The Maiden of the Screen, An Old Folktale That Parallels Modern Dating Culture

Lafcadio Hearn was an American journalist who, along with Basil Hall Chamberlain, collected and wrote down Japan’s folktales. While many Japanese, in the past, had also recorded various folktales, it wasn’t until Westerners took an interest in Japanese folklore the keepers of this cultural oral tradition began be given a long shift. Hearn and Chamberlain knew Yanagita Kunio, who would become the pioneer of formalized native Japanese folklore studies.

Hearn eventually traveled to Japan and becam...