Japanese literature is well known for its unusual, disturbing, or downright scary stories, and Kyusaku Yumeno––a classic author whose name means “the eccentric dreamer”––personifies these dark elements. The Spirit Drum, Yumeno’s debut work that gained him fame in the eye of the public, is the fateful tale of how a seemingly harmless musical instrument manages to bring ruin to a pair of families over several generations, a ruthless form of revenge for an ancient wrongdoing. Influenced by Noh theater, the oldest form of traditional Japanese drama still performed in the modern day, The Spirit Drum is a memorable work of early 20th century Japanese literature, resplendent with that era’s culture and rich with an otherworldly atmosphere.
Author
Yumeno Kyūsaku (native name: 夢野 久作) was the pen name of the early Shōwa period Japanese author Sugiyama Yasumichi. The pen name literally means "a person who always dreams." He wrote detective novels and is known for his avant-gardism and his surrealistic, wildly imaginative and fantastic, even bizarre narratives. Kyūsaku’s first success was a nursery tale Shiraga Kozō (White Hair Boy, 1922), which was largely ignored by the public. It was not until his first novella, Ayakashi no Tsuzumi (Apparitional Hand Drum, 1924) in the literary magazine Shinseinen that his name became known. His subsequent works include Binzume jigoku (Hell in the Bottles, 1928), Kori no hate (End of the Ice, 1933) and his most significant novel Dogra Magra (ドグラマグラ, 1935), which is considered a precursor of modern Japanese science fiction and was adapted for a 1988 movie. Kyūsaku died of a cerebral hemorrhage in 1936 while talking with a visitor at home.
