SOURCE: Zolbrod, Leon M. “A Comparative Approach to Tales of Moonlight and Rain.” Humanities Association Bulletin 21, no. 2 (spring 1970): 48-56.

In the following essay, Zolbrod explains the complex relationship between Tales of Moonlight and Rain and the Chinese and Japanese sources of the collection.

Tales of Moonlight and Rain (Ugetsu monogatari) is a collection of nine Japanese stories of the supernatural. Although the preface dates from 1768, the book was not published until 1776 in Kyoto and Osaka, and the author, Ueda Akinari (1734-1809), probably completed it shortly before this time. Japanese scholars classify Moonlight and Rain under a category of narrative prose known as yomihon, or “reading books.” These yomihon,¹ which were written in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, may be thought of as historical novels or tales, remotely reminiscent of the Gothic romances. They were usually based on actual events and typically included supernatural happenings. Ancient Japanese history, medieval...