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October 31, 2009
The Knox College Japanese Club marked Halloween 2009 by building a "Kimodameshi" in Seymour Union. Loosely translated as a "test of courage," it leads visitors through a series of rooms with grotesque scenes drawn from ancient Japanese ghost stories, as well as some images from contemporary Japanese popular culture.
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There are haunters about here -- many of them...
Members of the Japanese Club plan the building of the kimodameshi. |
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Protect your body by writing holy texts upon it...
A student in costume and makeup works on construction. |
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The shadow of the woman turned toward him...
A student hangs black plastic screening. |
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On a haunted shore... Heike crabs are said to be the spirits of [dead] warriors... they have human faces on their backs...
A student inspects a paper head in one of the Kimodameshi scenes |
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In former years, the Heike would watch for swimmers, to pull them down...
Kate Tanquary (right) shreds black plastic for a curtain. Tanquary and Yumi Kusonoki, co-presidents of the Japanese Club, designed the kimodameshi. The quotes above are drawn from Kwaidan, by Lafcadio Hearn, a writer noted for his translations of traditional Japanese horror stories. Tanquary, a senior from Portland, Oregon, who has studied at a program Knox offers at Waseda University in Tokyo, is doing a senior research project on Lafcadio Hearn. |
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