Ghost story traditions of Japan and India : Survival in the Modern Age

A common phenomenon that links Japan and India is the inexhaustible collection of ghost stories.
Both the countries have a rich heritage of supernatural stories, with animistic worship dating from
ancient times the most likely explanation. It is not the sheer number alone, but the relevance they
have in the present society that is even more astounding.

In case of Japan, ghosts, spirits and the like, dating way beyond thousand years, still find a prominent
spot in Manga, Movies and Animation, where they appear not just in historical pieces, but very much
in modern day cities and schools even. Also, there have been critically acclaimed anime pieces like
‘Mononoke Hime’ that have very tastefully posed the looming problem of environmental
destruction, where there are appearances of kami in the form of a giant boar, wolf etc. Though there
is a divide between the human world and the spirit world, the Japanese ghost story tradition poses
many meeting grounds of the two worlds, be it in stories dating all the way back to Genji
Monogatari, and Noh dramas to present day films like ‘Memories’ by Katsuhiro Otomo. Also, olden
day Japanese folktales with apparitions like ‘Nopperabo’ have been remade into modern day amines
like ‘Ponpoko’.

In India, ghost stories have not clutched the mainstream film industry as much as Japan. But
folktales and legends of supernatural beings, still abound. Tales of female spirits that protect sacred
groves, ghosts that morph into snakes and ghouls inhabiting abandoned houses and graveyards are
quite common. Authors like Ruskin Bond, have even put the ghost stories in a historical context and
produced works like “Ghost Stories of the Raj”. This can be compared to the numerous ghost tales
revolving around the clash between the Taira and Heike Clans. The link between Japanese and Indian
ghost stories can be traced all the way back to the connecting bridge of Buddhism, a religion that
believed in afterlife too.

What has inspired interest in me, is the relevance that ghost story traditions hold in the scientific
modern age. How do scientifically rational and technologically advanced people of Japan still savour
ghost stories, and that too the ones modified to suit the modern-day scenario? I would like to search
deeper and find answers that link it to probable answers like reverence for ancestors, attempts to
preserve nature or the never-ending thrill for the unknown. And through my studies, I wish to
uncover the layers added to ghost stories over the years going through the chronological order of
Ancient Shintoism-Buddhism-Sengokujidai-Post 2nd world war Japan-Futuristic ghost stories. I would
also like to know the reason why Indian ghost story tradition has not yet fully taken on the modern
approach like Japan, and explore the few experimental movies and books that did. Manga and
Anime seem to be the differentiating factor from my current viewpoint though it can be proved
wrong later.