Japanese Horror: The Story of Mimi-Nashi-Hoichi

     Japanese Horror is a genre of horror I've been interested in, but haven't taken much time to look into. For the week of Japanese Horror, I read 'The Story of Mimi Nashi Hoichi." I found this story to catch my eye quickly because I wanted to know how Hoichi lost his ears (mimi). I personally find stories that involve body dismemberment quite interesting. I consider sight, along with hearing, to be the most powerful senses in terms of fear. Once I found out that Hoichi is a blind man, I knew he'd be placed into a very difficult situation.

     Many questions began to arise when a "man" came to Hoichi's door in the middle of the night to retrieve Hoichi and have him play music for the "lord". Who is this lord? How does this man know of Hoichi? Why does this man want Hoichi specifically? Too many questions arose in such a short time, which made this situation seem much more horrific, despite it seeming to be a completely harmless confrontation. Once Hoichi played for man and his lord, among some other people, I truly believed everything was all right.

     Then my gut sank. Once the Priest revealed that it was not a man that was fetching Hoichi, but rather the dead beckoning unto him, I was left for a loop. The sudden connection of their intentions, which were to eventually tear Hoichi into pieces, as well as the events that hard perspired up to that point left me not only disturbed, but very curious as to what would happen next.

     Knowing this information, I eagerly waited alongside Hoichi for the next knock to come. Once the "man" brought himself to the Hoichi's residence again, I began to feel uncomfortable. Hoichi was familiar with what he was dealing with, but not entirely certain. The priest had covered him in markings to protect him from these evil spirits, which basically made Hoichi invisible to the dead. However, he forgot to cover his ears and once the spirits came into the house, they noticed Hoichi wasn't there but spotted ears that they decided to take, ripping them from Hoichi's head. Their strength as well as their intelligence was truly horrifying to experience.

     What I found interesting about Hoichi's predicament was that, unlike horror in the West, I didn't know exactly what Hoichi was up against until it was almost too late. In many of the Western Horror stories, the threat is almost always clear early on in the story. Introducing the threat later on in the story I find to be much more effective because it leaves room for the story to unfold or reveal very interesting details of the story. Great horror, in my opinion, is much like a puzzle. It's nice to be able to put it together along the way. But, it becomes much more satisfying when a large piece of the puzzle that was once missing is then found and placed to complete the picture. Many Western Horror pieces lack giving their audience the "Oh, so that's what was really happening!" that can make something that seemed entirely mundane seem absolutely terrifying.