Beautiful Mt Fuji © A. Harrison
In Writings From Japan, Lafcadio Hearn shares his impressions of his few months spent in the country. He begins with the memories and impressions of his first days in a mysterious land which had only recently opened her doors to the West. Hearn’s classic work is one of the first by a Westerner writing of Japan.
In 1853, Commodore Perry negotiated access for American ships to Japanese ports, and the country came out of its self-imposed isolation from the world. Hearn arrived shortly afterwards in 1890 on assignment from the newspaper with which he worked. Japan was still a mythical land known only by a few Westerners.
Writings from Japan is an anthology of his early essays on the country, collected and posted posthumously. Hearn’s writing reflects his wonder and his growing love and appreciation of Japan, her people and her culture. His lyrical style befits his mood, as if his days pass in a dream:
….the white fire of the Japanese sun is taking that pale amber tone which tells that the heat of the day is over. There is not a cloud in the blue — not even one of those beautiful white filamentary things, like ghosts of silken floss, which usually swim in this most ethereal of earthly skies even in the driest weather.
Hearn spent his first months travelling around Japan (largely by rickshaw, it would seem, with a guide who spoke little English). Not only did he become enamoured by the country, he immersed himself in the culture and began a study of the language. This is reflected in the chapter headings: At the Market of the Dead, In a Japanese Garden, Insect Musicians, The Chief City of the Province of the Gods. Much of what he writes may seem like a world now vanished to the modern traveller, but forgotten Japan still exists in hidden parts of the country, often in full view.
Indeed, Hearn became so enamoured of the country he never left (he died in Tokyo in 1904), and his writings brought him international recognition. He married a daughter of a samurai and became a naturalised Japanese citizen.
He is seen as one of the first Western writers to bring Japan to life for the Occidental reader, and his works are still taught in Japan. One of his most famous works is his collection of Japanese legends and ghost stories. In 1936 a museum was built in Matsue next to the house where he once lived.
For me, Writings From Japan proved a timeless work about a fascinating country. It was a book I left by my bedside and dipped into between other readings; it was a work inspiring me to return to this amazing country, where the past and the present at times meld together, at time sit side by side, and at others float in seperate bubbles.
So, always a reason to return, book in hand.
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Lafcadio Hearn’s classic work Writings from Japan is one of the first by a Westerner writing of Japan. In it Hearn shares his impressions of his few months spent in a mysterious land which had only recently opened her doors to the West.