MATSUE – A museum in Shimane Prefecture reopened on Saturday with more exhibition space for the personal effects and books of naturalized Japanese writer Lafcadio Hearn, also known as Yakumo Koizumi.
The Lafcadio Hearn Memorial Museum in Matsue had been closed since January for a renewal that has doubled its exhibition space to about 220 sq. meters.
The museum added a multipurpose room and a booth where visitors can listen to Hearn’s ghost stories as recorded by Matsue-born actor Shiro Sano. It also expanded its collection to some 1,500 items, including first editions of Hearn’s books.
Born to an Irish father and Greek mother in 1850, Hearn arrived in Japan in 1890 and married a Japanese woman in Matsue, on the coast of the Sea of Japan, where he lived for more than a year.
Hearn helped introduce Japan’s traditional culture to the world before passing away in 1904 at the age of 54. His representative works include “Kwaidan,” a collection of old Japanese ghost stories.
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