lafcadio hearn glimpses of unfamiliar japan

The popular religious ideas-especially the ideas derived from Buddhism -and the curious superstitions touched upon in these sketches are little shared by the educated classes of New Japan. None can feel more than the author himself how little has been accomplished in these volumes, and how much remains to do.

The reader may, perhaps, be disappointed by their rarity for a residence of little more than four years among the people-even by one who tries to adopt their habits and customs-scarcely suffices to enable the foreigner to begin to feel at home in this world of strangeness. Mitford is the Unfamiliar Japan of which I have been able to obtain a few glimpses. Of the inner life of the Japanese the world at large knows but little: their religion, their superstitions, their ways of thought, the hidden springs by which they move-all these are as yet mysteries.' 'The books which have been written of late years about Japan have either been compiled from official records, or have contained the sketchy impressions of passing travellers. In the Introduction to his charming Tales of Old Japan, Mr. Whose Kindness Alone Rendered Possible My Sojourn in the Orient,Įmeritus Professor Of Philology And Japanese In The Imperial University Of Tokyo In 1894, just as Japan was truly opening to the West and global interest in Japanese culture was burgeoning, Hearn published this delightful series of essays glorifying what he called the 'rare charm of Japanese life.'īeautifully written and a joy to read, Hearn's love letters to the land of the rising sun enchant with their sweetly lyrical descriptions of winter street fairs, puppet theaters, religious statuaries, even the Japanese smile and its particular allure.Ī wonderful journal of immersion on a foreign land, this will bewitch Japanophiles and travelers to the East. 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. Wherefore it is peculiarly well suited to goblinries and weirdnessess of all kinds and plays in which ghosts figure are the favourite subject. It is a play of which the dialogue is uttered by invisible personages, the actors and the scenery being only luminous shadows. A Japanese magic-lantern show is essentially dramatic.

Lafcadio hearn glimpses of unfamiliar japan