Spirits surround us in this new illuminated edition of Japanese ghost stories and strange tales, as collected and translated by the Irish author Lafcadio Hearn and depicted by the majestic brushwork of Kent Williams. Brimming with over sixty illustrations, and featuring essays from Academy Award-winning filmmaker Darren Aronofsky, scholar Kyoko Yoshida and Hearn’s great-grandson and director of the Lafcadio Hearn Museum Bon Koizumi, this oversized slipcase volume enraptures the imagination as it chills the blood.

Drawn from Hearn’s two most celebrated books, KWAIDAN and SHADOWINGS, this new title constitutes a complete compendium of the otherworldly and macabre folk tales that Hearn collected and translated during his travels through Japan in the late 19th century. The edition is housed in a shimmering die-cut sculpturally embossed slipcase, printed on uncoated acid-free paper, and published in an oversized 9x12 trim format.

Kent Williams is an accomplished and multiple award-wining painter, comics artist, and draftsman, known for his richly textured and expressionist paintings. His illustrations sweep worlds of spirits across the page in an unsettling vibrant tumble. Corpse brides; flesh-eating jikininki goblins; the faceless mujina who haunt forgotten places; the rokuro-kubi, who remove their heads at night: all brought to life as never before under Williams’ visionary brush. A stunning and startling new entry in Beehive Books celebrated, award-winning Illuminated Editions series.