Lafcadio Hearn in International Perspectives

The East-West controversy over the significance and relevance of Lafcadio Hearn as a writer, thinker and interpreter of Japan continues unabated. Not surprisingly, the centenary of his death in 2004 presented an occasion for renewed debate and discussion by both sides of the divide. This volume, edited by one of Hearn’s leading contemporary apologists, in which he is also a significant contributor, presents twenty-two diverse essays drawn from over seventy papers delivered at conferences held in four cities in Japan in 2004, as well as at other international conferences that took place earlier. The contributors are Joan Blythe, John Clubbe, Susan Fisher, Ted Goosen, George Hughes, Yoko Makino, Peter McIvor, Hitobe Nabae, Cody Poulton and Masaru Toda. Their contributions range from Sukehiro Hirakawa’s ’ A Reappraisal’ to Joan Blythe’s ’Enduring Value of Lafcadio Hearn’s Tokyo Lectures’.

Born in 1931, Sukehiro Hirakawa is a doyen of intercultural relations and Professor Emeritus at Tokyo University. Over his long academic career, he has taught in Japan, France, North America, China and Taiwan, and famously, is the Japanese translator of Dante’s Divine Comedy. Among his extensive writings, is an important contribution to the Cambridge History of Japan (Vol. 5, 1989), analysing the Western impact and the Japanese response. Most recently in English, he has published Japan’s Love-Hate Relationship with the West (2005). This current volume on Lafcadio Hearn complements his earlier work Rediscovering Lafcadio Hearn (1997).