Lafcadio Hearn is one of the most famous foreign residents of Japan. He wrote extensively about his adopted country, taught English Literature at universities, and collected ghost stories-for which he is probably most famous for. He is of Irish Greek origin but lived in America before coming to Japan and was a journalist know for his writings about New Orleans. In Japan he first settled in Matsue, Shimanae before moving onto Kumamoto in Kyushu and eventually Tokyo. Japan An Attempt At Interpretation (1904) is Hearns' scholarly attempt to explain his adopted country. many have complained that he is something of an apologist looking at Japan with rose-colored glasses. In this volume he seems very careful to not make judgements or sweeping generalizations. He often cites examples of Greek and roman history to show how the Japanese way is not so different from the foundations of major modern western countries. Here are some of the chapter headings: "Difficulties," "Strangeness And Charm," "The Religion of the Home," "The Japanese Family," "The Communal Cult," Developments of Shinto, " Worship And Purification," The Rule of the Dead, " "The Introduction of Buddhism, " etc. The first third of the book is devoted to religion and overall it is a bit dry. I had expected more first person accounts of Hearn's personal observations and at the end of the book he makes some observations about the Japanese being in the midst of the war with Russia. I think I would still like to read his collected ghost stories Kwaidan.
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Kwaidan is good, but I think "Glimpses of..." is best. I used it as a guidebook during my Yonago years.
Posted by: Ted Taylor | February 01, 2016 at 08:50 AM
Good to know. I was also thinking of reading the collected writing that has a froward by Donald Richie.
Posted by: MC | February 01, 2016 at 06:01 PM