Japan: An Attempt at Interpretation

Hearn, Lafcadio

ISBN 10: 1414264992 / ISBN 13: 9781414264998

Published by MacMillan, New York, 1904

About this Item

549pp/color frontis. Lafcadio Hearn (1850-1904), arguably one of the greatest Western writers of Japanese subject matter, died just prior to the publication of this final and perhaps best-known work; he had lived the last 13 years of his life in Japan, immersing himself completely in Japanese culture and, eventually adopting a Japanese name, Yakumo Koizumi. Disillusioned with modern Western society, Hearn adopted the Buddhist religion and became a naturalized Japanese citizen; he learned fluent Japanese in a remarkably short time and became one of the first non-Japanese to be appointed as a lecturer at Tokyo University. First publication with appendix. Corners bumped.

Seller Inventory # 003300

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Japan: An Attempt at Interpretation
• Publisher: MacMillan, New York
• Publication Date: 1904
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1414264992
• ISBN 13: 9781414264998
• Binding: Decorative Cloth
• Edition: 4th Printing
• Condition: Very Good
• Dust Jacket Condition: No Jacket
• Seller catalogs:
  • Japan

About this title

Synopsis

The belief that the dead need affection, that to neglect them is a cruelty, that their happiness depends upon duty, is a belief that has almost cast out the primitive fear of their displeasure. They are not thought of as dead; they are believed to remain among those who loved them.... From their shrine they observe and hear what happens in the house; they share the family joys and sorrows; they delight in the voices and the warmth of the life about them. -from "The Religion of the Home" 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. His love letters to his adopted country, including 1894's Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan and 1896's Kokoro: Hints and Echoes of Japanese Inner Life (both available from Cosimo Classics) helped fire global interest in Japanese culture as it was opening to the West in the 1890s, and in 1904, he published this engaging and highly entertaining series of essays. An early Western attempt to decipher the "outward strangeness" of all things in Japan, and to place the nation and its people in a larger historical context, this is a lyrical work, singing with respect and love. 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).

About the Author

Patrick Lafcadio Hearn (27 June 1850 – 26 September 1904), known also by the Japanese name Koizumi Yakumo, was an international writer, known best for his books about Japan, especially his collections of Japanese legends and ghost stories. He was born in and named for the island of Lefkada, one of the Greek Ionian Islands. He worked as a reporter for the Cincinnati Daily Enquirer, working for the newspaper from 1872 to 1875. During the autumn of 1877, he left Cincinnati for New Orleans, where he lived for nearly a decade. In 1890, He went to Japan with a commission as a newspaper correspondent, which was quickly terminated. It was in Japan, however, that he found a home and his greatest inspiration.