Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things
Lafcadio Hearn (Yakumo Koizumi)

Lafcadio Hearn (Yakumo Koizumi)'s great works are splendid because they are genuine. He had moved to Japan and lived during a time when such legends and myths were alive and that history had not yet tainted them. Mr. Koizumi wrote the stories during the early 1900s in Japan, translating tales from old Japanese books (such as the Tama-Sudare and Hyaku-Monogatari).

Mr. Koizumi wrote from his experiences and his general admiration for Japan. His works in Kwaidan and in In Ghostly Japan evokes of a quiet author saying: "Here, look at this, you might find this story interesting. It's about Japan." rather than "Look at my book, it's a bestseller/book turned motion picture."

All the collections of Japanese stories contain the story of the blind musician, Hoichi, but Mr. Koizumi's rendition, though written a hundred years ago, remains superior. He skillfully shames the clumsy prose of Hadland Davis's Myths and Tales of Japan (1913) and the straightforward storytelling of Yei Ozaki's Japanese Fairy Tales (1908).

Though a foreigner, Mr. Koizumi's genuine admiration for the Asian country and his dedication to illustrating its unique flavor makes his writings much more rounded.

 

Hearn uses the charming expressions and behavior of the Japanese to great effect in Oshidori, The Story of O-Tei, Ubazakura, Diplomacy and Of a Mirror and Bell. Other writers simplify the Japanese names using English counterparts. Mr. Koizumi retains them.

Rokuro-Kubi is an example of a classical Japanese tale that is simple but far more frightening than anything today's long-winded horror writers could ever churn out. Although much of the cultural aspect of the anecdote of Mujina is lost even to the modern Japanese, it still sends chills down my spine.

Hi-Mawari and Mr. Koizumi's study of mosquitoes and butterflies ruin this perfectly good collection even Alfred Hitchcock would recommend. His observations on the use of kerosene oil and the behavior of ants are drawn out and boring. British writer T.H. White had exhausted the latter subject in his The Book of Merlin (1939) . Although the final pages do not represent the whole and an admittedly disappointing end to the compilation, Kwaidan is a rare masterpiece and deserves a prepared space in any Asian library.

 

Rating:

  
 
August Issue