What raised Hearn above his contemporaries was the power of his pen. Like most people, I had never heard of Hearn before coming to Japan, and it’s no doubt true to say that because he wrote favourably of the Japanese … Read the rest
Category: Lafcadio Hearn (Page 4 of 4)
This is part of a series on Lafcadio Hearn, a Shinto sympathiser 100 years ahead of his time. Though he was not as proficient in language terms as his great Shinto contemporaries, such as B.H. Chamberlain and W.G. Aston, he … Read the rest
Lafcadio Hearn (1850-1904) and his one-time mentor and friend, Basil Hall Chamberlain (1850-1935), were both deeply versed in Shinto. I’ve long been fascinated by the differences between them, perhaps because they speak to different parts of my personality. On the … Read the rest
In his early days in Matsue, Hearn was fascinated by most everything he saw. Here, in Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan (1894), he describes his first encounter with the mirror that stands at the heart of the Shinto shrine. It captures … Read the rest
Honeymoon period
On my recent visit to Izumo, where the kami of Japan are presently gathered, I took the opportunity to make a literary pilgrimage to the home of Lafcadio Hearn. Though not well-known abroad, he is treasured in Japan … Read the rest