Book review by Jann Williams of Black Dragonfly by Jean Pasley (Balestier Press, 2021) Black Dragonfly is a book of rich imagination, inspired by and incorporating the work of Patrick Lafcadio Hearn (1850 – 1904). Hearn, of Greek-Irish heritage, spent the last 14 years of his life in Japan, recording aspects of Japanese life that …Read More
Tag: Lafcadio Hearn
This is the seventh and last in a series of Lafcadio Hearn stories set in Kyoto. ‘Kimiko’ first appeared in Kokoro (1896). For an introduction to Hearn’s Kyoto stories, please click here. ******************** Synopsis The story is set in the ‘Street of the Geisha’, which at night ‘is one of the queerest in the world’. …Read More
‘The Reconciliation’ first appeared in Shadowings (1900) This is Part 6 of a series of seven stories by Hearn which are set in Kyoto. For an introduction to Hearn’s Kyoto stories, please click here. Synopsis: A young samurai of Kyoto, reduced to poverty by the ruin of his lord, had to take work in the …Read More
(‘Story of a Fly‘ first appeared in Kotto, 1902) Synopsis: The story takes place around 1700 in a merchant’s house in Teramachi. His name was Kyuben, and he and his wife had a maidservant called Tama of whom they were fond. Now Tama showed no interest in clothes and always looked badly dressed. One day …Read More
Before Lafcadio Hearn, there was Pierre Loti. The Frenchman is (in)famous in Japan for his 1887 novel, Madame Chrysantheme, which influenced the short story Madame Butterfly (1898) by John Luther Long. In collaboration with David Belasco, Long turned the story into a play, which in turn inspired Puccini to write his opera of the same …Read More
John Dougill writes… Lafcadio Hearn (1850-1904) was a most remarkable writer, at home in a range of genres. While a journalist in the US, he wrote sensational crime stories and lurid accounts of the grotesque, ranging from macabre incidents to graphic descriptions of a slaughterhouse. Later in Japan he showed himself to be adept as …Read More
(Richard Lloyd Parry will be speaking at Ryukoku University, Omiya campus, on May 12. All welcome; see right hand column for details. The book review that follows is a slightly amended version of the posting on the Green Shinto blog by John Dougill.) *************** March 11, 2011 was a devastating day for Japan. Over 18,500 …Read More
John Dougill writes… Lafcadio Hearn had a taste for the macabre, as is well-known from his Kwaidan (1903) collection of strange stories. In Ghostly Japan (1899) contains one such story which is set in Kyoto. Fittingly enough, it concerns a tengu, for the creatures were much associated with the city, particularly the northern area around …Read More
Lafcadio Hearn is famous for his association with Matsue, Kumamoto, Kobe and Tokyo. Not many people would associate him with Kyoto, yet he wrote a striking cameo entitled ‘Notes of a trip to Kyoto’ following a visit he made on October 23-25, 1895. It was included as a chapter in Gleanings in Buddhafields (1897), and …Read More
Kyoto Writing Competition
WiK Anthologies
The Nature of Kyoto (2023)
Eds. Lisa Twaronite Sone & Robert Weis
Foreword by Pico Iyer
Structures of Kyoto (2021)
Eds: Rebecca Otowa & Karen Lee Tawarayama
Foreword by Judith Clancy
Encounters with Kyoto (2019)
Eds: Jann Williams & Ian Josh Yates
Foreword by Juliet Winters Carpenter
Echoes (2017)
Eds: John Dougill, Amy Chavez, & Mark Richardson
Preface by Alex Kerr
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