SOURCE: Washburn, Dennis. “Ghostwriters and Literary Haunts: Subordinating Ethics to Art in Ugetsu Monogatari.” Monumenta Nipponica 45, no. 1 (spring 1990): 39-74.

In the following essay, Washburn contends that in Tales of Moonlight and Rain Akinari achieves a delicate balance between artistic considerations and elements of the supernatural.

The collection of tales Ugetsu Monogatari (Tales of Rain and Moon), written by Ueda Akinari, 1734-1809, has been an acknowledged classic of Japanese literature almost from the time of its publication in 1776. The work has been praised for the beauty of its prose style, the careful way in which ethical or aesthetic arguments are woven into the stories, and the sophistication of the narrative perspectives. There is throughout a pleasing tension between the apparent controlling artistic consciousness and the supernatural subject matter. Indeed, the achievement of Ugetsu Monogatari rests not on any single aspect of the work, but rather on that tension—the...