In this project, I researched the storytelling structure of Japanese horror and also re searched Japanese culture. I also analyzed how the two religions Shinto and Buddhism affect Japanese culture along with doing an analysis of The Ring and the film's roots in Japanese folklore. For the LA portion I wrote a horror short story placed in Japan, and I tried to include Japanese cultural traits along with using the storytelling structure found in Japanese Horror. For the art portion I decided to study the works of Junji Ito and try and replicate his manga ink drawings through a digital medium.
Thinking Skill - Contextualization
History: For social studies I researched the cultural traits of Japan along with the religions Shinto and Buddhism. I applied what I learned about Japanese culture to my story, and did an analysis of how Shinto and Buddhism impacted Japanese culture. I also researched The Ring and did an analysis on how it relates to Japanese folklore. This was done to help me understand the context behind the movie.
LA: I wrote a horror short story using the storytelling structure found in Japanese Horror because it was new for me, and I also researched Japanese culture and tried to apply their values and customs to my story. This relates to context because I made my story using the writing structure found in Japan and applied what I learned about their cultural traits to my writings. Art: For the art portion I took a look at Junji Ito’s style of drawing and inking and applied it to draw digitally. I depicted two scenes from the horror short story I have been writing and I tried to stylize it as if it were a panel in a manga, so I also looked at the composition of the speech bubbles in relation to the actual image. This goes with contextualization because it relates both to the writings in the story and the medium in which the artist does his works.
Language Arts
Horror Short Story
The town sat peacefully under the golden rays of the sun. Albeit small in size in comparison to the larger more crowded cities, the town certainly didn’t lack life. It was wont to the occasional car or bike that rolled through, but many people simply walked to their destination. Beneath the roof of one of the spacious houses sat a young girl reading a most peculiar book.
A loud bang came from the front door causing Akemi to look up. “Would you mind helping me with this?” her older brother called out. Akemi closed the book quickly hopping up to open the door. “Hifumi, it’s great to see you back, but what’s with the stuff?” Akemi noted the box with the miscellaneous items her brother was attempting to balance atop it. “Oh just things from my dorm,” he kicked off his shoes before swiftly fitting into slippers taking the box into his room.
“So what’s that?” Hifumi nodded to the white book that Akemi held. “It’s something I found a few days ago,” she flipped through the pages, “it appears to be a collection of horror short stories, but there isn’t a title or an author’s name, and it doesn’t look or read like any book I know.”
Hifumi tapped his finger on his knee, “maybe I would know?” “Go ahead,” Akemi handed it over. The cover felt sleek to the touch. Silence fell over the room with the only sounds coming from the turning of pages. His brows furrow and he drops the book.
“What? What is it?” Akemi asks out of curiosity and concern. “You know Sakamoto right?” he glanced at the book and up at Akemi. “Yeah, he’s your college friend right?” He nodded, “He disappeared a week ago just like the character in this story.” Hifumi stared at Akemi and silence returned to the room. She recalled that the main character’s name in the first story was indeed Sakamoto. “It could just be a coincidence,” Akemi suggested, “and even still, that would mean that he was actually killed.”
“No, he was written just like the Sakamoto I know, his personality in the story was spot on,” Hifumi reached for the book and flipped through, “These pages are still blank.” “Yeah I noticed that too. Maybe it’s unfinished, but the words are printed on,” Akemi watched as her brother dragged his fingers over the blank page.
“Akemi, I suggest you get rid of this, this is just… weird,” Hifumi closed the book and gave it back to his sister, “I need to go clear my mind.”
Akemi sat on her bed intently staring down the book before her, All of the short stories ended in a character’s life being ruined by some supernatural being, but maybe, just maybe, Sakamoto’s reaction to the book left her mind racing with questions. No, I need to get some rest, she picked the book up and put it on the top of her desk before climbing into bed. Sleep did not come easy.
“Have a good day at school,” Hifumi waved to his sister who returned the gesture. “You too,” Akemi changed from slippers to shoes then stepped outside. The morning was cool with mist blocking out the sun and settling on the streets laid out before her. The road was still wet with rain from the night prior. The air nipped at Akemi’s legs just beneath the plaid blue skirt of her uniform, and even with her blazer on, she felt shivers go down her spine.
--- (Later in the story) ---
“So you wanted to meet here?” “The book! It has another chapter,” Akemi turned it around to show Hifumi. “What? I told you to get rid of that!” Hifumi reached for the book. “Hey, stop!” Akemi’s grip tightened, but Hifumi was able to pry it out of her hands and throw it over the rail. “Hifumi!” Akemi watched as the book started to sink underwater. “Why do you want to keep it? It’s nothing but trouble!” Hifumi‘s tone became edgy. “The words appeared before it happened,” Akemi paused, “I saw her…”
“Oh…” his voice softened as he watched Akemi’s sullen face, “Oh… Um, my break is almost over, but we can talk about it afterwards.” Akemi nodded in response.
Story Ideas
Below are my ideas for the story. Some were either not implemented or were scrapped.
Antagonist (where they come from, what they are, and why they are doing things don’t have to be fully explained - it may be best to shroud them in mystery):
Akemi is a high school student who loves to read books
She finds an old book without a title or author, and begins to read it out of curiosity
Book Features:
white hardcover
Chapters are split up as ‘days’ so chapter 1 = day 1
The story told is a horror story (and the events occuring in the story happen outside in the real world)
The book is split up evenly THE PAST, NOW, and THE FUTURE.
Akemi finds out that as things happen in the real world, more words appear seemingly “documenting” the things happening around her
Akemi has a surge of bad things happening to her
Online with western friends and one says, “this truly is a bruh moment.”
Akemi attempts to rid the book by throwing it away and later burning it, but it always comes back.
Hifumi has a job near a bridge over a large running river, and Akemi had texted him to meet her while he was on his break.
Add a character where everytime they speak they are eating something
Questions that can be left unanswered:
Does the book parallel the world, or does the world parallel the book?
Where did the book come from?
Who or what wrote / continues to write the book and responds to the sticky notes?
The book is causing pain to the main characters without regard of their suffering, and the characters can talk to the book via sticky notes on the pages of it. The book is intent on finishing the horror story. (? maybe a bit too related to seventybroad ← an online arg)
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Act 1: Hifumi, Akemi’s older brother comes back from college and notices Akemi’s book. She confesses that she found it somewhere a few days prior and tells him that she doesn’t know the author or title, but read it and concluded that it is a collection of short horror stories. Hifumi reads it to see if he knows, and realizes that the first story is about his friend who disappeared a week before.
Act 2: Akemi goes to school like normal and notices the girl Daitan leave the classroom rather anxiously. Out of curiosity, she looks at the black book that she brought to school and finds an entirely new chapter. After skimming over it, it appears that (Daitan dies in a certain way). Akemi excuses herself from the classroom and goes to the bathroom to check if it really is true. Upon entering she witnesses the death in full. She alerts the professors who then alert the police which closes down the school. Akemi texts her brother to meet her on his lunch break. The two meet and then discuss it.
Act 3: [Twist here]
Act 4: (Unfinished)
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Other Possibility (This seems way more sad than scary)
Act 1: Weird book was found, documents deaths of people as if it happened
Act 2: She sees the books writing her brother’s death, but Akemi is able to get there quickly and save him earning the title of a hero.
“Akemi gave a small smile as she put the pencil away. She closed the book and held it tight. A cool breeze
Act 3 (Twist): Akemi stands alone at a curb clutching the book as people walk by faceless like ghosts. It is revealed that she wrote the stories of her closest friends and families having been killed by folklore creatures in order to cope with their real life death. She feels detached from the world and believes she belongs nowhere with her closest friends and family members gone.
Act 4 (Reconcile new information somehow)
Structure of Japanese Horror
Rather than having a character be driven by goals and subgoals like that of Western storytelling, Japanese storytelling differs by having the story be carried along by actions and reactions that lead to a resolution that is significant to the themes of the story. Japanese stories make use of casualties rather than conflicts (Barrett). In simple action-and-reaction, the character acts and the universe’s reactions drive the plot along to the conclusion regardless of whether or not it’s related to the character’s goals. In complex action-and-reaction, the goals of the character come into play, but rather than the protagonist’s goals driving the story, it’s those of the antagonist. The “bad” character has goals that conflict directly with the main protagonist which then lead the story to its end (Barrett). Japanese stories end with events and/or emphasis on a lesson while Western stories end with a resolution. Some Japanese stories don’t need a resolution and can end the story with plot events or an emphasis on the story’s themes (Barrett). Relatability is used a lot in Japanese horror stories with the characters usually being high school/college students that want to lead a normal life. They usually don’t do anything to put events into motion, moreso things just happen around them putting them into peril (Barrett). Kishōtenketsu is a common way of structuring stories, poems, and even arguments used in Japan. It has four acts: introduction, development, twist, and resolution. Act one introduces the characters, setting, etc. and act two elaborates on this information, then in act three introduces a twist that changes how one initially perceived the information. Then in act four, the information learned in acts one and two are reconciled with the information learned in act three (Barrett). Japanese horror is less on gore and shock-value, and is moreso on the buildup of tension and story pacing. Usually the antagonist is not killed, and things are left ambiguous, and aren’t readily explained (Pruett).
Old Story Ideas
During first week of the project I had worked on an idea for a story that was completely different to what I finished with. I worked a lot on building and explaining the setting and characters, but I found that the story I had wanted to write seemed very Western in influence still, so I decided to scrap it completely and move to something else. This change actually put a lot of stress on me, but I feel the newer story is closer to how a Japanese horror story would be structured. For background information, my original plan was to write an interactive story using Twine 2, but that turned out to be too big in size, so I scrapped that part as well. In the old story ideas I was going to have a town full of anthropomorphic animals that acted as a gateway to the spirit world.
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Town Geography
The town is enclosed by a large forest always covered in thick fog. Nobody knows how far it extends, and those who travel into it never return. Some say it goes on forever and forever. The town is unique as every night a thick fog covers the streets allowing the ‘Forces of the Mist’ to roam. The fog lasts for nine hours, appearing at 9 PM and clearing at 6 AM.(until strange things start to happen and the fog appears in the daytime much earlier than what is expected - every time it appears it lasts for four hours). To the East of the town, there is a hill covered in lilac trees which acts as a place of solace and comfort for animals to go. They start disappearing as the town gets suspicious of each other. By the time the player character arrives, there are only a few trees spotting the hills. (They’re a metaphor for the townsfolk mental state and wellbeing) On the west side, there is a river that stretches from the forest into a small lake.
The Vote
The animals must stay ‘hopeful and cheery’, and every three days, there is a vote in the town to decide which member of the community has the lowest morale and the most skeptical attitude. The member with the most votes will be hunted by the Forces of the Mist and killed. If the animals don’t participate in the vote, then they will be hunted as well. Because of this, the members put up facades of politeness and cheer in order to avoid being voted and it breeds mistrust between the town and they stay ignorant and fearful.
The Mist
The Mist always covers the forests and lays in the streets of the town at night. Not much is known about it.
Forces of the Mist
They are twisted animals that appear once the mist lays in the streets of the town. While their main goal is to kill the member of the town that is voted, they will not hesitate to kill anyone that gets in their way. Theory has it that they used to be the animals that stayed out in the fog for too long.
Story Plotline
Act 1:
The player character wakes up on a hill and then meets with the fox, Takumi. He explains why he is up there and suggests to the player to follow him into the town.
The player character is introduced to the fox’s roommate, a white wolf named Harlow Bertram
They speak a little bit about the town (fox is a little suspicious - told subtly in the story) and eat dinner together.
It gets late and they decide to sleep for the night. The fox suggests to the player character to meet the other members of the town in the morning - the fox tells PC to meet with the stork (he organizes everyone’s jobs)
Act 2:
Morning comes and both the wolf and the fox are gone, so the player character leaves the house to be met with a town full of anthropomorphic animals.
Player character finds stork’s house and meets with him as he comes out of his house. They get introduced and he offers a list of a few odd jobs (player can go through them in any order - new option is unlocked to check the list)
List odd jobs and who is met (crow, deer, and rabbit) - each holds a lesson of sorts related to the animal’s personality and significance in symbolism
As PC runs around doing these jobs they are approached by antagonist character that asks to talk after the jobs are done (PC may decide to talk with them or just go home.
Act 3 Ideas:
Fog starts to settle in earlier than before
Player character gets stuck in the fog and Harlow pushes them quickly ushering them into the house
Fox - Takumi Nagai
Animal Symbolism: A messenger of the gods (Inari Okami - god/goddess of rice and fertility); magical, cunning, intelligent, a sign of good fortune.
Reason for being in town: Although he lives in the Northern Japan, he had come down to Harlow’s house to live there for a few weeks as he helps his ___ with _____. (I was going to have him help a friend move in somewhere)
Personality: He is cunning and tricky (like many foxes) and is always very kind and oddly likable.
Wolf - Harlow Bertram
Animal Symbolism: A messenger of the gods (kami), known as a protector (this is partially a reason to why he doesn’t get voted off)
Reason for being in town: He was from Europe, but his drinking and smoking habits caused the landlord to kick him out of his residency because he was bothering others and didn’t pay his taxes. His sister (who is more closely accustomed to Japanese tradition) refused to let him live in her house, and told him that she would pay for him to go to Japan to become a better person. Since it was either that or live out on the streets, Harlow begrudgingly agreed to be sent to Japan. The house he lives in was from his mother that he and his sister had inherited.
Personality: He is very cynical at times, and likes to give off a very standoffish and rude guise. Under that false pretense however, he is a rather humble and kind person. Because of his guise, he does find it very awkward to be kind, but he will stand up for those he cares about without a thought. He has his own idea of morals, but they are very strong and he isn’t afraid to defend his actions, and may end up cracking a joke or laughing at one in a seemingly inappropriate time.
(Protagonist name) is on their way back from school when a thick mist covers the town. Things get strange from there as the people she encounters aren’t quite human.
Ideas for Gameplay:
Dissuade player of discovering what is happening (maybe it’s best not to know)
Player cannot fight back, they can only deal with the situation they have found themselves in (if they try to, it may end poorly for them)
Self preservation is important, and helping others may not be the best idea
Metaphorical monster
Maybe something gameplay related that is repetitive can be twisted into something terrible
Antagonist - (I didn't even name them):
Motives: They want to remove the “bad” side of everyone in the town; purify everybody. His intention is for everyone to face their evil and cleanse it, but things go awry, and he realizes what he put everyone through too late.
*Spoilers for Honored Ancestors by Junji Ito* | Analysis of Complex Action-Reaction & Kishōtenketsu
In order to better understand the structure of Japanese horror, I read the book, "Shiver" by Junji Ito which includes nine of his short stories. I decided to analyze the structure of the short story, Honored Ancestors.
-- Act 1: The reader is introduced to Shuichi and Risa, and it is learned that Risa lost her memory. She is taken to an expert and it learned that it might have been some psychological shock that caused the memory loss.
Act 2: Risa has an illusion of a giant caterpillar, and she thinks she is going insane. Shuichi reintroduces himself and offers for her to go over to his house. He tells Risa that his dad is ill, so her coming over won’t matter, but his dad wakes up and greets Risa. He lays on the ground and doesn’t show the top of his head during their interaction. It is learned that Risa had agreed to marry Shuichi, but she doesn’t remember because of her memory loss.
Act 3: Shuichi finds Risa and tells her to come over to his house because of an emergency, and his dad needs to see her. Risa then sees Shuichi’s dad and the heads that are layered atop of his. She then starts to remember things like that she lost her memory upon seeing Shuichi’s dad like this, and it is what caused the nightmare of the giant caterpillar.
Act 4: It is explained why they did it, and Shuichi tells her that she needs to give birth to a child of his blood. Risa doesn’t want to, and attempts to flee, but the house is locked. Shuichi becomes ‘part of the assembly’ and chases after Risa. Risa then loses her memory again and then the story ends.
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Rather than giving detailed backstories and motives for the characters, they just end up in a situation that they must rationalize and react to. The antagonists’ motives of having the ancestors continue to live off of their children, in this case Shuichi, is the driving motive with Risa and Shuichi’s reactions to each other’s actions drives the plot forward rather than a goal of the protagonist that comes with challenges to overcome. There also isn’t really a protagonist, rather than a person that the reader just follows and understands the world through.
Social Studies
Japanese Cultural Traits
Strict discipline is a big trait in Japanese culture. One example of this is the Japanese writing system where it takes lots of effort and training to learn it. The Japanese written language is very difficult to learn and requires discipline in order to master it. Another example is a tea ceremony that lasts for two and a half to three hours long and is a form of self-discipline based off of the concepts of Zen. There is a stress and value of education; success used to be based on birth but now it is based on the level of education. Japanese culture is very focused on working in groups rather than individually, and their belief is that success comes from the group, not one specific person. Praise or blame should befall on the group, and one of the worst things to happen is to be blamed individually for something. An example is the training of musicians in groups known as the Suzuki Method. In Japan, having space is a luxury because there is so little of it. Japan is built for the efficiency space while America is built for the efficiency of time. Due to Japan’s overcrowding, it is sometimes impossible to get physical privacy, so they get psychological privacy instead. In crowds people tend to get privacy by ignoring others. In houses because rooms are usually very small with walls of paper screens, sound tends to jump around, so they learn very early on to ignore what is happening in the other rooms until they are invited in. There is also a love for being anonymous: Japanese people like to “lose” themselves in a crowd. In Japanese culture, the areas of life are separated from each other, for example the business and social life are both in one compartment while the family is another one.
Another aspect of Japanese culture is to not show your emotions and keep them to yourself when out in public. To some westerners it comes off as unemotional or unfeeling, but the Japanese just usually don’t show their feelings in public. In theory, the father is in charge of the Japanese family, but usually it’s the wife who runs the family, but they never say they do.
Deriving from Shinto, a cultural trait of Japan is the love of nature. Shinto teaches that nature is divine, so the Japanese love gardening and many times the things in the gardens were put there by humans, but their object is to make it look as if it were natural. The Japanese are known for cleanliness, and in Japan there is no litter around the streets even in the absence of trash cans. Tensions caused by Japanese life comes from the discipline, strict social codes, learning the written language, lots of overcrowding, and not showing emotion in public. Releases of tension in Japan include taking long, hot “baths, western music and dances, the Bunraku puppet theater, Shinto festivals (includes shouting, laughing, and screaming, all of which usually aren’t shown in public), ignoring what is not meant to be seen, and turning life into art through origami, bonsai, ikebana, or chanoyu (a tea ceremony).
Shinto and Buddhism's Impact on Japanese Culture
Shinto is believed to have originated from Japan, born from a primitive kind of religion that worshipped nature. In ancient Japan, they honored spirits that they believed manifested as rocks, trees, mountains, and rivers. Shrines were built as communities grew and formed centers of culture and regional life. When Buddhism was introduced, it brought carved figures that affected Shinto imagery, and as the two became closer intertwined, Shinto shrines and deities were combined with Buddhist figures and temples (Tamashige). Japanese beliefs are very closely entwined to Shinto and Buddhism alike, so both traditions have aspects that are visible in everyday custom, and both affect perceptions of death and horror (Avino). Things like purity and harmony with nature seem to come from Shinto. Shinto doesn’t strictly follow a holy scripture, and is also more of a way of life; to live in harmony with nature and be respectful and grateful of all the spirits of life (Tamashige). In the ancient texts; the Kojiki and Nihongi, there are descriptions of two ‘other worlds’ where someone may go once they die. Both are considered close to the living world and the souls of the dead can visit the world of the living and interact with them (Avino). Buddhism came to Japan through China and Korea in the 6th century, and caused few conflicts with Shinto later allowing the two to coexist. Buddhism brought many other aspects culture from the Asian mainland to Japan. It came to Japan from China in the form of Mahayana, but later newer forms of Buddhism were created such as Tendai, Shingon, Jodo, Jodo-Shinshu, Nichiren, Zenthe, and the most popular form, Zen (“Shinto and Buddhism in Japan.”).
The Ring and Japanese Folklore
In Japanese myths, there are two forms of otherworldly creatures: youkai and yuurei. Yuurei are ghosts or spirits that have been stranded in the physical world due to unfinished business or because they died in an extreme emotional state. Usually they have one purpose or mission and are often malicious. It is said that someone that has become a ghost forgets their past life and focuses only on what is preventing them from resting. The concept behind Yuurei is the idea that emotions are strong enough to let someone live beyond the grave (Pruett). In the horror film The Ring ( リング Ringu), the main antagonist is Sadako, the ghost of a young woman with long black hair covering her face and pale white skin (Gwen) Shinto abhors any form of pollution, such as blood and excreta, however the corpse is the most ritually polluting object in nature. This fear of impurity of a corpse is what led to the look of the Yuurei. Because Yuurei look like animated corpses, it represents the Shinto belief of corpses as impure or polluting. Sadako, is usually seen soaking wet in a white dress, and because water and the color white are considered pure, this in tandem with the corpse is all the scarier for Japanese audiences (Avino). The story of Ringu also takes inspiration from the old Japanese folktale, Okiku and the Nine Plates. In both stories, the yuurei come back due to the bad things caused to them before they died and their ghosts seek vengeance (Gwen).
Art
About the Art
Originally I had wanted to create two works using the manga style of Junji Ito and try to create something horror related, but I waited too long to get most of my story in before I started in on the art. The final piece is a recreation of an image I found in Japan by using Google Earth. It is stylized as if inked with the kind of shading done in mangas like Junji Ito's art. The scene depicts the main character Akemi as she travels to school wary of her environment.
Art Contextualization: For the art portion, I studied Junji Ito’s art style of drawing and inking. From this, I digitally drew a landscape from a scene of my horror short story. By using the context of Junji Ito’s manga style and having the reference image be a place in Japan, it solidifies where it came from.
The Process
I had at first tried drawing the face of my main character in Junji Ito's style, but I found it rather difficult, and that's when I decided to move from doing two works to just one. I scrapped the face I had drawn and then I moved onto doing a rough sketch of the street where Akemi lives.
Final Piece
I spent a lot of time on this piece, about six hours, and in the entire process there were lots of ups and downs. In the beginning stages, I didn't really like it, but once I was done fixing the perspective of the left house, I felt like it improved the piece a lot and that caused me to put lots of detail into both houses. I feel like my piece is a lot lighter than what inspired it, and I feel like the sky is darker than I wanted, but I feel the focus in the middle gives off a sort of creepy vibe.
Annotated Bibliography
Avino, Steve. Impure Ghosts: Japanese Horror Films and the Religions of Japan. Academia, 2009, Impure Ghosts: Japanese Horror Films and the Religions of Japan, www.academia.edu/7339785/Impure_Ghosts_Japanese_Horror_Films_and_the_Religions_of_Japan. This is research paper written on the significance of religion and ghosts in Japanese horror. It gave information on how closely the religions of Shinto and Buddhism are related and how closely both are to Japanese horror and commonalities within the genre such as ghosts and spirits. This helped explain why certain things in The Ring were scary and some of the roots behind popular Japanese horror media. Barrett, Rudy. “The Skeletal Structure of Japanese Horror Fiction.” Tofugu, Tofugu, 30 Oct. 2014, www.tofugu.com/japan/japanese-horror-structure/. This talks about how the storytelling in Japanese horror is structured and how it differs from Western horror. It goes into detail about two major structures, one being action-reaction and the other being Kishōtenketsu. I used this source to help me try to figure out how to write my story and what I can do to give it a Japanese influence. Gwen. “Japanese Folklore: The Ring.” Japan Italy Bridge, 13 Sept. 2017, www.japanitalybridge.com/en/2017/09/japanese- folklore-the-ring/. This gave me insight on the original folklore of The Ring and how the film uses the Japanese beliefs of ghosts and spirits to make it scary. This helped the details for my own analysis of The Ring and Japanese folklore. Ito, Junji. Shiver Junji Ito Selected Stories. Viz, 2017. This book includes a collection of nine horror short stories written by Junji Ito. It helped cement my knowledge in the storytelling structure of Japanese horror so I can better write my story with that sort of structure in mind. I also used it to study how Junji Ito made his images impactful and how he used pen and ink. Japanese Cultural Traits Sheet This sheet has a list of Cultural Traits in Japan. I used this information to build up background knowledge of the culture in Japan, so I can most accurately depict the values and traits of Japanese culture in the short story I was writing. Pruett, Chris. “Chris's Guide to Understanding Japanese Horror.” Chris's Survival Horror Quest, WordPress, 12 June 2011, horror.dreamdawn.com/?p=54891. This talks about the structure of horror storytelling, but delves more into what the details are in Japanese horror and gives examples of contemporary and older horror stories. This helped build knowledge on what was and is considered scary in Japan and the cultural significance of why. This helped me in deciding what things I should include in my story and also in explaining why certain things are scary in The Ring for my analysis. “Shinto and Buddhism in Japan.” Japan Specialist, JTB, www.japanspecialist.co.uk/travel-tips/shinto-buddhism-2/. This talks about both Shinto and Buddhism in Japan and how both affect the culture of Japan and what they teach. The information from here was used in my analysis on how both Shinto and Buddhism affect Japanese culture and beliefs. Tamashige, Sachiko. “Seeing Where Shinto and Buddhism Cross.” The Japan Times, The Japan Times, 16 May 2013, www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2013/05/16/arts/seeing-where-shinto-and-buddhism-cross/#.XGLaUM9KjBI. This talks about Shinto and Buddhism in Japan and how closely related they are to each other along with their impacts on Japanese culture. It gives history on when Buddhism was introduced to Japan and how both religions supported each other. I used this for my “Shinto and Buddhism’s Impact on Japanese Culture” analysis.