Japanese

"Yakumo Koizumi (Lafcadio Hearn 1850-1904)"

Lafcadio Hearn was born in Lefkas Island of Greece in 1850, as a child of British army surgeon and a Greek mother. When he was a child, his parents divorced. As his father got married after divorce and also he lost contact with his mother, his great-aunt adopted him. When he was 16 years old, he lost the sight in his left eye in an accident.

It might be a reason why most of his photos captured right hand side of his face instead of front nor left side. Moreover, as his father died from a disease and he lost all support due to his great-aunt's bankruptcy, he had to leave his school.

At the age of 19, he moved to Ohio, U.S. It was right after the Civil War in USA, he experienced poverty-stricken life for a few years, but anyhow he became a newspaper reporter and moved to New Orleans, where he started to publish books while he was doing news report.

In 1884, an international exposition was held in New Orleans, which set him on the path to Japan. He came to a halt in front of Japanese and Oriental booths in the fair. Later, he read Kojiki (the Legendary Stories of Old Japan) and came into devote Japan. When he was requested to write a travelogue of Japan by a publisher, he decided to go to Japan in 1890. However, soon after he arrived in Japan, he cancelled the contract with a publisher due to some problems about salary. But fortunately he could receive support from Basil Hall Chamberlain of Tokyo Imperial University and officials of the Ministry of Education, he moved to Matsue in Shimane located in the western end of Japan to teach English at a junior high school.

Matsue of those days had preserved fine Japanese culture and atmosphere without influence of Westernization, he marked down his impression of Matsue in his book "Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan." When he was in Matsue, he met a woman who was a daughter of local samurai family of Matsue and she took care of him as a housekeeper. Her name was Setsu Koizumi and she supported not
only his daily life but also his writing works, then they got married.

After 15 months later, since he could not stand the severe cold of Matsue, they moved to the southern district, Kumamoto, where he also became a teacher of English. Even though he spent only 15 months in Matsue, he felt nostalgic and therefore he visited Matsue several times after that. His favorite nostalgic flavor and exoticism of Japan seems to be remained in Matsue. Actually, the majority of his main books were written in Matsue.

Hearn was attracted by ghost stories and folk stories passed down by oral in the provinces. The reason of that was that he could find Japanese mentality and nature in such stories. There are a number of stories about ghosts and specters in his works. They have been passed down in Matsue area, but they are not just scary stories. He tried to pursued human spirits through ghost stories. His masterpiece Kaidan (ghost stories) is the compilation of his works.

In 1886, he changed his name Yakumo Koizumi after the permission of naturalization. It's said that his family name Koizumi was given from Setsu's relative and Yakumo was taken from the first part of Japanese poem in Kojiki, "Yakumo tatsu Izumo Yaegaki..."

Before his coming to Japan, he increased his interest to Japan by reading Kojiki and loved the kingdom of God, Matsue and Izumo. Therefore his Japanese name should suit him very well.

After staying in Kumamoto for three years, he moved Kobe and Tokyo, where he started to teach English literature at Tokyo University and Waseda University until 1903. At the age of 54, he ended his life caused by a heart attack.

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