Kwaidan is a collection of Japanese strange stories mostly based on supernatural superstition and Buddhist religious beliefs with a hint of history involved. The stories are fairly simple upon reading but evoke more considerable messages and views.
The first story is about a man called Hoichi the earless because he got involved into a spirit trap; he touched where he wasn't supposed to and the only way for his survival was to turn to a priest.
The second is about a hunter turning priest because he killed a male duck and the female duck came to his dream in a form of a woman and told him that she will kill herself because he killed her husband, and she did.
The third story is about a reunion of a love couple in the form of resurrection. A girl O-Tei dies and promises her lover Nagao that she will come back to him in this life. After many years and having suffered a loss of parents and wife Nagao reunites with the resurrected O-Tei.
The fourth story is about a motherly sacrifice. A milk nurse sacrifices herself for a girl she nursed and loved as her own and a cherry tree gets planted for her sake called Ubazakura.
The fifth story is called Diplomacy and it is about a samurai outsmarting a man he will kill so he wouldn't take revenge on the village in his death.
The next story is about a magical bell that grants a wish for those who ask for help.
The seventh story is Jikininki which means eater of human flesh. A traveling priest stumbles upon a creature like this that was a priest in previous life but got cursed to eat dead human flesh in the next. The traveling priest has a chance to witness the creature in its act.
The next story is called Mujina and it is about faceless people scaring the hell out of passengers.
The ninth story is Rokuro-Kubi and it is about goblins that can detach their heads from their bodies. A priest turned samurai outsmarts the leader and its head becomes attached to his sleeve. He almost gets executed because of it and after being saved by a man familiar with those goblins sells the head to a thief. That thief buries the head where it came from.
The next story is about a woman dying and leaving a secret letter behind so her soul comes to haunt the place where she left it. A priest helps resolve the case and destroy the letter.
The story Yuki-Onna is about a demon lady falling in love with one of her victims and marrying him. When he breaks the promise and tells the story about seeing the demon lady which he doesn't know it's her she becomes angry but can't kill him even though she promised on that day she will. She evaporates and is never seen again.
The story of Aoyagi is a story about a samurai falling in love with a poor girl and marrying her. The girl is actually a soul of a willow tree and when her tree gets cut she dies.
The next story is about a man giving his life for his beloved cherry tree and that tree blooms on the same day every year-on the day that the man died and his soul entered the tree.
The dream of Akinosuke is a story about a man dreaming of being summoned by the king and marrying the king's daughter. It turns out his soul in form of a butterfly left him in a few minutes that he dreamed and entered an ant hole nearby where he lived more than twenty years of ant life.
Riki-Baka is again a story about resurrection. A mentally disabled boy dies and his mother prays that he will be resurrected in a better life which he does.
Hi-Mawari is a story in which the narrator recalls a day from his childhood. He listened to a Harper sing a song about sunflowers and it made him cry. Hi-Mawari means sun turning.
Horai is a story about a heaven-like and pure place that gets corrupted with time by civilization.
The final entries are Insect Studies where the narrator talks about three insects: butterflies, mosquitoes and ants. He discusses their meaning in relation to human life and the usage of their imagery in literature, religion and even science.
