Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan by Lafcadio Hearn
Combines the two volumes of a work that first appeared in 1894. This book intends to take the reader into a world that few Westerners saw in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It focuses on the customs, the superstitions, the charming scenery, and the revelations of Japanese character.
Lafcadio Hearn (1850-1904) was born on the Greek island of Lefkas, the son of an Anglo-Irish surgeon in the British army and a Greek mother. After his parent's divorce when he was six, he was brought up in Dublin by a great aunt. At the age of nineteen, he went to America, eventually ending up in New Orleans as a newspaper reporter. His flight from Western materialism brought him to Japan in 1890, where he worked for an English newspaper, the Kobe Chronicle, and taught in various schools. In 1896, he began teaching English literature at Tokyo Imperial University, a position he held until 1903, and at Waseda University. Hearn married a samurai's daughter, Koizumi Setsu, became a Japanese citizen and a Buddhist, and changed his name to Koizumi Yakumo. At the young age of 54, he died of a heart attack. Hearn's search for beauty and tranquility, for pleasing customs and lasting values made him a confirmed Japanophile. His keen intellect, poetic imagination, and wonderful clear style permitted him to penetrate to the very essence of things Japanese. He became the great interpreter of things Japanese to the West. Hearn's most famous work is a collection of lectures entitled Japan: An Attempt at Interpretation (published posthumously in 1905). His other books on Japan include Out of the East (1895), Kokoro (1896), Gleanings in Buddha Fields (1897), Exotics and Retrospectives (1898), In Ghostly Japan (1899), Shadowings (1900), A Japanese Miscellany (1901), and Kwaidan (1904).
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9784805310250 |
| ISBN 10 | 4805310251 |
| Title | Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan |
| Author | Lafcadio Hearn |
| Series | Tuttle Classics |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | Tuttle Publishing |
| Year published | 2009-06-24 |
| Number of pages | 608 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |