A Passional Karma

One of the never-failing attractions of the Tokyo stage is the
performance, by the famous Kikugoro and his company, of the
Botan-Doro, or "Peony-Lantern." This weird play, of which the
scenes are laid in the middle of the last century, is the
dramatization of a romance by the novelist Encho, written in
colloquial Japanese, and purely Japanese in local color, though
inspired by a Chinese tale. I went to see the play; and Kikugoro
made me familiar with a new variety of the pleasure of fear.
"Why not give English readers the ghostly part of the story?"--
asked a friend who guides me betimes through the mazes of Eastern
philosophy. "It would serve to explain some popular ideas of the
supernatural which Western people know very little about. And I
could help you with the translation."

I gladly accepted the suggestion; and we composed the following
summary of the more extraordinary portion of Encho's romance.
Here and there we found it necessary to condense the original
narrative; and we tried to keep close to the text only in the
conversational passages,--some of which happen to possess a
particular quality of psychological interest.

***

--This is the story of the Ghosts in the Romance of the Peony-
Lantern:--

I