Animated adaptations of two classics of Japanese literature. 

"A Ghost Story: Some 800 years ago, a great battle took place between the Genji and Heiki families at a location known as Dan-no-ura.  The Heiki family suffered a terrible defeat.... Houichi, a lutist, lives at the temple which is close to the site of this great battle.  His great talent for chanting the old legends gains him notice by many of the community - including the ghosts of the Heiki family.  Unwittingly, the blind Houichi soon finds himself performing for the dead.  The chief priest fears that something evil is happening to Houichi and devises a plan to make him invisible to the ghosts.  But will the plan be executed in time?  

The Theater of Life: It is 1905 and most are celebrating a war victory.  That is, all except the family of Hyokichi Aonari whose livelihood as tobacco wholesalers has come to an abrupt end due to new government controls.  Now they must sell even the trees off their land to survive.  Hyokichi is regarded by his peers as the neighborhood sissy.  His father knows that to become a great man one must have courage, so he teaches Hyokichi to climb a gingko tree.  Orin, the girl next door, looks on with concern.  He eventually succeeds, with Orin's encouragement, and as time passes a bond forms between them.  As they grow up, he goes off to a distant school and she goes to Tokyo--to become a Geisha.  Missing her dearly, he is now driven toward a goal of success even his father could not imagine."--VHS Container