Ugetsu Monogatari, or Tales of Moonlight and Rain numbers among the best-loved Japanese classics. These nine illustrated tales of the supernatural from eighteenth-century Osaka combine popular appeal with a high literary standard. The author expressed his complex views on human life and society in simple yet poetic language. Akinari questioned the prevailing moral values and standards of his age whilst entertaining his readers with mystery and other-worldly occurrences. This is a reissue of Leon Zolbrod’s definitive English translation of the work, first published in 1974.

Translated by: Leon Zolbrod