Hyakumonogatari Kaidankai

"A Gathering of One Hundred Supernatural Tales") was a popular didactic Buddhist-inspired parlour game during the Edo period in Japan.

The game is considered a ritual method of summoning spirits, with the supernatural arriving and being present in the darkness after the 100th lamp is snuffed out.

On a practical note, completing all 100 tales takes many hours and players may run out of stories, so shorter versions of the game are popular.

With a heightened interest in telling newer and original kaidan, people began scouring the countryside for tales of the mysterious, many of which combined a mixture of ghostly vengeance and elements of karma in Buddhism.

A true popular phenomenon, the hype of Hyakumonogatari Kaidankai (combined with new printing technology) created a boom in the publication of kaidan-themed books collecting appropriate tales from every corner of Japan and China.

Later books in this genre also often used the term Hyakumonogatari in the title; the popularity of many of these tales continued long after the fad for the game had faded.

Hyakumonogatari Kaidankai became a cult phenomenon in Japan; while the hype of these tales has receded, many J-horror films and Japanese urban legends can be attributed to the game's influence.