The most well-known work of the Japanese classical author Ueda Akinari is this collection of Tales of Moonlight and Rain. In these tales of the fantastic, as in the stories of Noh theater, we see all kinds of beings from the parallel world of spirits emerging, acting, and disappearing again. A delightful mix of magic, poetry, and reality that expresses the enchanted world of the Japanese of yesteryear, but no less of today.

The nine mystery stories of Ugetsu Monogatari, first published in 1776, are the best and most famous example of occult literature in Japan. They subtly combine the world of everyday life with the realm of the uncanny and are a testament to the fascination that the strange and mysterious exerted then, as well as now, on the Japanese soul. They also served as the inspiration for Kenji Mizoguchi's excellent eponymous film in 1953.

The title "Ugetsu Monogatari," which can be rendered as "Tales of Moonlight and Rain," also echoes the idea that mysterious beings appear on cloudy, rainy nights and mornings when the moon still hangs in the sky. Demons, ghosts, strange dreams, things beyond the world of reason fill all the stories.

The eerie beauty of this timeless masterpiece is complemented by its charm as a literary work, which largely stems from the masterful combination of Chinese prose with the prose of Japanese classical literature, as crystallized in masterpieces like "The Tale of Genji."