Japan-Nantucket (Rashomon): BONUS - Lafcadio Hearn: The more you learn, the more mysterious he becomes.

Jim and Janet are back with a bonus episode about Lafcadio Hearn, a curious character that was among the Americans who became enamored with Japanese culture. He is a man of many worlds and many cultures, who found his true identity in Japan.

This is a production of the Nantucket Atheneum. It is hosted and edited by Janet Forest. It was researched, fact checked and co-hosted by Reference Library Associate Jim Borzilleri. Thank you to Reference Library Associate James Grieder for joining us for this discussion. Special thanks to Shire Video for production support.

SHOW NOTES: If something piqued your interest and it isn’t in the Show Notes, please email info@nantucketatheneum.org. and include “Podcast Question” in the subject header. 

• As we can see in this picture taken with his wife, Setsuko Koizumi, (1868-1932) , Lafcadio Hearn was almost always photographed in profile. 
  
  
• The reference to one of Hearn’s translators as “Kakuzo’s brother” is to Yoshisaburo Kakuzo, sibling of Okakura Kakuzo, who we met in our discussion of William Bigelow. (While it’s unlikely they met in person, Bigelow and Hearn moved in the same circles.) 
  
  
• In November 1906, the same year he published “The Way of Tea”, and had joined the Boston Museum of Fine Arts at Bigelow’s request, Okakura Kakuzo wrote a letter to the New York Times defending Hearn and his writings, saying “….We may differ with his philosophy or quarrel with his deductions, but of all foreign authors he has reached nearest the heart of our people…” 
  
  
• Setsuko Koizumi published a loving memoir of her life with Lafcadio Hearn in 1918, filled with insights into his personality, their working process, and family life. 
  
  
• Hearn’s essay on Jiujutsu, was published as Chapter VII of “Out of the East: Reveries and Studies in New Japan” (1895). · TBH some of the variations bring the count down a bit, but a Keyword search in CLAMS on Oct 8, 2024, with “Lafcadio Hearn” yielded 100 items. 
  
  
• Watchers of Shogun would benefit from reading his essay, “A Conservative”, included in Hearn’s “Kokoro: Hints and Echoes of Japanese Inner Life”
  
  
• Former Atheneum Staff Member Liz Kelly talked about Lafcadio Hearn in our virtual program "Treasures from the Vault" which can be found on our YouTube channel.

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