I sense a root of Sinicism embodied in all the texts in Kwaidan. These tales also remind me of Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio (or Liao Zhai Zhi Yi) which both talk about supernaturals, spirits, goblins, and ghosts. The key scheme of these weird tales is to emphasize the idea of “Karma” from Buddhism. When there is a cause, there’s an effect. In the story of Mimi Nashi Hoichi, because the priest forgets to write holy text on Hoichi’s ears, Hoichi loses his ears; In Jikininki, because Muso was selfish and misused his position as a priest for personal gain in pre-life, he has to eat human flesh when he turns into ghost; and in Rokuro-kubi, Aruji even says that it was his wickedness that caused the ruin of his family and death of many people.