Overview

In the fog-shrouded shadow of Amidaji Temple, blind biwa master Hōichi survives on thin rice and pity. His four-stringed lute draws memories from the air, reciting the Tale of the Heike with such fidelity that temple cats freeze and pilgrims feel winter breathe from centuries past. But the true audience waits beyond the living world. The ghosts of Dan-no-ura-warriors, court ladies, the child-emperor Antoku-perished in 1185's final slaughter, refusing to fade. Their restless onryō hunger for voices to revive their eternal lament. Night after night, a spectral samurai summons Hōichi to an invisible pavilion where thousands of waterlogged figures listen in rapt, possessive silence. His performances resurrect every agony: arrows darkening the sky, Lady Nii-no-ama's plunge with the sacred child, the strait turning crimson. Praise rains down-cold coins, damp silk, icy touches-but each dawn he returns paler, thinner, marked by faint Heike crests etched into his flesh. Temple priest Myōgen witnesses the decline: salt trails, seawater dripping from the biwa, Hōichi conversing with empty air at the cliff's edge. Learning the truth, he orders the Heart Sutra inscribed across Hōichi's naked body in black ink, rendering him invisible to the dead. Every inch is covered-scalp to soles-except, fatally, his ears. The enraged spirits return, searching, sniffing holy words. They discover the uncovered lobes. In a burst of visceral horror, iron fingers clamp and tear both ears free in wet, ripping snaps. Blood sprays, soaking sacred characters into illegible smears. The barrier fractures; the ghosts flood inward, whispering directly into the raw voids. Hōichi lives, but the mutilation perfects possession. The Heike now dwell inside his skull: warriors growl orders, women sob, the child wails endlessly. His blood-crusted biwa plays itself, summoning onibi flames and a vengeful Lady of the Crimson Sleeves who claims him as her eternal performer. Nightmares of drowning bleed into waking life; the strait murmurs in his bones. This expanded reimaining of the classic Mimi-nashi Hōichi legend fuses Japanese folklore with intense psychological and body horror. Art invites damnation, hearing becomes a curse, and silence the cruelest prison. The drowned still wait-for the next perfect voice.

Full Product Details

9798248346462

Table of Contents

Reviews

Author Information

Tab Content 6

Countries Available