La decostruzione dell’horror in Shinshaku Yotsuya kaidan

Tsuruya Nanboku IV’s Tōkaidō Yotsuya kaidan (1824), remains the most celebrated ghost story in Japanese tradition. Since 1910, it has inspired over thirty cinematic adaptations, though many pre-war versions are now lost. Among the surviving films, Kinoshita Keisuke’s Shinshaku Yotsuya kaidan (1949) stands out for its radical departure from the source material’s supernatural roots. Produced a decade before the golden age of Japanese horror, Kinoshita’s version deliberately strips the narrative of its terrifying and grotesque elements. This paper explores the motivations behind Kinoshita’s "de-horrification" of the myth. By adopting a modernist and psychoanalytic lens, the director transforms the vengeful ghost of Oiwa into a product of Iemon’s guilt-ridden psyche. The supernatural is replaced by a rationalized melodrama focused on human passions, greed, and social order. In this version, "evil" is anthropomorphized and eventually suppressed by social discipline. The analysis considers how the studio system, US occupation censorship, and casting choices influenced this stylistic shift. Furthermore, it examines Kinoshita’s auteur sensitivity, which reshaped the protagonists into archetypes consistent with his filmography. The study concludes that while the film’s rationalism and departure from pre-modern irrationality may have limited its commercial success as a kaidan, it serves as a crucial cultural document. Just as Nanboku’s original play reflected the disillusionment of the Edo period, Kinoshita’s "new interpretation" reflects the profound societal transformations of post-war Japan.