A discussion of one of the great interpreters of Japan. The Japanese have always revered Hearn and this book shows the West why he is revered. Experts look at his writings and discuss his integrity as an observer and interpreter of Japan and the Japanese.

The Neo-Buddhist Writings of Lafcadio Hearn: Light from the East by Antony Goedhals reveals the discourses of vastness, emptiness, and oneness – founded in Buddhism – hidden, for generations of critics and biographers, at the heart of this misunderstood Victorian writer’s work.

A discussion of one of the great interpreters of Japan. The Japanese have always revered Hearn and this book shows the West why he is revered. Experts look at his writings and discuss his integrity as an observer and interpreter of Japan and the Japanese.

This first full length critical biography of one of the most significant figures in Japanese Studies in the last hundred years is based on an earlier work published in Japanese (Iwanami Shoten, 1990). Ota sees Chamberlain as a giant of his period, both academically and intellectually. His achievements include the first publication of a translation of the Kojiki, his pioneering work as the 'father' of Japanese linguistics, and the acclaimed Things Japanese which served generations as an everyman encyclopaedia. However, Ota also acknowledges Chamberlain's vision in recognising the distinctive merits and strengths of Japanese society and culture at a time of xenophobic Europeanism, made possible by the fact that Chamberlain was ahead of his times as a multi-lingual and multi-cultural personality.

The American essays of renowned writer Lafcadio Hearn (1850-1904) artistically chronicle the robust urban life of Cincinnati and New Orleans. Hearn is one of the few chroniclers of urban American life in the nineteenth century, and much of this material has not been widely available since the 1950s. Lafcadio Hearn's America collects Hearn's stories of vagabonds, river people, mystics, criminals, and some of the earliest accounts available of black and ethnic urban folklife in America. He was a frequently consulted expert on America during his years in Japan, and these editorials reflect on the problems and possibilities of American life as the country entered its greatest century. Hearn's work, which reflects an America that is less "melting pot" than a varied, spicy, and often exotic gumbo, provide essential background for the study of America's first steps away from its agrarian beginnings.

This collection of writings from Lafcaido Hern paints a rare and fascinating picture of pre-modern Japan Over a century after his death, author, translator, and educator Lafcaido Hearn remains one of the best-known Westerners ever to make Japan his home. Almost more Japanese than the Japanese--"to think with their thoughts" was his aim--his prolific writings on things Japanese were instrumental in introducing Japanese culture to the West. In this masterful anthology, Donald Richie shows that Hearn was first and foremost a reliable and enthusiastic observer, who faithfully recorded a detailed account of the people, customs, and culture of late nineteen-century Japan. Opening and closing with excerpts from Hearn's final books, Richie's astute selection from among "over 4,000 printed pages" not including correspondence and other writing, also reveals Hearn's later, more sober and reflective attitudes to the things that he observed and wrote about. Part One, "The Land," chronicles Hearn's early years when he wrote primarily about the appearance of his adopted home. Part Two, "The People," records the author's later years when he came to terms with the Japanese themselves. In this anthology, Richie, more gifted in capturing the essence of a person on the page than any other foreign writer living in Japan, has picked out the best of Hearn's evocations. Select writings include: The Chief City of the Province of the Gods Three Popular Ballads In the Cave of the Children's Ghosts Bits of Life and Death A Street Singer Kimiko On A Bridge

The East-West controversy over the significance and relevance of Lafcadio Hearn as a writer, thinker and interpreter of Japan continues unabated. Not surprisingly, the centenary of his death in 2004 presented an occasion for renewed debate and discussion by both sides of the divide. This volume, edited by one of Hearn’s leading contemporary apologists, in which he is also a significant contributor, presents twenty-two diverse essays drawn from over seventy papers delivered at conferences held in four cities in Japan in 2004, as well as at other international conferences that took place earlier. The contributors are Joan Blythe, John Clubbe, Susan Fisher, Ted Goosen, George Hughes, Yoko Makino, Peter McIvor, Hitobe Nabae, Cody Poulton and Masaru Toda. Their contributions range from Sukehiro Hirakawa’s ‘ A Reappraisal’ to Joan Blythe’s ‘Enduring Value of Lafcadio Hearn’s Tokyo Lectures’.

This will appeal to anyone wishing to enrich their understanding of Japan, those with an interest in Hearn, Irish literary tradition and life and literature in a cross-cultural context.

The volume highlights Ireland’s cultural and linguistic influence in the world. It springs from research carried out on the relationship between Ireland and England, and pays special attention to the concept of “colony”. Traditional adjectives like “colonial” and “post-colonial” have been purposely avoided in the title of the book. When referring to Ireland, they reinforce a prejudicial perspective and blur the relevant influence of its cultural heritage and identity. In the decades after independence, Ireland was predominantly defined in terms of separatism and isolation, and in a contrasting, antagonistic relationship with Britain. Recent studies have instead explored the essential connectedness of Irish culture. The concept of an Irish cultural empire counterbalances this bias, and this publication will advance the reader’s understanding of international strands in Irish identity. The wide-ranging choice of authors and topics sets the essays here in a broader context which outlines a chronological thread starting by dealing with Ireland’s major cultural impact in Europe during the Middle Ages and the influence of classic motifs in Anglo-Irish culture. Contributions focus on 18th, 19th and 20th century Irish writers who export their legacy abroad. In addition, the volume offers new perspectives on Irish emigration to Australia and the USA.

This book examines the transnational phenomenon of Japonisme in the exoticist and “autoexoticist” literature of the late nineteenth century. Focusing on the way in which reciprocal processes of transcultural acquisition – by Japan and from Japan – were portrayed in the medium of literature, the book illustrates how literary Japonisme and the wider processes whereby Japan, with its alien exotic culture and unique refined aestheticism, was absorbing Western civilization in its own way in the late nineteenth century at the same time as the phenomenon of Japonisme was occurring in Western fine arts, which were inspired by traditional Japanese artistic practices. Specifically, the book focuses on the literary works of Lafcadio Hearn and Pierre Loti, who travelled from France and America, respectively, to Japan, and Mori Ōgai and Natsume Sōseki, who in turn went, respectively, to Germany and England from Japan. Exploring the eclectic hybridity of Japan’s modernization during the late nineteenth century, this book will appeal to students and scholars of Japanese Studies, Postcolonial Studies and Comparative Literature.