei on the other hand finally gets the chance to become a samurai, and so runs off leaving his wife behind. It is during his absence that his defenseless wife, Ohama, is captured and raped by soldiers. Feeling like she had no other options left, Ohama turns to prostitution and even becomes well known for her work. The misfortune continues on throughout the movie with Tōbei running into his wife at her brothel, and Genjurō finding out his wife was killed in his absence. The story ends on a somber note with everyone trying to go back to the normal life they had pottery making, with maybe a lesson learned that greed will always make your life worse. The plot of Ugetsu is actually based on a story of the same name by a man named Ueda Akinari. He lived around the 18th century and was famous for his supernatural stories. The supernatural aspect of this movie was very interesting and notably creepy. Japanese mythical creatures and ghosts can be some of the most frightful monsters, Lady Wakasa included. Sadly the plot seemed to actually be hampered by this inclusion of the unexplainable. Genjurō’s punishment for greed is him being charmed or abducted by this ghost, but that hardly seems a good fit for a man who wanted to get rich. Maybe it would have made more sense for him to become extremely wealthy and then somehow lose it all by either theft, gambling, or disaster. While the supernatural story was creepy and interesting, it’s just too disjointed. One second we have a…

Step inside the arena and grab a seat. We have a great show for you tonight! Prepare yourself because the most anticipated fight in Edo era Japan begins immediately. This fight will involve the supernatural, in one corner, and societal norms, in the other. Tonight, the term supernatural refers to anything that exists beyond scientific understanding or natural laws. Furthermore, the term, “myth,” interchanges with the term, “supernatural,” throughout the night. The setting of this bout occurs…

The supernatural affects everyone differently, whether it causes a person to go insane, mute, or kill themselves, it is obvious that the supernatural causes people to react in strange, often irrational ways. This is evident in both the American ghost story “The Tomb” written by H.P. Lovecraft and the Japanese ghost story “The Kibitsu Cauldron” written by Ueda Akinari. These two stories share many similarities one being the presence of an apparent mental illness, albeit at different severities.…

In Bewiched, Manago, a symbol of love and passion, serves as a thematic clue to track the male protagonist-Toyo-o’s psychological development of masculinity through a series of seductions and confrontations. While she, a “tenacious” manipulative temptress, is also a true foil to what society demands of women (646). Ueda Akinari uses Manago to suggest a gender based social order in the Japanese society which expects men to develop masculinity- courage, independence, determination to gain…