LAFCADIO HEARN小泉八雲

EARLY LIFE

Born June 27, 1850 in Lefkada

Son of Charles Bush Hearn & Rosa Antoniou

Kassimati

Baptized Patricios Lefcadios Hearn in Greek

Orthodox Church (Patrick Lefcadio Tessima

Charles Hearn in English)

Unknown if parents legally married

Moved to Dublin at 2, mother had difficulty

in foreign culture

Educated at Roman Catholic Ushaw College

Injured in playground accident in teens,

suffering loss of vision in left eye

IMMIGRATION

Moved to London

At 19, moved to America, settled

in Cincinnati, Ohio

Impoverished but soon found

low-grade journalism work

On strength of talent, soon began

writing for Cincinnati Daily

Enquirer

Became known for lurid accounts

of local murders

SCANDAL AND NEW ORLEANS

Married Alethea “Mattie” Foley, a black

woman (illegal at the time)

When discovered in 1875, was fired from

Enquirer and went to work for rival paper,

The Cincinnati Commercial

Divorced Foley in 1877 and moved to New

Orleans

Wrote about Creole culture, French Opera,

Louisiana Voodoo, & helped popularized New

Orleans’ unique culture

First to write about Filipinos in the United

States in 1883

1887-1890: Lived in Martinique in the West

Indies

JAPAN

Sent to Japan as a newspaper

correspondent in 1890, but was

quickly terminated

Shimane Prefectural Common

Middle School and Normal School in

Matsue

Married Koizumi Setsu, daughter of a

samurai family, had four children

1891: Moved to Kumamoto & worked

at Fifth Higher Middle School while

completing Glimpses of Unfamiliar

Japan

LATER LIFE

1894: Wrote for English newspaper, Kobe

Chronicle

Began teaching English literature at Tokyo

Imperial University

In 1896, became a naturalized Japanese

citizen, taking the name Koizumi Yakumo

In 1903, admitted feelings of isolation &

persecution

1904: Became professor at Waseda

University

Died of heart failure on September 26,

1904 at the age of 54

LEGACY

Grave located at Zoshigaya

Cemetery in Toshima

With introduction of Japanese

aesthetics to west in 1900, Hearn’s

writings became known to the world

Offered the West first glimpses into

pre-industrial and Meiji-era Japan

Homes in Kumamoto and Matsue

are now museums dedicated to him

WORKS ON JAPAN

Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan (1894)

Out of the East: Reveries and Studies in New Japan (1985)

Kokoro: Hints and Echoes of Japanese Inner Life (1896)

Gleanings in Buddha-Fields: Studies of Hand and Soul in the Far East

(1897)

The Boy Who Drew Cats (1897)

Exotics and Retrospectives (1898)

Japanese Fairy Tales (1898)

In Ghostly Japan (1899)

Shadowings (1900)

Japanese Lyrics (1900)

A Japanese Miscellany (1901)

Kottô: Being Japanese Curios, with Sundry Cobwebs (1902)

Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things (1903)

The Romance of the Milky Way and Other Studies and Stories (1905)