Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan: Second Series

by Lafcadio Hearn

MY little two-story house by the Ohashigawa, although dainty as a bird-cage, proved much too small for comfort at the approach of the hot season—the rooms being scarcely higher than steamship cabins, and so narrow that an ordinary mosquito-net could not be suspended in them.

Genres: Japan, Nonfiction, Classics

288 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1894

About the author

Greek-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.

Reviews

[Tocotin · Rating 3 out of 5]

The constant amazement of the narrator sometimes got on my nerves, but I did like the style.

[Lee Belbin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A remarkable book. I've read many of Hearn's writings and each one is a delight. This is no exception. If you want an extremely rare insight into Japanese culture around 1890, this book is I think the best I have read of his or of any others, including Marie Stopes - A Journal from Japan. After a number of visits myself to many places in northern, central and southern Japan, Hearn's observations still largely remain true. His observation of I think 5 policemen for 36,000 people of the Oki District (in 1891) and they only kept an eye on health regulations etc! Virtually no crime at all. I remember walking near Takamatsu in the western suburbs of Tokyo in 2004 and regularly seeing children aged less than 5, walking unacompanied and hand in hand to school in the mornings. Delightful. May it remain so.

[Guenter · Rating 5 out of 5]

While not as consistently entrancing as In Ghostly Japan, this collection of personal travels around a long lost Japan offers fascinating insights into their culture.