In Old Japan, people gathered to pass long, dark evenings testing one another’s nerve with the game Hyakumonogatari Kaidankai. Taking turns sharing stories of the weird, the ghostly, and the supernatural and snuffing a candle after each tale, they would continue long into the night or until, in the growing darkness, someone reached the end of their nerves and called the game off. Candle Game™ updates this old tradition, providing rules for play as well as classic stories of the weird and ghostly for players to tell. As each candle goes out, the shadows and whatever they hide press nearer…do you dare listen to one more story?THE SHEER, FRAIL SPACE BETWEEN THE EVERYDAY AND THE UNCANNYTo the people of Old Japan, the barrier between our world and the world of the ghostly and supernatural was as thin as the paper of a shoji wall, with ghosts and demons and monsters crossing freely and unexpected to torment and terrify the unwary. Near the end of the nineteenth century, author and journalist Lafcadio Hearn accepted an assignment to Japan and found a lifelong home. Fascinated by the disquieting tales he discovered, he collected and translated the most striking and unnerving of them to present to western readers following Japan’s then-recent opening to the rest of the world. Candle Game: ™ Kaidankai contains complete rules for play and features tales gathered from across the works of the legendary Lafcadio Hearn, including the eerie classic stories A Tale of Ingwa,
The Boy Who Drew Cats,
The Reconciliation, and Hoichi the Earless. Included as part of the game, these spooky tales can also be read on their own. But for a lone reader setting out to explore the weird and supernatural world of Old Japan, remember when reading late into the night: in Japanese tradition, the barrier between our world and the next is thinnest in the small hours of the morning…