Yotsuya Kaidan - Film Adaptations

Film Adaptations

The first film adaptation was made in 1912, and it was filmed some 18 times between 1913 and 1937. A notable adaptation was Shimpan Yotsuya Kaidan by Itō Daisuke, one of the foremost Japanese directors of his time. A 1949 adaptation, Yotsuya Kaidan I & II, by Kinoshita Keisuke removed the ghostly elements and presented Oiwa as an apparition of her husband's guilty psyche. The Shintōhō studio produced several versions, including Yotsuya Kaidan (四谷怪談 Yotsuya Kaidan), a 1956 black and white film by Masaki Mōri, and Nobuo Nakagawa's 1959 Tokaido Yotsuya kaidan, which is often considered the finest screen adaptation of the story.

Toho produced a version in 1966 directed by Shirō Toyoda and starring Tatsuya Nakadai that was released as Illusion of Blood abroad. In 1994, Kinji Fukasaku returned to the Kabuki roots and combined the stories of Chūshingura and Yotsuya Kaidan into the single Crest of Betrayal.

There have also been adaptations on television. Story 1 of the j-drama Kaidan Hyaku Shosetsu was a version of Yotsuya Kaidan, and episodes 1-4 of Ayakashi: Samurai Horror Tales, a 2006 anime TV series, were also a retelling of the story.

By tradition, production crews adapting the story for film or stage visit Oiwa's gravesite in Myogyoji Temple in Sugamo, Toshima-ku, Tokyo to pay their respects, as an urban legend states that injuries and fatalities will befall the cast if they do not.