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Japanese Tales of Lafcadio Hearn
A collection of twenty-eight brilliant and strange stories, inspired by Japanese folk tales and written by renowned Western expatriate Lafcadio Hearn
Lafcadio Hearn (1850–1904) was one of the nineteenth century’s best-known writers, his name celebrated alongside those of Mark Twain and Robert Louis Stevenson. Born in Greece and raised in Ireland, Hearn was a true prodigy and world traveler. He worked as a reporter in Cincinnati, New Orleans, and the West Indies before heading to Japan in 1890 on a commission from Harper’s. There, he married a Japanese woman from a samurai family, changed his name to Koizumi Yakumo, and became a Japanese subject. An avid collector of traditional Japanese tales, legends, and myths, Hearn taught literature and wrote his own tales for both Japanese and Western audiences. Japanese Tales of Lafcadio Hearn brings together twenty-eight of Hearn’s strangest and most entertaining stories in one elegant volume.
Hearn’s tales span a variety of genres. Many are fantastical ghost stories, such as “The Corpse-Rider,” in which a man foils the attempts of his former wife’s ghost to haunt him. Some are love stories in which the beloved is not what she appears to be: in “The Story of Aoyagi,” a young samurai narrowly escapes the wrath of his lord for marrying without permission, only to discover that his wife is the spirit of a willow tree. Throughout this collection, Hearn’s reverence for Japan shines through, and his stories provide insights into the country’s artistic and cultural heritage.
With an introduction by Andrei Codrescu discussing Hearn’s life and work, as well as a foreword by Jack Zipes, Japanese Tales of Lafcadio Hearn provides a unique window into one writer’s multicultural literary journey.
Lafcadio Hearn (1850–1904) was one of the nineteenth century’s best-known writers, his name celebrated alongside those of Mark Twain and Robert Louis Stevenson. Born in Greece and raised in Ireland, Hearn was a true prodigy and world traveler. He worked as a reporter in Cincinnati, New Orleans, and the West Indies before heading to Japan in 1890 on a commission from Harper’s. There, he married a Japanese woman from a samurai family, changed his name to Koizumi Yakumo, and became a Japanese subject. An avid collector of traditional Japanese tales, legends, and myths, Hearn taught literature and wrote his own tales for both Japanese and Western audiences. Japanese Tales of Lafcadio Hearn brings together twenty-eight of Hearn’s strangest and most entertaining stories in one elegant volume.
Hearn’s tales span a variety of genres. Many are fantastical ghost stories, such as “The Corpse-Rider,” in which a man foils the attempts of his former wife’s ghost to haunt him. Some are love stories in which the beloved is not what she appears to be: in “The Story of Aoyagi,” a young samurai narrowly escapes the wrath of his lord for marrying without permission, only to discover that his wife is the spirit of a willow tree. Throughout this collection, Hearn’s reverence for Japan shines through, and his stories provide insights into the country’s artistic and cultural heritage.
With an introduction by Andrei Codrescu discussing Hearn’s life and work, as well as a foreword by Jack Zipes, Japanese Tales of Lafcadio Hearn provides a unique window into one writer’s multicultural literary journey.
224 pages, Paperback
Published July 2, 2019
About the author
Lafcadio Hearn
1,075 books480 followersGreek-born American writer Lafcadio Hearn spent 15 years in Japan; people note his collections of stories and essays, including
Kokoro
(1896), under pen name Koizumi Yakumo.
Rosa Cassimati (Ρόζα Αντωνίου Κασιμάτη in Greek), a Greek woman, bore Patrick Lafcadio Hearn (Πατρίκιος Λευκάδιος Χερν in Greek or 小泉八雲 in Japanese), a son, to Charles Hearn, an army doctor from Ireland. After making remarkable works in America as a journalist, he went to Japan in 1890 as a journey report writer of a magazine. He arrived in Yokohama, but because of a dissatisfaction with the contract, he quickly quit the job. He afterward moved to Matsué as an English teacher of Shimané prefectural middle school. In Matsué, he got acquainted with Nishida Sentarô, a colleague teacher and his lifelong friend, and married Koizumi Setsu, a daughter of a samurai.
In 1891, he moved to Kumamoto and taught at the fifth high school for three years. Kanô Jigorô, the president of the school of that time, spread judo to the world.
Hearn worked as a journalist in Kôbé and afterward in 1896 got Japanese citizenship and a new name, Koizumi Yakumo. He took this name from "Kojiki," a Japanese ancient myth, which roughly translates as "the place where the clouds are born". On that year, he moved to Tôkyô and began to teach at the Imperial University of Tôkyô. He got respect of students, many of whom made a remarkable literary career. In addition, he wrote much reports of Japan and published in America. So many people read his works as an introduction of Japan. He quit the Imperial University in 1903 and began to teach at Waseda University on the year next. Nevertheless, after only a half year, he died of angina pectoris.
Rosa Cassimati (Ρόζα Αντωνίου Κασιμάτη in Greek), a Greek woman, bore Patrick Lafcadio Hearn (Πατρίκιος Λευκάδιος Χερν in Greek or 小泉八雲 in Japanese), a son, to Charles Hearn, an army doctor from Ireland. After making remarkable works in America as a journalist, he went to Japan in 1890 as a journey report writer of a magazine. He arrived in Yokohama, but because of a dissatisfaction with the contract, he quickly quit the job. He afterward moved to Matsué as an English teacher of Shimané prefectural middle school. In Matsué, he got acquainted with Nishida Sentarô, a colleague teacher and his lifelong friend, and married Koizumi Setsu, a daughter of a samurai.
In 1891, he moved to Kumamoto and taught at the fifth high school for three years. Kanô Jigorô, the president of the school of that time, spread judo to the world.
Hearn worked as a journalist in Kôbé and afterward in 1896 got Japanese citizenship and a new name, Koizumi Yakumo. He took this name from "Kojiki," a Japanese ancient myth, which roughly translates as "the place where the clouds are born". On that year, he moved to Tôkyô and began to teach at the Imperial University of Tôkyô. He got respect of students, many of whom made a remarkable literary career. In addition, he wrote much reports of Japan and published in America. So many people read his works as an introduction of Japan. He quit the Imperial University in 1903 and began to teach at Waseda University on the year next. Nevertheless, after only a half year, he died of angina pectoris.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
January 18, 2021
Like all short story collections the potency varies a bit from story to story, but the overall quality is very, very strong—and now over a year after having reading this, I've found the best ones have taken up residence around the edges of my consciousness, never that far from mind...
February 6, 2020
The introduction to Hearns is more of an essay than a biography (examining his place in literature's progression and the way his life influenced his work instead of amusing anecdotes which is too bad because it seems his life was eventful). I'd recommend reading the introduction as an academic resource or for a reader with no knowledge of Hearn and skipping it if your interest is in diversion. (Also it's not about the book exactly but the introduction brought up that Hearn was actually read in his own time and what kind of contact he had with other notable figures. Considering I was planning to post a review online, this prompted me to imagine a hundred years from now maybe literary critics will be able to point to author's Goodreads pages to argue what writers they were most influenced by (see how so-and-so read that book at least once a year or see how she/he always hate reviewed everything that one person wrote).)
The tales themselves are simply brilliant. Hearn's own addition to the Japanese tales or his insertions of Japanese elements into his own short stories is deftly done. Even the most obvious pieces of his own touch to more traditional tales are weaved into the story in such a way they do not appear as impositions or crassly sneaked in. The book also includes footnotes if you're interested in finding more of his work.
The tales themselves are simply brilliant. Hearn's own addition to the Japanese tales or his insertions of Japanese elements into his own short stories is deftly done. Even the most obvious pieces of his own touch to more traditional tales are weaved into the story in such a way they do not appear as impositions or crassly sneaked in. The book also includes footnotes if you're interested in finding more of his work.
May 11, 2020
(Review by Leigh Smith)
This collection of 28 Japanese folktales is obsessed with strangeness. As a fan of the macabre and fantastical, I was immediately drawn to this book. And if you’re part of part of our culturally fluid, proudly freak flag-flying generation, I think you’d love it too.
Here’s a tiny taste of some of the colorful characters you’ll encounter inside the pages:
A man who saddles and rides his corpse-wife by clinging to her hair.
A shark-person (Samébito) who weeps blood that turns to jewels upon the ground.
A priest who is transformed into a Golden Carp.
Definitely don’t expect the happily-ever-afters of heavily modernized fairy tales, though. Nothing is what it seems in these tales and all does not necessarily end well.
This collection of 28 Japanese folktales is obsessed with strangeness. As a fan of the macabre and fantastical, I was immediately drawn to this book. And if you’re part of part of our culturally fluid, proudly freak flag-flying generation, I think you’d love it too.
Here’s a tiny taste of some of the colorful characters you’ll encounter inside the pages:
A man who saddles and rides his corpse-wife by clinging to her hair.
A shark-person (Samébito) who weeps blood that turns to jewels upon the ground.
A priest who is transformed into a Golden Carp.
Definitely don’t expect the happily-ever-afters of heavily modernized fairy tales, though. Nothing is what it seems in these tales and all does not necessarily end well.
December 13, 2024
The writing quality of the stories varies by a surprising amount. I wad initially discouraged, but it turned out that the writing in the first story was one of the worst instances of mentioning irrelevant detail outside of the story, and it was almost uphill from there. Whilr some stories are too short, none felt like they were wasting my time (as unfortunately often is the case with folk tales), and I found a good amount of them quite entertaining for some reason I can't put my fjnger on why, especially since there are quite a few stories I've read almost exaxt replicas before from other cultures.
December 14, 2020
I was skeptical of reading Japanese folk stories through the lens of a Greek/British/American turned Japanese citizen, but this was better than expected. I now kind of get why Hearn is getting some recent attention. Lafcadio Hearn is a deeply weird figure, well-known for his work at the turn of the 20th century, though he has mostly been left out when we talk about his contemporaries Twain and Robert Louis Stevenson.
I was really taken by his way of storytelling and many of these odd tales have played in my mind over and over the last few weeks.
I was really taken by his way of storytelling and many of these odd tales have played in my mind over and over the last few weeks.
June 19, 2021
Some interesting stories but I really hated the first story and found it difficult to get back into the book after that.
It was very interesting to see how Hearn chose to leave certain terms untranslated and put explanatory notes instead. The one that sticks out is a very specific word for "upper robe of a Buddhist priest" instead of just translating the whole thing as "robe".
At least one of the stories (White Willow) I know have heard a British version of and some others rang bells. Folklore is a beautiful thing.
It was very interesting to see how Hearn chose to leave certain terms untranslated and put explanatory notes instead. The one that sticks out is a very specific word for "upper robe of a Buddhist priest" instead of just translating the whole thing as "robe".
At least one of the stories (White Willow) I know have heard a British version of and some others rang bells. Folklore is a beautiful thing.
July 19, 2022
Tl;dr - a person encounters something supernatural and promptly shaves their head to become a priest.
Jokes aside, this is an interesting collection of Japanese fairy tales/legends.
Would recommend, if for nothing else, for that one soba noodle seller turning into an egg.
Jokes aside, this is an interesting collection of Japanese fairy tales/legends.
Would recommend, if for nothing else, for that one soba noodle seller turning into an egg.
May 5, 2025
This was a cute assembly of litte tales from Japanese folklore and I enjoyed reading it. Don't really know what else to say, but it was nice and my first real contact with Japanese tales (even though the introduction said he took creative liberties with them) so it was cool to get a first glimpse.
November 19, 2020
What is life itself but a bewilderment? ~ Lafcadio Hearn
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews