Books with author Lafcadio Hearn

Seen on close approach, the mountain of Fuji does not come up to expectation.—Japanese proverbial philosophy. The most beautiful sight in Japan, and certainly one of the most beautiful in the world, is the distant apparition of Fuji on cloudless days,—more especially days of spring and autumn, when the greater part of the peak is covered with late or with early snows.

The regular trade in musical insects is of comparatively modern origin. In Tōkyō its beginnings date back only to the Kwansei era (1789-1800),—at which period, however, the[49] capital of the Shōgunate was still called Yedo. A complete history of the business was recently placed in my hands,—a history partly compiled from old documents, and partly from traditions preserved in the families of several noted insect-merchants of the present day.The founder of the Tōkyō trade was an itinerant foodseller named Chūzō, originally from Echigo, who settled in the Kanda district of the city in the latter part of the eighteenth century. One day, while making his usual rounds, it occurred to him to capture a few of the suzumushi, or bell-insects, then very plentiful in the Negishi quarter, and to try the experiment of feeding them at home. They throve and made music in confinement; and several of Chūzō’s neighbors, charmed by their melodious chirruping, asked to be supplied with suzumushi for a consideration. From this accidental beginning, the demand for suzumushi grew rapidly to such proportions that the foodseller at last decided to give up his former calling and to become an insect-seller.Chūzō only caught and sold insects: he never imagined that it would be more profitable to breed them. But the fact was presently discovered by one of his customers,—a man named Kirayama, then in the service of the Lord Aoyama Shimodzuké-no-Kami. Kiriyama had bought from Chūzō severalsuzumushi, which were kept and fed in a jar half-filled with moist clay. They died in the cold season; but during the following summer Kiriyama was agreeably surprised to find the jar newly peopled with a number of young ones, evidently born from eggs which the first prisoners had left in the clay. He fed them carefully, and soon had the pleasure, my chronicler says, of hearing them “begin to sing in small voices.” Then he resolved to make some experiments; and, aided by Chūzō, who furnished the males and females, he succeeded in breeding not only suzumushi, but three other kinds of singing-insects also,—kantan, matsumushi, and kutsuwamushi. He discovered, at the same time, that, by keeping his jars in a warm room, the insects could be hatched considerably in advance of the natural season. Chūzō sold for Kiriyama these home-bred singers; and both men found the new undertaking profitable beyond expectation.The example set by Kiriyama was imitated by a tabiya, or stocking-maker named Yasubei (com[51]monly known as Tabiya Yasubei by reason of his calling), who lived in Kanda-ku. Yasubei likewise made careful study of the habits of singing-insects, with a view to their breeding and nourishment; and he soon found himself able to carry on a small trade in them. Up to that time the insects sold in Yedo would seem to have been kept in jars or boxes: Yasubei conceived the idea of having special cages manufactured for them. A man named Kondō, vassal to the Lord Kamei of Honjō-ku, interested himself in the matter, and made a number of pretty little cages which delighted Yasubei, and secured a large order from him. The new invention found public favor at once; and Kondō soon afterwards established the first manufactory of insect-cages.Exotics and Retrospectives, Insect-Musicians, Frogs, First Impressions, Insect Cages, Tomb in Kobudera, The Literature of the Dead

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Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things, by Lafcadio Hearn, features several Japanese ghost stories and a brief study on insects. Hearn declares in his introduction, that most of these stories were translated from old Japanese texts (probably with the help of his wife, Setsu Koizumi). He also states that one of the stories - Yuki-onna - was told to him by a farmer in Musashi Province, and this was, to the best of his knowledge, the first record of it.

A miscellany of ghost stories, odd tales, and curious observations by a master storyteller who penetrated Japan more deeply than any other Westerner. Lafcadio Hearn captures the folk spirit and quaint “exoticism” of a land thought at the time to be both mysterious and sinister. Lafcadio Hearn (1850–1904) gained Japanese citizenship and wrote many books about Japan for Western readers.

Upon his arrival in Japan in 1890, Lafcadio Hearn found himself enamored with the culture, people, and stories of the country, and would make Japan his home until his death in 1904. His collections of stories published during this time became the most popular of Hearn's writings, and earned him veneration worldwide as not only a great translator of Japanese mythology, but as a sensational teller of strange and wonderfully macabre tales. "Kwaidan" is most commonly translated as weird or horror tales, but to assign one word to the people, places, ghosts and gods in this work, one can only use the word strange. This collection of supernatural tales includes "The Story of Mimi-Nashi-Hōīchi," "Ubazakura," and "Rokuro-Kubi," and other stories translated from old Japanese texts. Hearn was made a professor of English literature in the Imperial University of Tokyo in 1895, and is today revered by the Japanese for providing significant insights into their own national character.

Lafcadio Hearn's books have charmed and captivated readers, just as the exotic subjects about which he has written have captivated him. "Gleanings in the Buddha-Fields" presents more Hearn magic as he enters into the spirit of Buddhism as though he were born into it. This collection of stories, subtitled "Studies of Hand and Soul in the Far East," takes the reader on a journey into the soul of Hearn's adopted land as no other writer--especially a non-Japanese native--could. Lafacdio Hearn was born in Greece to an Irish father and a Greek mother. After working as a journalist in New Orleans, he later moved to Japan, where he took on the name Koizumi Yagumo.

TWO YEARS IN THE FRENCH WEST INDIES Lafcadio Hearn Foreword by Raphael Confiant "Hearn is a passionate observer and a passionate sensualist...to the 20th century reader he provides an unparalleled evocation of a way of life, as well as a city (St. Pierre), that has long since disappeared." Times Literary Supplement In October 1887 the writer and translator Lafcadio Hearn sailed from New York to Martinique, where he fell under the spell of the island and its people. Intending to stay only a few months, he remained there for two years, immersed in Martinique's vibrant culture and tropical beauty. The result was one of the most detailed and poetic accounts of day-to-day life in the Caribbean ever written. Hearn, who was later to win fame for his ground-breaking books about Japan, viewed French-ruled Martinique as an exotic fusion of European, African and Asian influences, the Creole society par excellence. Describing the island's landscape, its flora and fauna, its colonial architecture and rural villages, he provides an invaluable picture of a Caribbean colony where slavery was a recent memory and race an all-important matter of identity. First published in 1890, Two Years in the French West Indies also offers the most complete evocation of the doomed city of Saint Pierre, "Paris of the Antilles", devastated twelve years later in one of the world's worst volcanic eruptions. Hearn's greatest achievement, however, is his sympathetic insight into the daily lives of ordinary Martinicans: market women, peasant farmers, plantation workers. Exploring their folk tales, music and the Creole language, he portrays a world of sensuality and mystery, in which traditional storytelling conjures up a darker dimension of sorcery, ghosts and zombies.

Book may have numerous typos, missing text, images, or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1895. Excerpt: ... A PILGRIMAGE TO ENOSHTMA. I. Kamakuba. A long, straggling country village, between low wooded hills, with a canal passing through it. Old Japanese cottages, dingy, neutral-tinted, with roofs of thatch, very steeply sloping, above their wooden walls and paper shoji. Green patches on all the roof-slopes, some sort of grass; and on the very summits, on the ridges, luxurious growths of yaneshobu,1 the roof-plant, bearing pretty purple flowers. In the lukewarm air a mingling of Japanese odors, smells of sake", smells of seaweed soup, smells of daikon, the strong native radish; and dominating all, a sweet, thick, heavy scent of incense, -- incense from the shrines of gods. Akira has hired two jinrikisha for our pilgrimage; a speckless azure sky arches the world; and the land lies glorified in a joy of sunshine. A

A Japanese magic-lantern show is essentially dramatic. It is a play of which the dialogue is uttered by invisible personages, the actors and the scenery being only luminous shadows. Wherefore it is peculiarly well suited to goblinries and weirdnessess of all kinds; and plays in which ghosts figure are the favourite subject. -from "Of Ghosts and Goblins" In 1889, Westerner Lafcadio Hearn arrived in Japan on a journalistic assignment, and he fell so in love with the nation and its people that he never left. In 1894, just as Japan was truly opening to the West and global interest in Japanese culture was burgeoning, Hearn published this delightful series of essays glorifying what he called the "rare charm of Japanese life." Beautifully written and a joy to read, Hearn's love letters to the land of the rising sun enchant with their sweetly lyrical descriptions of winter street fairs, puppet theaters, religious statuaries, even the Japanese smile and its particular allure. A wonderful journal of immersion on a foreign land, this will bewitch Japanophiles and travelers to the East. Also available from Cosimo Classics: Hearn's Kokoro: Hints and Echoes of Japanese Inner Life. Bohemian and writer PATRICK LAFCADIO HEARN (1850-1904) was born in Greece, raised in Ireland, and worked as newspaper reporter in the United States before decamping to Japan. He also wrote In Ghostly Japan (1899), and Japan: An Attempt at Interpretation (1904).