Proceedings
LECTURES

Lafcadio
Hearn
&
Japan

8th October, 2015
Dublin City University
Dublin, Ireland

Proceedings
LECTURES

LafcadioHearn& Japan
8th October, 2015
Dublin City University
Dublin, Irelanddate: Thursday 8th October, 2015, 2-4pm
venue: HG17, Nursing Building, Dublin City University, Dublin, Ireland
welcome speech by Brigitte Le Juez (Director of the MA in Comparative Literature in Dublin City University)
introduction by Bon Koizumi (Professor, University of Shimane; Great-grandson of Lafcadio Hearn)
lectured by Akiko Manabe (Professor, Shiga University)
Eisuke Kotani (Associate Professor, University of Toyama)
Shiro Yuki (Associate Professor, University of Toyama)
Rodger S. Williamson (Professor, The University of Kitakyushu)
coordinated by Ryoko Sasamoto (Lecturer in Japanese-Asian Studies, Dublin City University)organizer: Dublin City University
co-organizer: Sanin Japan-Ireland Association “The Open Mind of Patrick Lafcadio Hearn—Coming Home”

Published on 25th March, 2016
by Dublin City University / Sanin Japan-Ireland Association
hearn2015.sanin-japan-ireland.org
www.facebook.com/hearn2014
Copyright © 2015 The Open Mind of Patrick Lafcadio Hearn—Coming Home

2

CONTENTS

Foreword 

4

Dorothy Kenny & Ryoko Sasamoto

Introduction 

6

Bon Koizumi
lectures

Lafcadio Hearn and Akutagawa Ryunosuke 

8Eisuke Kotani

The impact of Lafcadio Hearn on Japanese Culture:
A Reading of “Yuki-Onna” 

10Shiro Yuki

W. B. Yeats, Ernest Fenollosa and Lafcadio Hearn:
Literary Triptych connecting East and West 

12

Akiko ManabeThe Longing and Belonging of Lafcadio Hearn 

15Rodger S. Williamson

Japanese Tea Ceremony 

17

Lafcadio Hearn & Japan

3

‘T
Foreword

はじめに

4

Foreword

he Open Mind of Patrick Lafcadio
Hearn - Coming Home’ Project was anenriching experience for us all at Dublin
City University. As part of the Project, we were
honoured to host a special seminar on ‘Lafcadio
Hearn and Japan’, led by Professor Bon Koizumi, thegreat-grandson of Lafcadio Hearn.
As the leading institute in Japanese Studies in
Ireland, it was an absolute delight for Dublin City
University to welcome Professor Koizumi and four
excellent speakers- Dr Eisuke Kotani, Professor
Akiko Manabe, Professor Rodger Williamson and
Dr Shiro Yuki- to our University, where they spoke
to a keen audience that included staff and students
from DCU, pupils from local high schools, andmembers of public. The speakers were extremely
engaging, and we were all fascinated by Hearn’s
world, which was conjured up right in front of us
200 years on. The speakers’ enthusiasm for Hearn
was infectious and indeed, it was very moving for us
as lecturers to see our own students not only
listening intently to great talks on Hearn’s work, but
engaging actively in discussions afterwards.
The seminar talks were followed by a tea
ceremony workshop, led by Ms Sachiko Nakamura& Ms Makiko Nakamura, the sisters from Matsue's
oldest tea house. The sisters’ tea ceremony
demonstration was beautiful, allowing us toexperience the quiet serenity of the tea ceremony.
Such engaging talks and the serene tea experienceleft us with warm feelings in our hearts and minds.
This event had a particular significance for us.
Lafcadio Hearn represents the close relationshipbetween Ireland and Japan, he was the pioneer of
Ireland-Japan dialogue, and his work has influenced
Japanese and Irish literature greatly. We are fullycommitted to continuing Lafcadio Hearn’s
pioneering work: since the introduction of Japanese
to our programmes nearly thirty years ago, Dublin
City University has been at the forefront of Japanese
language and culture education at tertiary level in
Ireland. Japanese is currently taught across three
undergraduate programmes: Applied Language andTranslation Studies, Business International withJapanese, and the BA Joint Honours Programme in
the Faculty of Humanities and Social Science.
Japanese is also offered on the MA in Translation
Studies and the MSc in Translation Technology. The
number of students on Japanese programmes is
steadily increasing, with some 100 students
currently majoring in Japanese at DCU. With the
expansion of research clusters in the area ofJapanese and Asian Digital Studies as well asJapanese Language Studies, we aim to continue
blazing a trail for Japanese Studies in Ireland, and togrow into Ireland’s leading centre for Asian Studies.
As part of our ongoing engagement withJapanese Studies, we wish to continue our dialogue
with people we met during the visit from ‘The Open

Mind of Patrick Lafcadio Hearn- Coming Home’
Project. Indeed, we hope that this seminar was justthe first step towards future collaboration.
Finally, we would like to thank Professor Bon
Koizumi and Mrs Shoko Koizumi, the Director of‘The Open Mind of Patrick Lafcadio HearnComing Home’ Project, our four distinguishedspeakers- Dr Eisuke Kotani, Professor Akiko
Manabe, Professor Rodger Williamson, and Dr
Shiro Yuki- as well as Ms Makiko Nakamura and
Ms Sachiko Nakamura for the tea ceremony, Mr
Yuichi Yamada from the Embassy of Japan, and Dr
Patrick Cadwell, who acted as an interpreter.

Professor Dorothy Kenny

ドロシー・ケニー

Head of School
School of Applied Language and Intercultural Studies
Dublin City University
国立ダブリンシティー大学応用言語異文化学部長

Dr Ryoko Sasamoto

笹本涼子‘Lafcadio Hearn and Japan’ Coordinator
School of Applied Language and Intercultural Studies
Dublin City University「ハーンと日本」
コーディネイター
国立ダブリンシティー大学応用言語異文化学部

Lafcadio Hearn & Japan

5

Introduction

イントロダクション

Bon Koizumi

小泉凡Professor, University of Shimane; Great-grandson of Lafcadio Hearn
島根県立大学教授、小泉八雲曾孫

6IntroductionI

t is my greatest pleasure and highest honor todeliver a lecture about Lafcadio Hearn andintroduce Japanese culture through aworkshop of Tea Ceremony at Dublin City
University today. In addition to them, several events
such as reading performances and a special
exhibition at Dublin Little Museum are being heldin Ireland. As one descendant, I would like to show
my deepest appreciation for those concerned withthese events.
These events are titled as “The Open Mind of
Patrick Lafcadio Hearn—Coming Home.” In 2009,
we started to hold the art exhibition “The Open
Mind of Lafcadio Hearn” at Athens. We havethought that “open mind” is a central idea not onlyof Hearn’s life and literature, but for that necessary
for people living in the twentieth-first century. Later,
this exhibition was successively taken place at
Matsue, New York, and New Orleans, all of which
are the places that have some connection to Hearn.
The last year, at Lefkada Greece, we tried to consider
his open mind in the international symposium. This
whole events were suggested by a Greek man Takis
Efstathiou, who has loved Hearn for a long time.
At the symposium of the last summer, nine
panelists from Japan, Greece, Ireland andMartinique considered from many directions themeaning and utilization of the open mind of
Lafcadio Hearn in the modern society. Hearn, who
had been marginal and transnational throughout hiswhole life, could always cherish his unique open
mind without denying misunderstanding, anger, andprejudice. His open mind is the outcome of his
continual curiosity to stimulate interests oversomething new and different. Finally, all thepanelists agreed in the importance for children tohave opportunities to open new paths from the open
mind that Hearn had.
By the way, for some people who are unfamiliar
to Hearn’s name, I would like to talk briefly about
Hearn’s biography. He was born on the small islandof Lefkada in the Ionian Sea, Greece, as the son of an
Irish man Charles Bush Hearn and a Greek woman
Rosa Cassimati. When he was only two years old, he
was brought to Dublin, and spent the mostformative years of his youth in Ireland. Because hismother finally went back to Greece at the age of four,
he was raised by his grand-aunt Sarah Brennane.
However, her bankruptcy forced him to move to
America and live by himself. After his arrival in
Cincinnati, despite of great poverty, he succeeded asa newspaper journalist. When he was in New
Orleans, at about the age of thirty-five, the display of
the Japanese pavilion in the New Orleans Exposition
evoked his interest in Japanese education andculture. After leaving New Orleans, he went toMartinique Island on the Caribbean Sea todocument the life and habit of the place. In New
York, where he stayed after Martinique, he had an
opportunity to read the English translation of Kojiki,in which many Japanese historical myths arereported. Then, at the age thirty-nine, four years
after his first encounter to the things of Japanese, hecame to Japan as a special correspondent of Harper’s.

However, soon after his arrival, he cancelled thecontract of the correspondent, and finally decided tosettle in Japan. Since then, he lived in Matsue,
Kumamoto, Kobe and Tokyo. He mainly earned aliving by teaching English in public schools, andwrote many works prolifically at the same time.
When he was forty-five, he officially married Setsu
Koizumi, a daughter of the former samurai classliving in Matsue, and naturalized in Japan with theJapanese name of “Yakumo Koizumi.”
Today, lectures about Hearn will be delivered bythose four scholars majoring Japanese literature,
Irish literature, and American literature atuniversities in Japan. After these lectures, aworkshop of the tea ceremony follows.
For this session and workshop at Dublin City
University, I would like to express my heartfelt
appreciation for the efforts of Prof. Dorothy Kenny,
Prof. Ryoko Sasamoto, and Prof. Niam Kerry. ThenI also express my gratitude to the lecturers of thissession: Prof. Eisuke Kotani, Prof. Shiro Yuki, Prof.
Akiko Manabe, Prof. Rodger Williamson, and Ms.
Sachiko and Makiko Nakamura, all manage tocome from Japan. It would be my greatest pleasurethat the name of an Irish writer, Patrick Lafcadio
Hearn, who had the enduring vision throughout ourtime, will be widely known. And finally, as one
citizen of Japan, this tea ceremony, which has long
been one important cultural symbol in the country
loved by Hearn, will become an opportunity for you
to understand our country much more. Thank you
for listening.

Lafcadio Hearn & Japan7

Lafcadio Hearn and Akutagawa Ryunosuke

小泉八雲と芥川龍之介

Eisuke Kotani

小谷瑛輔

Associate Professor, University of Toyama
富山大学准教授L

afcadio Hearn has certainly had a major
impact on Japanese literature. Many of thewriters who contributed to Japanese
literature in the mid-19th and early 20th centuries,
including Natsume Soseki also Akutagawa Ryunosuke,
were graduates of Tokyo Imperial University. These
writers took up the ideas and techniques of European
literature from places like Britain, Ireland, France,
and Germany in their writing. Akutagawa only
entered Tokyo Imperial University in 1913 while
Hearn had died almost 10 years earlier in 1904. He
was affected in many ways by Hearn.
Before Akutagawa became famous, he had
written a review in a newspaper of a book by histeacher at university, Matsu-ura Hajime. Akutagawa
said that Matsu-ura had the same sensitivity as
Hearn. Hearn’s indirect influence on Akutagawa
through the university lessons given by Hearn’s
one-time student Hajime Matsu-ura.
In addition to this, Akutagawa studied under
Natsume Soseki, and Soseki was, in fact, the one
who went on to succeed Lafcadio Hearn as a teacher
of English at the university. When Soskei took overfrom Hearn, it is no secret that several students who
were still very attached to Hearn showed somehostility to Soseki. Indeed, Soseki continued to be
seen as just a substitute for Hearn by the students atthe time.
So Akutagawa would be taught by this next
generation of teachers who lived in Hearn’s shadow.
In 1914, before he came to fame as a writer andwhile still a university student, Akutagawa
translated the work “Clarimonde” by Théophile
Gautier. The story tells of Romuald, a young priest,
who has a dream in which he finds himself being
drawn to a beautiful woman called Clarimonde. The

8

Lafcadio Hearn and Akutagawa Ryunosuke

senior priests try to help him by taking him to thegraveyard to show him that Clarimonde is, in fact,
dead, but this leaves Romuald emotionally scarred.
In Japan, there is a well-known story that is very
similar to this one. In “Kwaidan,” Hearn introduced
the story of Mimi-Nashi-Hoichi. Similarly to
Clarimonde, the main character in this story called
Hoichi is a lute-playing priest. He also becomes
drawn to the world of the dead and is helped by asenior priest who reveals the true nature of thepeople with whom Hoichi has been communicating.
And again, the story ends with the heavy toll that
this all takes on the main character Hoichi.
It was not the case that Akutagawa accidentallytranslated a story that was very similar to Hearn’smasterpiece. This is because Akutagwa’s translationof “Clarimonde” is not a direct translation from
French. What Hearn translated into English issomething that was further translated into Japanese.
Hearn’s “Clarimonde” and “Mimi-Nashi-Hoichi”
are both based on the same subject matter, andHearn himself wrote them to recommend thestories to other interested people, so it is no surprisethen that the works share common points. Hearn’s
interests lay in stories selected from French
literature and from Edo-period Japan.
It should be noted here, too, that Natsume
Soseki also read works translated into English by
Hearn such as those of Gautier. Akutagawa first
visited Soseki's home in 1915. The following year, anageing Soseki would begin to get rave reviews for his
work and would suddenly become an acclaimed
writer, but before that a link had been forged
between Soseki and Akutagawa, and that link was
the European literature that had been introduced tothem by Hearn.

In 1914 Akutagawa had not yet made his debut
as a writer, and he had still written very little, but histranslations of such works as William Butler Yeats’“The Heart of the Spring” and “The Celtic Twilight”
are representative of this period. Yeats is one of
Ireland’s famous writers, and it was Hearn who
introduced the works of Yeats to Japan. After this,Akutagawa would become passionate about Irish
literature. For example, he read a lot of Bernard
Shaw, and he was even likened to Shaw when hemade his debut as a major writer with“handkerchief ”. It is no exaggeration to say that
Lafcadio Hearn was the source of Akutagawa being
so receptive to Irish literature in this way.
In fact, Hearn was even involved in how
Akutagawa writes the two masterpiece “Rashomon”
and “The Nose”. In 1915, Akutagawa said that he had
been disappointed in love and wanted to write
something as amusing as possible.
Akutagawa confided about this situation in a
letter to his best friend, Igawa Kyo. In that August of
1915, Akutagawa went on a trip to Matsue, Igawa’s
hometown. Then, he came back to Tokyo in that
September and finished writing “Rashomon”. It is said
that if he had not healed his broken heart on that trip,
he might not have been able to write “Rashomon”.
For Akutagawa, one of the attractions of a tourist
destination like Matsue was of course the ancient
Shinto Shrine Izumo Taisha. However, anotherattraction would have been that it was a place where
Hearn had once lived. And so it was that the monthafter breathing in the same mysterious Matsue airthat Hearn had once breathed, Akutagawa wrote“Rashomon”.
“Rashomon” is set in the ruined city of Kyoto in
Heian Period Japan sometime in the 8th to the 12th
centuries. It is a story about a servant who has lost
his job and is about to turn to a life of crime tosurvive. He meets an old woman who is stealing hairfrom the dead bodies scattered all around the
Rashomon gate of the city. Then, the servant robs
the old woman of her clothing and runs away.
The question of what exactly is ‘amusing’ about
any of this is a question that has been debated by

Akutagawa scholars for many years now. Also, it
seems hard to believe that this novel was the resultof the author healing the wounds of his broken heartin Matsue.
But perhaps one explanation for all this could be
the presence of Hearn in Akutagawa’s life. Hearn
managed to find humanity and hope in the grotesque,horrific stories that he wrote, and he also knew how
to find these things in the Japanese classics. At aglance, Akutagawa’s “Rashomon” can appear
grotesque strewn as it is with corpses, but some of theauthor’s positivity can also be found there.
In this way, Akutagawa made his debut under
the influence of Hearn.
The English version of this manuscript comes from aJapanese paper given at Dublin City University that was
kindly translated into English by Patrick Cadwell. I take all
responsibility for its publication and content.
参考文献『中央公論』大正八年一月• 芥川龍之介「あの頃の自分の事」『新思潮』大正五年二月• 芥川龍之介「鼻」『中央公論』大正五年十月• 芥川龍之介「手巾」• 芥川龍之介、藤岡蔵六宛書簡、大正四年八月十四日『芥川龍之介全集 第十七巻』岩波書店、平成九年三月『読売新聞』• 芥川龍之介「松浦一氏の「文学の本質」に就いて」
大正五年一月十二日「 羅生門」『帝国文学』大正四年• 芥川龍之介（柳川隆之介名義）
十一月• 井上洋子「「神々の微笑」の主題と方法～ハーン、フローベール
作品とのかかわりから～」『語文研究』平成八年十二月• ウィリアム・バトラー・イェイツ、芥川龍之介（柳川隆之介名義）訳「春の心臓――W.B.Yeats――」『新思潮』大正三年六月• ウィリアム・バトラー・イェイツ、芥川龍之介（柳川隆之介名義）訳「「ケルトの薄明」より」『新思潮』大正三年四月『國學院大學大学院紀• 上田正行「鏡花、漱石、そしてハーン」
要――文学研究科』平成二十六年三月『芥川龍之介研究年誌』• 神田由美子「芥川龍之介と小泉八雲」
平成十九年三月• 小谷瑛輔「芥川龍之介「手巾」論――演劇論､ 問題文芸論との関わりから」『国語と国文学』平成二十四年十二月• テオフィル・ゴーティエ、芥川龍之介訳「クラリモンド」久米正雄訳『クレオパトラの一夜』新潮社、大正三年十月• Hearn, Lafcadio. “The Story of Miminashi-Hoichi” Atlantic
Monthly, 1903.

Lafcadio Hearn & Japan

9The impact of Lafcadio Hearn on Japanese Culture:
A Reading of “Yuki-Onna”

ラフカディオ・ハーンが日本の文化に与えた影響――「雪女」をめぐって

Shiro Yuki

結城史郎

Associate Professor, University of Toyama
富山大学准教授L

afcadio Hearn has been alternatively
called a Greek, an Irishman, an
American and a Japanese, and therefore
he may be considered as an elusive cosmopolitan
writer. However, in Japan, some critics say, “Hearn’s
works are Japanese Literature written in English,
and they are part of our Japanese cultural
inheritance.” In fact, still today, studies on Hearn
are flourishing in Japan, as a result of which I talked
about Hearn’s particular appeal for us Japanese. For
this purpose, I first of all took up Hearn’s famousstory “Yuki-Onna” included in his famous book
Kwaidan, a collection of ghost stories.
Hearn had a keen interest in the folklore ofJapan, and rewrote it as stories with literaryfragrance, and thereby impressed Japanese readers.
His method is called retelling or adaptation. There isplenty of room for re-imagining and re-tellingaround that point.
Hearn’s composition also seems to be based on
his questions about Japanese folklore, but he rewrote
them imaginatively and lovingly. Hearn was asuperior writer who could spread his wings ofimagination. Kwaidan is one collection of suchrewritings. And as I have already stated, Kwaidan isa collection of ghost stories and “Yuki-Onna” is oneof the stories included there. But “Yuki-Onna” isHearn’s own original story rather than a retelling. It
appears that Hearn’s “Yuki-Onna” was adopted as
folklore throughout Japan.
Yuki-Onna is a personification of snow. Japanese
winter is thick with snow. The story of “Yuki-Onna”
is suited to such a land and climate as Japan. And
concerning the personification of the natural world,
Hearn also writes about trees and animals. Kwaidan
is a collection of ghost stories and we are generally

10

siezed with terror while hearing about ghosts
because they are concerned with people. But Hearn
humanely sympathizes with the ghosts andcomposes the plots of ghost stories according to his
sentiments. For Hearn, ghosts are representative of
not terrors but souls evocative of sorrow, solitude
and grace. Ghosts occasionally invade into thesmooth human life of this world and unconsciously
break our cosmic harmony.
In that sense Yuki-Onna might have been ahuman being in a previous life. However, just as
when by metempsychosis she might have beentransformed to snow owing to some destiny, shemight have again been transformed back into ahuman being. According to Hearn human beings
are transformed not only into animals and plants
but also into waves and rocks.
In Kwaidan, willow and cherry trees have souls
like human beings. This means that Hearn loved all
the tiny creatures around him. In “Yuki-Onna” wecan even observe the communion with the soul ofsnow. Hearn might have felt such mystic
communions with the natural world.
Incidentally, where is Yuki-Onna living? YukiOnna has a very mysterious existence. She comesfrom somewhere unknown to us and then disappears
again also to somewhere unknown to us. This
unknown place may be a place not of this world. In
English the place might be called “the netherworld,”
or “the spiritual world," or just “the other world.”
In this connection, we can say there is a
threshold between this world and the other world.
And ghosts cross the threshold and return to thisworld. Yuki-Onna is one such ghost. The otherworld is different from this world, but there may besome connection between the two worlds.

The impact of Lafcadio Hearn on Japanese Culture: A Reading of “Yuki-Onna”

Secondly, I scrutinized the difference between theWest and the East to be explored in the story. Here, I
examined “Yuki-Onna” again in more detail. Virtually,snow is white and it transforms the landscape into abeautiful spectacle, but snow can also sometimes
become so terrible that it kills many people. We cansay that snow has two aspects: generative anddestructive, or affirmative and negative. And YukiOnna has also such a contradictory power. She kills
Mosaku, while she saves Minokichi, then marrieshim, and bears him ten children.
Hearn is said to have been moved by
Baudelaire’s “The Moon’s Blessing.” This is a story
depicting a mother-like moon looking down on an
infant. The moon is like a femme fatale. Yuki-Onnais certainly a femme fatale as popularised at thefin-de-siècle in the Western World. That is why noone in Japan but Hearn could create such a powerful
woman as Yuki-Onna. Here we can see thedifference between the West and the East.
Accordingly, we might infer that Hearn’s own
mind is unconsciously projected in the story of“Yuki-Onna.” For Japanese readers nature is neutral,
while for Western people nature is represented as apersonification of woman. Hearn points out this fact
in one of his lectures. Therefore, Yuki-Onna being
represented as a femme fatale is peculiarly Western.
There is no such sensibility in Japan. We Japanese
love nature rather as a neutral thing. So “Yuki-Onna”
is Hearn’s own unique story. We might guess thatsomething like anima is projected into the story of“Yuki-Onna.”
On the other hand, we cannot subsume the storyof “Yuki-Onna” solely within the stereotype of thefemme fatale. That is apparent when Yuki-Onnadisappears at the end of the story. After all, YukiOnna had been happy leading a routine life with
Minokichi and her children, but she must have been
uneasy as to whether or not Minokichi might breakhis taboo, despite her having ordered him to keep
secret what he had seen. Therefore, she had todisappear again when Minokichi broke the taboo.
We can guess that Yuki-Onna would like to havestayed with Minokichi and with their children. That
is why she approaches Minokichi threateningly andthen disappears. We can get a glimpse of Hearn’s
own mother’s story in the background of Yuki-Onna.
The solitude of Yuki-Onna who must leave herhome and return to the other world is that of an
unhappy woman who confronted man’s betrayal andwas at a loss with her sorrow. Hearn may have been
more interested in the character of Yuki-Onnarather than in Minokichi and their children. The
scene where Yuki-Onna leaves home seems tosuggest her utter mortification.
Lastly, I talked about Hearn’s impact on Japaneseculture. Indeed, Hearn rewrote many stories about
Japanese culture which we ourselves had forgotten.
Japan enthusiastically imported Western culture
and disrobed its own clothes. In doing so, theJapanese also lost sight of their love of nature.
In those days, the Japanese supported the idea
“Quit Asia and Join Europe.” This meant the idea thatJapanese should literally disrobe themselves of their
Asian clothes and wear European ones instead. Thus
the Japanese rode on the waves of industrialization
because they believed that everything European wasbest. However, while Japan developed, it disrobed
itself of its own culture and she lost her own identity.
When we reflect on such historical flow, weJapanese feel that Hearn’s foresight on Japaneseculture was precocious. However, we ourselves are
now reflecting nostalgically on traditional Japaneseculture. Of course, if we didn’t accept European
cultures, we could not have developed as we did, but
we are particularly conscious of our own lost culturein the current global world.
Anyway, it was an Irish Hearn that contributed
to spinning beautiful stories out of crude Japanesefolklore. But, in addition, Hearn could assimilate
into Japanese culture and introduce them to theWestern world. We cannot praise his exploits toomuch. What he has done for Japan is that heuncovered traditional values buried in theunconscious of the Japanese people and introduced
those values abroad while at the same timeenlightening the Japanese.
Hearn’s stories remind us of what Japanese are
and how we are constructed, because he rewrote ourown traditional values. Hearn might have been
worried more than anyone else at the time with theloss of Japanese culture. Hearn’s stories move us
because they touch our heartstrings. This is true of“Yuki-Onna.” It speaks to us of a cosmic humanharmony with nature.

Lafcadio Hearn & Japan11

W. B. Yeats, Ernest Fenollosa and Lafcadio Hearn:
Literary Triptych connecting East and Westハーン、
フェノロサ、
イェイツ――東西を映す三面鏡

Akiko Manabe

真鍋晶子

Professor, Shiga University
滋賀大学教授T

he three figures, William Butler Yeats,
Ernest Fenollosa and Lafcadio Hearn,share a common characteristic of “openmindedness,” influencing each other as well as
contributing to the West’s discovery of Japan at theturn of the 20th century.
As a small child when I read Hearn’s stories from
Kwaidan, I became fascinated with the beauty, thearchaic tone based on Japanese aesthetics handed
down over the ages. My innocent imagination was
stimulated all the more because of the sense of terror,
fear and some eeriness in his work. This is an aspect
we should not casually dismiss: beauty with a shadeof terror often works its magic in Hearn’s prose. In
addition, the rhythm or song-like quality of Hearn’s
writing was spellbinding. I remember myself
dancing around singing “Chinchin Kobakama
Yomofuke Soro” after reading “Chinchin Kobakama.”
These qualities are essential to Hearn’s world—
beauty enhanced by terror as well as a song-like
quality created through his poetic imagination.
This leads me to a discussion of one of Hearn’sclasses at Tokyo Imperial University where hetaught from 1896 to 1903 and where he gave a lecture
entitled “Some Fairy Literature” (Life and Literature,324-339). Among the topics he dealt with in thislecture are two of Yeats’ works: a poem, “The Folk of
the Air” (1893) and a play, The Land of Heart’s Desire(1894). He so highly appreciated this particular
poem that he remarked that it was “the best modern
fairy poem by far which I know of ” (Ibid, 326).
Hearn pointed out that “fairy belief ” is “terrifying
and gloomy” and that the poem’s “subject is supreme

12fear.” Yeats himself emphasizes the terror regarding
fairies when he talks about a “door of Fairland” near
Sligo: “There is no more inaccessible place upon theearth, and to an anxious consideration few moreencircled by terror” (Mythologies, 70).
This poem created a direct connection between
Yeats and Hearn. When Yeats revised the poem with
the new title, “The Host of the Air,” compiling it into
The Wind Among the Reeds in 1899, Hearn was aghast.
Though the change was not major, the damage
Hearn felt was intolerable. Hearn’s letter, written on
June 22, 1901, clearly tells how he was devastated by
the “literary crime” Yeats committed by changing
the poem Hearn most adored. (Thanks to Professor
Bon Koizumi, I could gain access to Hearn’s lettersto Yeats.) Here is an example of Hearn’s admiration
for the original: “I held that in all English ballad
literature it had no superior in the quality of “thrill”
which it gave,.... Never have you written, and neverwill you write—(no mortal man could write)—abetter fairy–poem than the first version of your
“Folk of the Air.”” On the other hand, his shock was
explicit with this specific editorial change: “You havemangled it, maimed it, deformed it, extenuated it—
destroyed it totally!”
Here I will quote both versions of the first two
stanzas, which provide the context for Hearn’s critic:“When you substituted “reeds” for “weeds” in the firststanza, you extinguish a most effective and eerie
association of ideas, —for the word “reed,” presents
to the mind an image of rigid perpendicularity, andcould not possibly suggest a dream of long dim hair.”W. B. Yeats, Ernest Fenollosa and Lafcadio Hearn: Literary Triptych connecting East and West

O’Driscoll drove with a song
The wild duck and the drake,
From the tall and the tufted weeds
Of the drear Hart Lake.

O’Driscoll drove with a song
The wild duck and the drake
From the tall and the tufted reeds
Of the drear Hart Lake.

And he saw how the weeds grew dark
At the coming of night tide;—
And dreamed of the long dim hair,
Of Bridget, his bride.

And he saw how the reeds grew dark
At the coming of night-tide,
And dreamed of the long dim hair
Of Bridget his bride.

The original is on the left (Life and Literature,326-27) and the revised version is on the right(Collected Works, 52-54). Hearn discerns the exact
images of every word in Yeats’ poem, and connects
the images to create an integrated whole—connecting the specific concrete details of the solid
images of “weeds” with “Bridget’s hair.” Moreover, we
can see how Hearn thinks so highly of the “eerie”ness.
He says at another point: “[you] confused yourperfect original sense of the strength and worth of
the simple and true, —dulled your rare sensitivenessto ghostly impressions.” Here he connects “ghostly
impressions,” with the “simple and true.” Thissuggests that the ghostly, the eerie, touches the very
essence of what Hearn believed in.
He further elaborates on the deletion of one
whole stanza: “Not to speak of the minor changes—
each a literary sin, —let me ask what on Earth you
imagined you were doing for the poem insuppressing the catastrophe, —the admirable stanza
about the keening for the dead? Why you merely
tore the soul out of it!”Though we do not have Yeats’ direct response,
another letter written by Hearn on September 24
reveals the fact that Yeats sincerely answered thisoverly strong, almost accusative voice from Japan.
Thinking of the postal time lapse of that period,
Yeats’ quick reply is rather surprising. Hearn’s second
letter suggests Yeats even promised “to partly restore“Folks of the Air” to its original strange beauty.”“Strange beauty” has the similar quality to “eerie,
beauty with terror, ghostly, dreams” which bothHearn and Yeats so admired. Yeats obviously did notignore Hearn’s opinion altogether but, as if to showrespect, he even shared his newly written poem,“Baile and Aillin,” which was to be published two
years later. Yet Hearn’s second letter to Yeats reveals
that Hearn was still not completely satisfied.
Hearn concluded his lecture on the fairy
literatures by explaining the reason he gave “so muchtime to a discussion of foreign superstition in foreign
literature”: “When you can judge of the value thatsuch ideas have been to European poetry andromance, you will be better able to understand thepossible future value to your own literature of Eastern
beliefs that are now passing or likely to pass away”(Life and Literature, 339). Hearn emphasizes the valueof Yeats collecting “a great number of stories andlegends about fairies from the peasantry of Southern
Ireland” (Ibid., 325). Yeats along with Lady Gregorycollected stories, poems and songs, which were orally
handed down, touching Irish people’s soul, at the timethey were about to disappear. Yeats and Gregory not
only recorded this folklore, but also created their own
poetry and dramas based on these traditions, which
breathed new life into traditional Irish folklore. Hearn
understood the scope of Japan’s Westernization, theloss of traditional art, literature, folklore, all being
rapidly threatened. Hearn wanted his students toretain their own cultural identity. Hearn himself, bycollecting and rewriting Japanese old stories as well as
writing essays on Japan, kept these tales alive.
Another one of our triptych, an American art
historian, Ernest Fenollosa acted as a cultural
go-between by saving Japanese traditional culture
like Nohgaku, architecture, and art at the time ofradical Japanese Westernization where Japanesetraditions were on the verge of being eradicated.
Fenollosa and Hearn were colleagues at Tokyo
Imperial University. Though Hearn was not usuallysociable, both Ernest and his second wife Mary
formed a strong bond with Hearn. Mary who was alover of literature and herself a novelist/poet, was along-standing fan of Hearn’s work even before shecame to Japan. Their correspondence suggests
evidence of their mutual respect. Fenollosa highly
appreciated both Hearn’s work and his humansensitivity (Yamaguchi, vol II, 142-55).
One crucial detail I would like to turn to is thefact that Fenollosa was attracted to Hearn’s
Lafcadio Hearn & Japan

13

observations on Chinese characters, or “ideographs”
in Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan (4-5). Fenollosa
appreciated Hearn’s observation of “poetical qualityof the written character” (Yamaguchi, vol I, 144).
Later Fenollosa wrote an essay, The Chinese Written
Character as a Medium for Poetry, which Ezra Pound,
who received all Fenollosa manuscripts from Mary
after his sudden death in 1908, became fascinatedwith contributing to Pound’s own peculiar
ideogrammic method. Pound states, “We have here astudy of the fundamentals of all aesthetics”(Fenollosa, 3). This method provided a
revolutionary impact on modernist poetics and wecannot over-emphasize the importance ofFenollosa’s essay in terms of its contribution tomodernist poetic theory.
Fenollosa’s manuscripts contributed to Yeats’creative process. Pound immediately communicatedthe value of Fenollosa’s manuscripts to Yeats who
found the breakthrough in Japan’s classical theatre,
Nohgaku, when he was desperately searching for a
new dramatic genre. This is the essential connectionin the two panels of the triptych: Fenollosa andYeats, but I do not have the time here to discuss thispoint in greater detail.
I will conclude by showing how this triptych ofYeats, Fenollosa and Hearn created a tradition
integrating Irish literature with Japanese aesthetics
which still persists to this day. Among Hearn’s
students, the leading poet Bin Ueda and Hakuson
Kuriyagawa, introduced Irish contemporary
literature while teaching at Kyoto Imperial
University. Among their students was Kan Kikuchi,a leading novelist/playwright whose works Yeats
valued and who himself put on performances in
Ireland. Kikuchi became deeply attracted to Irish
literature and even said “we should make Kyoto the14

Dublin of Japan” when he was trying to create a newliterary movement in Kyoto (Suzuki, 207-33). Yeats’knowledge of Noh greatly influenced his dramas
which he created through his encounter with
Fenollosa’s manuscripts. In fact, Yeats’ plays haveeven been performed in Japan in traditional Noh andkyogen styles. This, in turn, has stimulated
contemporary Japanese dramatists who continue tocreate new styles of drama, such as those by Mario
Yokomichi and Mutsuo Takahashi. From this initialseed, this creative triptych sowed the creative l’esprit
for the 20th century Japan. This literary line
continues today, reminding us of their importancein connecting the East and the West thanks to theirappreciation of cross-cultural open-mindedness.
References• Fenollosa, Ernest. The Chinese Written Character as a
Medium for Poetry. Ed. Ezra Pound. San Francisco: City
Lights Books, 1936, 1968, 1991.
• Hearn, Lafcadio. Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan. Boston, New
York: Houghton Mifflin and Co. 1894.
• —. Japanese Fairy Tale Chin Chin Kobakama. Tokyo:
Hasegawa & Son. 1903.
• —. Kwaidan. Boston, New York: Houghton Mifflin and
Co. 1904.
• —. Letters to W.B. Yeats. June 22 and September 24, 1901.
MS.
• —. Life and Literature. Ed. John Erskine. New York: Dodd,
Mead and Company, 1917.
• Suzuki, Akiyo.『越境する想像力』[Imagination Going
Beyond Borders]. Osaka: Osaka University Press, 2014.
• Yamaguchi, Seiichi.『フェノロサ――日本文化の宣揚に捧げた一生（上）（下）』[Fenollosa: Life Devoted to
Acknowledgement of Japanese Culture to the World, Vol. I andII]. Tokyo: Sanseido, 1982.
• Yeats, William Butler. The Collected Works of W.B. Yeats
vol.I. The Poems, Second Edition. Ed. Richard J. Finneran.
New York: Scribner, 1997.
• —. Mythologies. London: Macmillan, 1959, 1984.

W. B. Yeats, Ernest Fenollosa and Lafcadio Hearn: Literary Triptych connecting East and West

The Longing and Belonging of Lafcadio Hearn

ラフカディオ・ハーンの憧憬と帰属

Rodger S. Williamson

ロジャー・S・ウィリアムソン

Professor, The University of Kitakyushu
北九州市立大学教授

As an Irish immigrant, Lafcadio Hearn
lives for an extended period in the
United States, never feeling completely
at home. What he describes as “a spirit ofrestlessness” follows him throughout his life. His
affection for his Greek mother was greatly
intensified by the betrayal of his Irish father who
dissolved their marriage in 1863. She left Dublin andhe never saw here again after the age of 13. He would
later feel she had been the victim of western
aggression. Hearn would never forgive his father. A
root of Hearn’s rebellious tendencies against western
institutions most likely goes back to theabandonment by his father who chooses his military
career over him and his mother. Before coming toJapan, he is a veteran travel writer and journalist
with a reputation for studies of exotic, nonmainstream cultures. His interpretations would
become an amalgam of his Western and Irish
sensibilities imprinted upon an exploration his own
personal preferences in his study of the Japanese.
In 1890, Japan is another interesting and exotic
assignment to which he can focus and indulge his
aesthetic and journalistic ambitions as a writer. His
departure without a written contract clearly shows his
ambition and confidence as a journalist and interpreterof different cultures. He is already established as ahighly acclaimed sensationalist journalist for his
sketches of the Levy culture of Cincinnati and theCreole cultures of New Orleans and the West Indies.
As a journalist from the young age of twenty-two,
Lafcadio Hearn endeavored to educate his readers
about the faults and vices of the Western world. As awriter of non-mainstream, marginal sub-cultures, he
had developed a culturally sensitive antenna fororienting his observations to minute, yet profounddetails of society. A book on Japan would be his
continuation and crowning achievement.
Upon his arrival in Yokohama in 1890, his pridegets the best of him and he goes off on his own after
writing an angry letter of resignation. Fortunately, asa Westerner, Hearn could fulfill a specific role as
dictated by the needs of modern Japan. He could
teach English. His desire to examine Japan from thebeliefs and folklore of the common man and his
decision to live amongst the Japanese with his wife
Setsu and her family, shape his vision of Meiji Japan.
The dimension of Hearn’s affinity for grass roots
Japan can be attributed partly to his upbringing in
Ireland. It was natural for Hearn to recognize thegood qualities of the Japanese by experiencing
Japanese life through a medium that he knew so wellbecause of his Irish upbringing. He naturally felt
there was something of high quality, even superior innature to the Westernized layers of Meiji Japan.
Hearn was able to establish himself fairly quickly
as an educator and it would be at Tokyo Imperial
University when names W.B. Yeats as “onerepresentative poet” “who himself collected a great
number of stories and legends about fairies from thepeasantry of Southern Ireland” (Life and Literature325). Hearn senses something corresponding to his
own sensibilities through his interpretative approach
via grassroots myth and folklore. As a boy in Ireland,
he was raised to respect the peasant beliefs of the
Irish tradition and he chooses to investigate theroots of Japanese culture through this medium.
What others see as uncivilized and crude, he sees asromantic and fresh. To him, these were thefoundations of beauty he saw in the Japanese.
Osman Edwards, a colleague of Tokyo Imperial
University, recalls Hearn as saying that “an artist’s
Lafcadio Hearn & Japan15

first concern was beauty” and “to choose such
subjects as satisfied his highest instincts and gave thenoblest pleasure” (Edwards 18).
The very first essay in Hearn’s second book Outof the East, entitled “The Dream of a Summer Day” isthe beginning of a gradual movement towards the
specific exploration of those Japanese subjects thatsatisfy his own instincts. According to Paul Murray,this tale of a kingdom of eternal youth in the sea isvery similar to the Irish legend of Oisin. Of course, it
is not known for sure that Hearn was attracted tothis particular tale for its similarity to those he wastold during his boyhood. But, the fact that this essay
contains a flashback from his childhood is a good
indication. Just as Urashima Taro opens the box andlooses eternal youth, Hearn remembers the traumaof the parting of his mother who once told him
beautiful stories. The box becomes a small charmfrom his mother that he loses and just as the vaporof youth evaporates with the opening Urashima
Taro’s box, Hearn forever loses his childhood (Out of
the East 21).
In his version of the legend of Urashima Taro he
implants his own impressions of the day. His style
becomes a synthesis of legend and adventure with adescriptive sketch of scenery and insertions of
dialogue to present an interesting and exotic settingof events for the reader. In his third book Kokoro heillustrates his belief that Japanese “moral beauty” issuperior to Western “intellectual beauty” by tellingthe story of a young samurai who decides to becomea student of Western Learning. In Gleanings in
Buddha-Fields Hearn asserts that the ethics that thisyoung samurai discovers are still present, contrary to
outward appearances. However, the reader would
never suspect that beyond his passion lie
overwhelming feelings of alienation in Japan.
It is Kumamoto where he first lives among the
educated men of Meiji Japan and his interaction withthem makes him feel isolated and used as a foreign
educational tool. Hearn is a man contradiction; it is
the new Japan, not the old, that can pay him quite
handsomely as a foreign lecturer and it is the newJapan that could decide foreign teachers areunnecessary. However, he does admit there is a
comfort in his foreign surroundings. Unfortunately
this would create blind spots that would add to hisfrustrations as an outsider. Hearn would continue to

16

The Longing and Belonging of Lafcadio Hearn

oscillate between his love for “old Japan” and feelingsof alienation within modern Japan.
He comes to see his “ideal” as the Japan of thepast. He refuses to lose this image and strives to keep
it alive by isolating himself from other foreigners
and Japanese. His message that the culture of Japanis in many respects superior to and transcends theaccomplishments of Western intellect andtechnology is intended not only for the West, butalso for the Japanese of the Meiji Era as well. Hearntells his readers and his students that the oldJapanese were morally superior because theyrecognized the human heart as infinitely morevaluable than human intellect. His decision toignore modern Japan is a product of his desire toconvey his love of what he sees as remarkable traits
threatened by the encroachment of Western ideas
and institutions. One might say that he attempted“to put Japan in a bottle” to make it understandable
for his Western audience, the Japanese and himself.
References• Barrett, Clifton Waller. Collection of Lafcadio Hearn
Manuscripts, MS., Special Collections, University of Virginia.
• Bisland, Elizabeth. The Japanese Letters of Lafcadio
Hearn. Boston and New York: The Riverside Press
Cambridge, 1910.
• —. The Life and Letters of Lafcadio Hearn. Boston:
Houghton Mifflin Company, 1923.
• Edwards, Osman, ed. “Some Unpublished Letters ofLafcadio Hearn,” The Transactions of the Japan Society of
London, Vol XVI, (1908) 16-35• Hasegawa, Yoji. Lafcadio Hearn’s Wife: Her Memoirs and
Her Early Life. Tokyo: Micro Printing Company, 1988.
• Hearn, Lafcadio. Exotics and Retrospectives. Boston: Little
Brown and Company, 1898.
• —. Lafcadio. Letter to W. B. Yeats. 22 Sept. 1901. MS.
• —. Gleanings in Buddha Fields. Boston: Little Brown andCompany, 1897.
• —. Kokoro. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1896.
• —. Life and Literature. New York: Dodd, Mead andCompany, 1917.
• —. Manuscripts, New York: AMS Press, 1975.
• —. Out of the East. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company,
1895.
• Ichikawa, Sanki. Some New Letters and Writings of Lafcadio
Hearn. Tokyo: Kenkyusha Publishers, 1925.
• Koizumi, Kazuo. Letters from Basil Hall Chamberlain to
Lafcadio Hearn. Tokyo: Hokuseido Press, 1936.
• Murray, Paul. A Fantastic Journey: The Life and Literature of
Lafcadio Hearn. Sundate, Folkestone, KentCT20 3EE:
Japan Library, 1993.

Japanese Tea Ceremony

日本茶の体験

In the workshop of Japanese tea ceremony, after
brief talk regarding tea ceremony and Japanese tea
by Sachiko Nakamura and Makiko Nakamura, theparticipants actually made tea. It was a great
opportunity of cultural exchange between Japan and
Ireland through tea ceremony, with sweets imaging
sakura and shamrock provided by Mamoru Naito,
president of SaninJapan-Ireland Association.
About fifty participants including high school
and college students, looking a little nervous withthe first experience of Japanese tea ceremony, said it
was a good experience. The workshop was
conducted smoothly with the cooperation ofvolunteers and Japanese embassy staff.

Lafcadio Hearn & Japan17

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