Lafcadio Hearn: The Greek National Poet of Japan

Lafcadio Hearn aka Koizumi Yakumo successful 1889. Credit: Wikimedia Commons/Public Domain

Lafcadio Hearn, aka Koizumi Yakumo, (27 June 1850 – 26 September 1904) a unsocial fig successful planetary literature, began his beingness successful Greece and spent the remainder of his vocation successful Japan, becoming a national of the world.

Through his work, Hearn created a span betwixt East and West, and was a devotee of some Greek and Japanese culture.

He believed that Greek and Japanese civilization had communal features in their paganism and animism, and helium visualized Greece arsenic Utopia, historiographer Kathy Warnes writes.

Also known by the Japanese sanction “Koizumi Yakumo,” his books astir the onshore of the rising sun, particularly his collections of Japanese legends and shade stories, person made him an integral fig successful the Japanese literate world.

In the United States, Hearn is besides known for his writings astir the vibrant metropolis of New Orleans, based connected his ten-year enactment there.

The beingness of Lafcadio Hearn

Kalamitsi Beach connected Lefkada. Credit: Ggia /Wikimedia Commons/CC BY-SA 3.0

However, Lafcadio Hearn was neither Japanese nor American. He was calved connected June 27, 1850 connected the Greek land of Lefkada successful the Ionian Sea, and helium adopted his sanction from that precise island.

His begetter was an Anglo-Irish surgeon large successful the British army, Charles Bush Hearn, and his parent was a Greek pistillate of noble lineage, Rosa Antoniou Kassimati.

Lafcadio was baptized Patricio Lefcadio Hearn successful the Greek Orthodox Church, but helium ne'er utilized his archetypal name.

When his begetter was transferred to the West Indies, Lafcadio, who was past six, moved to Dublin with his parent to unrecorded with his father’s family.

However, his parent was not accepted by her husband’s family, and soon, the mates divorced, leaving Lafcadio to beryllium brought up by a great-aunt successful Dublin.

Rosa Kassimatis returned to Greece and ne'er saw her children again.

Young Hearn was injured successful a playground mishap astatine the property of sixteen, suffering nonaccomplishment of imaginativeness successful his near oculus (his consequent pictures fell his near profile). Soon aft his accident, his begetter died.

Hearn became a palmy journalist

At the property of nineteen, Hearn moved to Cincinnati, Ohio. By the spot of his endowment arsenic a writer, helium soon obtained a occupation arsenic a newsman for the Cincinnati Daily Enquirer, moving for the paper from 1872 to 1875.

Hearn soon became known for his accounts of section murders, processing a estimation arsenic the paper’s premiere sensational journalist, arsenic good arsenic the writer of delicate accounts of the lives of immoderate of the astir disadvantaged radical of Cincinnati.

The Library of America selected 1 of these execution accounts, “Gibbeted,” for inclusion successful its two-century retrospective of American True Crime, which was published successful 2008.

During the autumn of 1877, Hearn near Cincinnati for New Orleans, Louisiana, wherever helium initially wrote dispatches connected his discoveries successful the Gateway to the Tropics for the Cincinnati Commercial.

He lived successful New Orleans for astir a decade, penning archetypal for the paper the Daily City Item and aboriginal for the Times Democrat.

His writings for Harper’s Weekly and Scribner’s Magazine helped make the fashionable estimation of New Orleans arsenic a spot with a chiseled civilization much akin to that of Europe and the Caribbean than to the remainder of North America.

Uniting Greece and Japan

In 1890, Hearn traveled to Japan to enactment arsenic a paper correspondent. Although this occupation did not enactment out, Hearn had recovered a spot wherever helium would walk the remainder of his beingness and grow his inspiration arsenic a writer.

Hearn was soon befriended by Basil Hall Chamberlain of Tokyo Imperial University and officials astatine the Japanese Ministry of Education.

At their encouragement, successful the summertime of 1890, helium moved to the metropolis of Matsue to thatch English.

Hearn and his woman Setsu Koizumi. Credit: Wikimedia Commons/Public Domain

Hearn joined Setsu Koizumi, the girl of a section samurai household and embraced Buddhism.

He became a Japanese nationalist and changed his sanction to Koizumi Yakumo.

In December 1896, the Imperial University of Tokyo offered him the presumption of Professor of English Language and Literature. In 1904, helium became a prof astatine Waseda University.

Lafcadio Hearn influenced the constitution of diplomatic relations betwixt Greece and Japan successful 1899.

Lafcadio Hearn maintained transportation to Greece

Although helium ne'er again saw his parent aft 1854, helium continued to consciousness emotion for her and helium took large pridefulness successful his Greek identity.

On Sept. 26, 1904, Hearn died of bosom nonaccomplishment astatine the property of 54. He is buried astatine the Zoshigava Cemetery successful Toshima, Tokyo.

The prolific writer is beloved and memorialized successful some Greece and Japan.

Memorial to Lafcadio Hearn aka Koizumi Yakumo successful Japan. Credit: Kajikawa/Wikimedia Commons/CC BY 3.0

A parkland successful his representation was created successful 1993 adjacent the spot wherever helium died successful Japan. The parkland includes a statue donated by the Greek authorities and respective columns reminiscent of ancient Greek temples.

Hearn’s bequest continues successful his penning and successful plays and exhibitions featuring his work. The Lafcadio Hearn Memorial Museum and his location are inactive fashionable tourer attractions successful Matsue, Japan.

A depository besides opened successful 2014 successful his birthplace, Lefkada, Greece. The Historical Center of Lafcadio Hearn was the archetypal European depository devoted to the antheral who is considered the nationalist writer of Japan.

Hearn’s astir celebrated enactment is simply a postulation of lectures entitled “Japan: An Attempt astatine Interpretation” (1904). His different books connected Japan see Exotics and Retrospectives (1898), In Ghostly Japan (1899), Shadowings (1900), A Japanese Miscellany (1901), and Kwaidan (1904).