On Friday, 13 December 2019, we held the 25th Creative Café at the book café “Day & Books” in Yamagata Manabikan.

The theme was “KWAIDAN NIGHT SCHOOL.”

“Kwaidan” is often referred to as any ghost story or horror story, and carries the connotation of Japanese folk tales. For this time, we invited a famous kwaidan writer, Mr. KUROKI Aruji, to talk kwaidan around Yamagata City and look back on the history of our city. It was our first Creative Café event to collaborate with the Literature field. 

Mr. KUROKI Aruji, a Kwaidan writer

He talked kwaidan from his real horror experiences and his unique and renowned activity “Kwaidan Buy and Sell.” At the school festival of his alma mater, the Tohoku University of Arts and Design, he opens a little space to buy and sell kwaidan from students and the visitors to collect various ghost stories.  The stories were not only spine-chilling but also educational in terms of ethnology, and the audiences were all ears as he talked.

The venue: Book Café “Day & Books”

After kwaidan, we had the audiences to share their own horror or mysterious experiences.

Mr. Kuroki said, “Compared to other regions, it is a unique character of Yamagata people that they don’t just fear strange things but accept those as they are.” 

Many people may feel like kwaidan is unrealistic, but it may be happening around us without realizing it.

Mr. Kuroki listening to the audience’s horror experiences. 

After the talk, we divided them into theree to four people in a group for the horror house style night tour of the 3rd floor of Yamagata Manabikan.

Describing the rules.

Mission complete! The video is from “Experience Contemporary Dance, Boost Creativity!” held in June 2019.

According to the survey, audiences say;

“Mr. Kuroki’s talk was really fascinating and I wanted to hear more!”

“It was very fun to discover into the 3rd floor, which usually prohibited to enter in.”

“The event will be better if you could pursuit more scariness!”

We had the wide generations of audiences from elementary students to seniors, and many of them marked “Very satisfied”.  They also wrote that they would love to participate if we held the next edition in summer.

Thank you, everyone, for your participation and support!

Mr. Kuroki Aruji’s books are now available at the event venue, Day & Books. Please enjoy delicious coffee, waffles, and kwaidan!