Ten Candles: Tales of Japanese Horror

Ten strangers. Ten stories. Ten candles, going out one by one. In a Kyoto townhouse on a Saturday night in November, ten people who do not know each other gather to play an Edo-period game called Hyakumonogatari Kaidankai - the gathering of ghost stories. The rules are simple. Each guest tells one story. Each extinguishes a candle when they finish. The room grows darker as the night goes on. By the third candle, they realise nobody can remember inviting the tenth guest. By the seventh, they realise something is in the house with them. By the ninth, they realise the rules of the game are not a metaphor. Ten Candles is a contemporary collection of Japanese kaidan - framed as a single haunted evening, told in ten voices, each ending in the soft sound of a flame being pinched between finger and thumb. For readers of Junji Itō, Kōji Suzuki, and the films of Kiyoshi Kurosawa. Begin at dusk. End before dawn. Do not leave the house until the sun has fully risen.