Several of Mori Ogai's short stories between 1908 and 1912 feature folk beliefs and superstitions. Ogai's prominent approach, consistent with his public persona as a German-educated doctor, is to demystify such beliefs through scientific explanation and detached observation. For example, in "Hyaku monogatari," the protagonist literally exposes the backstage of a traditional storytelling party by giving a physiological explanation of ghostly illusions and discovering the handmade "ghost" in the storage. For him, an event like this is "a relic of the bygone era."
Identifying a certain contemporary practice as superstitious and anachronistic has political implications. As Dipesh Chakrabarty argues in "Provincializing Europe," in the nineteenth century this "logic of historicist thought" was deeply tied to the reality of political modernity in non-Western nations, as the Western powers and the local elites affirmed their superiority over the subaltern groups practicing such "superstitions."
Undoubtedly, Ogai's "scientific" attitude toward superstition leads to elitism: his narrator detaches himself from common people and observes them as an intellectual. At the same time, his doubt about the applicability of Western knowledge upon Japanese traditional practices leaves him ambivalent toward the demystification project. Therefore Ogai leaves room for supernatural powers influencing people's lives. In "Nezumizaka," a Chinese rape victim appears at the bedside of the aggressor and apparently curses him to death; and in "Hebi" the mother-in-law gets revenge on the unkind wife. Ogai suspends scientific explanation but strongly suggests the connection between the injustice and the misfortune. In other stories, Ogai contemplates what is lost when "superstitions" are explained away. In "Kompira," the protagonist forgives his wife for believing in local gods because he has no other worldview of use to her. This question becomes more explicitly political in "Kanoyooni," where Hidemaro and his father discuss the role of myth in Japanese history.