Read an Excerpt
"A long time ago, a strange incident occurred in the village of Koga, located in what is now Shiga Prefecture. When night fell in the village, a wooden cart would come out of nowhere, and with a weird creaking noise pass through the village to some unknown destination. "This is a ghost cart, without a doubt," the townspeople agreed. "And they say that anyone who witnesses it passing by will incur some terrible retribution." Thus, when the day came to an end, the doors of everyone's homes were securely locked and people went straight to bed. There was in this village, however, a rather bold housewife who thought to herself, "How can there be retribution for just seeing a ghost? I've a good mind to take a look and see just what kind of ghost rides in a cart."
That night, when everyone was sleeping peacefully, the housewife got up quietly, and opening the front door just a crack, waited for the ghost cart to come by. Outside, a bright moon shone a white light on the road. Before long, the housewife could hear the grating sound of the ghost cart as it approached, and suddenly let out a faint gasp. A single woman with long straight hair and dressed in a white kimono sat in a cart which had only one wheel. Although no one was pulling the cart, it advanced steadily, creaking as it came.
While the housewife had thought that the ghost would have a frightening appearance, this woman was young and beautiful. As the housewife stared at the woman in a trance, the cart came to a standstill right in front of her house. In a panic, the housewife shut the door and crouched down behind it. But then, the woman whispered in a soft thin voice, "So you have dared to look at me, have you? Now go and take a look at the baby you hold so dear."
With a start, the housewife ran to the room where her baby had been sleeping, but there was no sign of the child. "Oh, no!" she cried. "Everyone, please wake up!" The housewife turned pale, and shook her husband awake and everyone else in the house. In a panic, they all ran to the front of the house but the cart was nowhere to be seen. The husband was in tears.
"Look what you've done," he yelled accusingly. But it was too late. The housewife could not just simply give up on the child she loved so much. With tears running down her face, she wrote down her feelings on a piece of paper and posted it on the front door. "The person who did wrong by looking at the cart," it said, ôwas me. The child is guilty of no crime at all. If you will return my baby, I will accept any punishment, no matter how terrible."
The following night, the ghost cart creaked along and stopped in front of the housewife's door. Although she wanted to dash outside, the housewife held herself patiently in check. "If I look upon this woman again," she thought, "my child may be killed outright."
The woman in the ghost cart gazed fixedly at the paper posted on the door, and suddenly spoke with what seemed a very sad demeanor. ôWhat a tender-hearted woman this mother must be. The defeat is mine. Although I had thought that I would never return this child, this time—just this once—I shall do so." The housewife heard this from where she crouched inside the door, and hurried to the child's room, nearly falling over as she ran. And there was the child, sound asleep. "Thank you, thank you." The housewife cried, quietly putting the palms of her hands together as the creaking of the ghost cart could be heard gradually going farther and farther away. After this event, the ghost cart never returned."
— Nishimoto,Keisuki."The Ghost Cart." Strange Tales from Japan: 99 Chilling Stories of Yokai, Ghost, Demons, and the Supernatural. William Scott Wilson. Tuttle Publishing, 2021, pg. 25-26.
