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HEARN

Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jun 18, 2016
Lian Hearn's newest fantasy brings "Game of Thrones"-style intrigue to ancient Japan
The second book in "The Tale of Shikanoko," Lian Hearn's four-part fantasy series, necessarily suffers from having neither a real beginning nor an end. "Autumn Princess, Dragon Child" spends most of its time picking up the pieces left over from the previous denouement and getting everybody in position...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Apr 2, 2016
'Emperor of the Eight Islands' reveals a Japan populated by spirits, ghosts and gods
Under the pseudonym "Lian Hearn," Gillian Rubinstein has published six novels set in a fantastical version of Japan's past, most notably the popular "Tales of the Otori" series. "Emperor of the Eight Islands" is the first in a new four-part series called "The Tale of Shikanoko" that will be published...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jan 23, 2016
Insect Literature
The Berlin-based author Yoko Tawada recently remarked that one of the difficulties she faced when translating Kafka's short story "Metamorphosis" into Japanese was that the associations Japanese people had with insects — even presumably giant beetles — were different to those of Europeans. Tawada...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / BACKSTREET STORIES
Oct 24, 2015
Grave company at Zoshigaya Cemetery
When persimmon leaves and the tips of maples take on color, and chilly air rattles windows, composer Yoshinao Nakada's haunting song "Chiisai Aki Mitsuketa" ("A Bit of Autumn Found") floats through my mind. Having just learned that the song's lyricist, talented poet Hachiro Sato (1903-74), rests in Zoshigaya...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Oct 10, 2015
Lefkada's Hearn: Europe reclaims its literary 'lost son'
The Greek island of Lefkada, rising from the Ionian Sea south of Corfu, is famed for its white beaches and vertical cliffs from which the poet Sappho is said to have leaped to her death. The island is also claimed as the one of the potential sites of Homer's Ithaca, home of the great wandering hero Odysseus....
CULTURE / Books / ESSENTIAL READING FOR JAPANOPHILES
Jul 11, 2015
Lafcadio Hearn's timeless anthology of ghost tales
What is it about "Kwaidan"? It wasn't Lafcadio Hearn's first take on Japanese ghost stories — it wasn't even his first such book whose title was a single Japanese word starting with "K" ("Kotto" was published two years earlier, in 1902). But it's "Kwaidan" that still claims a place in literary history,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Feb 11, 2015
Couples beware as Kayoko Shiraishi returns in intriguing style
Actress Kayoko Shiraishi is famed for her portrayals of male and female characters of all ages almost as if she were possessed by their souls.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Sep 20, 2014
Lafcadio Hearn: 'Japanese Thru and Tru'
A small cage was opened at Lafcadio Hearn's funeral, setting birds into the air, the soul of the deceased presumably taking flight with them. His coffin was draped in chrysanthemums and fragrant olive, adorned by a laurel wreath. Seven Buddhist priests read the sutras at Kobudera (now Jishoin Enyuji...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Sep 20, 2014
Glimpses of Lafcadio Hearn's Matsue
The Matsue-bound train I boarded at Okayama Station was pointedly named Yakumo, a reference to its destination's best-known former resident: Greek-Irish writer Lafcadio Hearn (1850-1904), whose adopted Japanese name was Yakumo Koizumi.
JAPAN / History
Apr 19, 2014
Taking a maiden stab at expansionism in Taiwan
Taiwan is Japan's forgotten colony.

Longform

Dangami House is a 180-year-old former samurai residence of the Kato clan, who ruled over Ozu, Ehime Prefecture, until the Meiji Restoration.
A house, a legacy and the quiet work of restoration in rural Japan