Think not that dreams appear to the dreamer only at night, the dream of this world of pain appears to us even by day.

In this book, famed author Lafcadio Hearn presents 14 fascinating stories--including deathless ghosts and yokai, local folklore and haunted places, as well as Buddhist traditions. This edition includes a new foreword by Michael Dylan Foster which explains the book's importance as a Japanese cultural and literary classic.

The Japanese have two kinds of ghosts in their folklore--the spirits of the dead and the spirits of the living. In Ghostly Japan examines both and, in the process, offers a fascinating window into Japan's supernatural and spiritual world.

The 14 stories include:

• Fragment--A young pilgrim encounters a mountain of skulls and is shown a terrible truth
• Ingwa-banashi--On her deathbed, a dying wife bequeaths to her young rival a sinister and horrific gift
• A Passional Karma--A spectral beauty transcends death to return for her handsome samurai lover
• Story of a Tengu--A priest saves the life of a Yokai monk and is granted a wish, but the outcome is not as expected

While some stories contain spine-tingling imagery, others offer looks into Japan's rich culture and folklore. Bits of Poetry offers an engaging study on the nation's fascination with verse, Japanese Buddhist Proverbs explains the meaning of several traditional Zen Buddhist sayings and Incense examines its use in rituals to summon and banish spirits.

Whether you're interested in classic ghost stories, or simply want to enjoy the prose of a legendary writer, In Ghostly Japan affords countless delights.

Eerie tales of Japanese goblins, ghosts and magic--beautifully illustrated by contemporary Japanese yokai artist Sakyu!

This collection of fifteen chilling tales brings to life a world where the supernatural and earthly realms are seamlessly entwined. The ghosts, goblins and magical creatures in its pages are by turns mischievous, terrifying, protective and tender. Included in this anthology are:

• The Badger Haunted Temple: A brazen group of friends attempts to rid a temple of a gluttonous, shape-shifting goblin who has taken up residence there
• A Cherry Flower Idyll: A young man falls in love with the ethereal spirit of a cherry blossom tree and vows to find her in the mortal world
• The Story of Mimi Nashi Hoichi: A blind bard is summoned to recite the tale of a famous battle to the ghosts of its victims, only to find that his own life is at risk
• And twelve other supernatural tales, including several that rarely appear in English!

Passed down through generations, these classic tales are beautifully retold by Lafcadio Hearn and Yei Theodora Ozaki, two great interpreters of Japanese folk traditions. This volume features a deluxe hardcover binding and sixteen all new, full-color illustrations by contemporary Japanese yokai artist Sakyu. It will be treasured by fans of yokai and Japanese culture, as well as anyone who enjoys a good ghost story.

Brilliantly entertaining and eerie ghost stories, regarded as major classics in Japan, by the Irish writer and Japanophile Lafcadio Hearn--whose life inspired bestselling writer Monique Truong's novel The Sweetest Fruits

A Penguin Classic

In this collection of classic ghost stories from Japan, beautiful princesses turn out to be frogs, paintings come alive, deadly spectral brides haunt the living, and a samurai delivers the baby of a Shinto goddess with mystical help. Here are all the phantoms and ghouls of Japanese folklore: rokuro-kubi, whose heads separate from their bodies at night; jikininki, or flesh-eating goblins; and terrifying faceless mujina who haunt lonely neighborhoods. Lafcadio Hearn, a master storyteller, drew on traditional Japanese folklore, infused with memories of his own haunted childhood in Ireland, to create the chilling tales in Japanese Ghost Stories. They are today regarded in Japan as classics in their own right.

Upon his arrival in Japan in 1890, Lafcadio Hearn found himself enamored with the culture, people, and stories of the country, and would make Japan his home until his death in 1904. His collections of stories published during this time became the most popular of Hearn's writings, and earned him veneration worldwide as not only a great translator of Japanese mythology, but as a sensational teller of strange and wonderfully macabre tales. Kwaidan is most commonly translated as weird or horror tales, but to assign one word to the people, places, ghosts, and gods in this work, one can only use the word strange. This collection of supernatural tales includes twenty stories translated from old Japanese texts. Hearn was made a professor of English literature in the Imperial University of Tokyo in 1895, and is today revered by the Japanese for providing significant insights into their own national character. This edition is printed on premium acid-free paper.

Featuring elegant designs, In a Japanese Garden Coloring Book is the perfect stress-reliever for fans of classical Japanese art and literature.

For centuries, Japanese artists have honored simple beauty in prints, paintings and books. This adult coloring book recreates 23 artworks for you to color--images of flowers and trees, garden residents such as the bird and the butterfly, and in-the-moment scenes of people taking in the pleasures of these peaceful corners of the world.

A copy of the original print sits opposite your coloring canvas as a reference. Reflections from Lafcadio Hearn's In a Japanese Garden as well some works of the great haiku masters will inspire you as you apply pencils or fine markers to your page.

When your masterpiece is complete, tear it out at the perforation to frame and display.

Most of the following Kwaidan, or Weird Tales, have been taken from old Japanese books, -such as the Yaso-Kidan, Bukkyo-Hyakkwa-Zensho, Kokon-Chomonshu, Tama-Sudare, and Hyaku-Monogatari. Some of the stories may have had a Chinese origin: the very remarkable Dream of Akinosuke, for example, is certainly from a Chinese source. But the story-teller, in every case, has so recolored and reshaped his borrowing as to naturalize it... One queer tale, Yuki-Onna, was told me by a farmer of Chofu, Nishitama-gori, in Musashi province, as a legend of his native village. Whether it has ever been written in Japanese I do not know; but the extraordinary belief which it records used certainly to exist in most parts of Japan, and in many curious forms... The incident of Riki-Baka was a personal experience; and I wrote it down almost exactly as it happened, changing only a family-name mentioned by the Japanese narrator

This thrilling collection of seven Japanese ghost stories will captivate lovers of yokai stories

These classic Japanese ghost stories are based on those written by famed author Lafcadio Hearn between 1890 and 1904. Here, they are retold by award-winning comic book writer Sean Michael Wilson, who has garnered a worldwide fan base for his manga adaptations of works of Japanese literature, including such classics as The Book of Five Rings and The Demon's Sermon on the Martial Arts.

Manga Yokai Stories includes:

• Nuke-kubi: A masterless samurai is trapped in a house haunted by headless goblins
• The Screen Maiden: A young man develops an obsession with a woman in a painting that almost kills him
• Corpse Rider: A woman's unburied corpse cannot rest until she has taken her revenge on the man who divorced her
• A Dead Secret: A young mother terrifies her family when she returns as a ghost, unable to find peace until she puts to rest a shocking secret she has left behind

Wilson's skillful adaptation of Hearn's ghostly tales--along with superb manga illustrations from UK-based Japanese artist Inko Ai Takita--make these fascinating stories come to life.

This book is in traditional Japanese reading order--from back to front--so that fans and manga lovers can enjoy an authentic reading experience.

The insect-world is altogether a world of goblins and fairies. - S mi

As Lafcadio Hearn observes in his essay Insects in Greek Poetry, the capacity to enjoy the music of insects and all that it signifies in the great poem of nature tells very plainly of goodness of heart, aesthetic sensibility, a perfectly healthy state of mind. And to this, one might add a keen sense of wonder.

Insect Literature collects twenty essays and stories written by Hearn, mostly in Japan, a land where insects were as appreciated as in ancient Greece. With a witty gentleness bordering on the eerie, Hearn describes in these pieces the song of the cricket, the spectral flight of dragon-flies, quotes the entomological haiku of classical Japan, and recalls Buddhist tales in which the souls of insects and men are never far one from the other.

Even as she screamed, her voice became thin, like a crying of wind; then she melted into a bright white mist that spired to the roof beams. Never again was she seen.

Lafcadio Hearn's Kwaidan (which means ghost story in Japanese) is the first and most famous collection of Japanese yokai stories ever published. This unforgettable collection of 17 eerie tales and 3 original cultural studies by Hearn are based on traditional oral tales passed down for generations. They are fresh reminders of the dark and mysterious corners of the Japanese psyche, from popular representations in anime, manga and video games to Masaki Kobayashi's Oscar-nominated horror film Kwaidan.

This new edition includes over 20 full-color woodblock prints that showcase the rich visual tradition of Japanese Yokai. A new foreword by Michael Dylan Foster, the leading Western expert on Yokai literature, places the stories in context and explains the lasting importance of Hearn's pioneering look at Japan's bewitching spirit world.

The stories in this volume include:

• Yuki-onna -- A ghostly woman saves a man during a fierce snowstorm then gives him a deadly warning...
• The Story of Mimi-Nashi-Hoichi -- A musician is unwittingly called upon by a Samurai to perform for the dead, with bloody consequences.
• Diplomacy -- A Samurai warrior avoids the ghostly revenge of a man he intends to kill by outsmarting him before striking he strikes the death blow.

Hearn is the best-known early Western interpreter of Japanese culture and was particularly interested in tales of the supernatural. He eagerly gathered delicate, transparent, ghostly sketches in his adopted land and translated them with gusto. His English versions were translated back into Japanese and are considered classics of Japanese literature to this day--eagerly devoured by Japanese school children.

New Orleans in 1878 was the most exotic and cosmopolitan city in North America. An international port, with more than 200,000 inhabitants, it was open to French, Spanish, Mexican, South American, and West Indian cultural influences, and home to a thriving population descended from free African Americans. It was also a battleground in the fight against yellow fever (malaria) and in the political upheavals that followed the end of Reconstruction. The continued influx of Anglo-Americans and the renewed ascendancy of white supremacists threatened to overwhelm the local blend of languages, races, and cultures that enlivened the unique Creole character of the city. Writing for an English-language newspaper, Lafcadio Hearn presented the speech, charm, and humor of the Creolized natives on the other side of Canal Street, and illustrated his sketches with woodcut cartoons - the first of their kind in any Southern paper. These vignettes, published in the New Orleans Daily Item during 1878-1880, capture a traditionalist urban world and its colorful characters with a delicate and sympathetic understanding.

This collection of writings from Lafcadio Hearn paints a rare and fascinating picture of pre-modern Japan.

Over a century after his death, author, translator, and educator Lafcadio Hearn remains one of the best-known Westerners ever to make Japan his home. His prolific writings on things Japanese were instrumental in introducing Japanese culture to the West.

In this masterful anthology, Donald Richie shows that Hearn was a reliable and enthusiastic observer who faithfully recorded detailed accounts of the people, customs, and culture of late 19th-century Japan. Opening and closing with excerpts from Hearn's final books, Richie's astute selection from among over 4,000 printed pages also reveals Hearn's later, more sober and reflective attitudes to the things that he observed and wrote about.

Part One, The Land, chronicles Hearn's early years when he wrote primarily about the appearance of his adopted home. Part Two, The People, records the author's later years when he came to terms with the Japanese people themselves.

The 18 writings include:

The Chief City of the Province of the Gods

Three Popular Ballads

In the Cave of the Children's Ghosts

Bits of Life and Death

A Street Singer

Kimiko

On A Bridge

Through Lafcadio Hearn's Japan, discover turn-of-the-century Japan through the eyes of a talented and eloquent observer.

Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan is a complete, two-volume set of one of the most outstanding books on 19th century Japanese history and culture.

Though Lafcadio Hearn went on to write a dozen more books on Japan, this collection of first impressions remains his most popular. Among the reasons is that here, more than anywhere else, the author most vividly captured a place that so affected him that he stayed for the rest of his life. The modern reader can still, through these pages, experience that first charm of Japan, intangible and volatile as a perfume.

Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan combines two volumes of a work that first appeared in 1894. In the pages of this book are the customs, the superstitions, the charming scenery, the revelations of Japanese character, and all the other elements that Lafcadio Hearn found so bewitching. Here, for example, are essays on such subjects as the Japanese garden, the household shrine, the festivals, and the bewildering Japanese smile--all aspects of Japanese life that have endured in spite of the changes that have taken place during the modernization of Japan. The Japanese character and the Japanese tradition are still fundamentally the same as Hearn found them to be, and for this reason, his writing is still extremely revealing to modern readers.

This edition also contains a new foreword by noted writer and examiner of Japanese culture Donnie Richie that puts Lafcadio Hearn and his classic works into perspective for readers just discovering Hearn's writing for the first time.

In In Ghostly Japan, Lafcadio Hearn intricately weaves together the cultural fabric of Japan through a series of haunting and evocative tales inspired by local folklore, ghost stories, and spiritual beliefs. Hearn's prose is marked by its lyrical beauty and immersive quality, drawing readers into a surreal world where the supernatural seamlessly intertwines with every aspect of daily life. Set against the backdrop of Meiji-era Japan, the book captures a period of profound transformation, highlighting how ancient traditions and modernity coexist and often collide in the human experience. Lafcadio Hearn, a Greek-Irish writer who became a naturalized Japanese citizen, sought to bridge Eastern and Western cultures through his vivid storytelling. His deep fascination with Japan's mystical elements and religious traditions was rooted in his experiences as an outsider, allowing him to observe and reflect on the culture with both curiosity and respect. Hearn's love for Japan is palpable in this work, as he aims to preserve the ephemeral essence of its ghostly tales for future generations. In Ghostly Japan is essential reading for anyone interested in Japan's rich cultural tapestry and supernatural lore. Hearn's unique perspective, coupled with his artistic flair, invites readers to explore the depths of Japanese spirituality and folklore, making this collection a timeless and haunting journey into the heart of a nation steeped in mystery.

A pilgrim tries to climb a mountain of skulls. A dying woman bequeaths her rival a sinister legacy. A ghostly beauty leaves the spirit world to visit her samurai lover. In Ghostly Japan collects Lafcadio Hearn's writings on the supernatural tales and ghostly lore of old Japan. Drawing on ancient legends passed down through generations, Hearn paints a vivid portrait of spirits, demons, and mysteries that haunt the Japanese imagination. In his characteristically captivating prose, he brings to life phantoms and visions, exploring the country's rich tradition of otherworldly beliefs along with Buddhist proverbs, haiku translations, and the ritual uses of incense. This spine-tingling collection offers a fascinating glimpse into the unseen realms of the Japanese world as envisioned by one of the great chroniclers of Japanese culture who was also a master of the macabre.

At the close of the 19th century, Japan remained a mysterious, isolated land to much of the Western world. In 1889, Greek-Irish writer Lafcadio Hearn became one of the first Westerners to document life in Meiji Era Japan firsthand when he settled in the country to teach English.

In Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan, Hearn captures his fascinating early impressions of Japanese culture, traditions, and remarkable people. He recounts details both quaint and surprising-paper windows, communal bath houses, the lives of dancers, feather artisans, and blind masseurs-with poetic observation and insight gained from integrating into Japanese society as his perspective gradually shifts from that of a Westerner abroad to a Japanese local.

From musings on Shinto death rituals to tales of vengeful ghosts, Hearn entrances readers with Japan's unique spiritual relationship to nature, ancestry, and the supernatural. At times displaying Western attitudes, yet more progressive than many of his era, Hearn develops an affectionate appreciation of Japan. His vivid travel writing captures striking aspects of a nation slowly emerging from centuries of isolation into the 20th century.

Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan was originally published in two volumes; this edition presents the entire work in one, including the author's explanatory footnotes. The text is newly designed and typeset, printed on archival-quality, acid-free paper with case-laminate binding for durability and long use.

The papers composing this volume treat of the inner rather than of the outer life of Japan, for which reason they have been grouped under the title Kokoro (heart). [This] word signifies also mind, in the emotional sense; spirit; courage; resolve; sentiment; affection; and inner meaning, just as we say in English, the heart of things. --Lafcadio Hearn

As an interpreter of Japan for the West, Lafcadio Hearn has no peer. His books are still read with fascination by foreigners and Japanese alike--a tribute to his keen powers of observation and the vividness of his prose. Kokoro is Hearn's love letter to Japan--his exploration of the genius of Japanese civilization and the wonder he felt at encountering these islands and their inhabitants.

The 15 extraordinary stories in this book include:

• Kimiko-- A beautiful geisha hatches a desperate plan to save her mother from poverty but then must make a heartbreaking choice.
• A Conservative-- A samurai's son embraces the West and travels to Europe but finds his new home to be a shallow and faithless land.
• A Street Singer-- A woman captivates crowds with the beauty of her voice, but her life story goes much deeper than her musical talents.
• By Force of Karma-- The peculiar tale of a Buddhist priest who receives a letter from a mysterious woman and ultimately takes his own life.

Published six years after Hearn arrived in Japan, these stories focus on the inner spiritual life of the Japanese. Sometimes touching and always compelling, they are drawn from Hearn's own experiences, telling stories of the people and customs that still make Japan so unique.

Kokoro includes an informative foreword by Patricia Welch which highlights how, 125 years later, our understanding of Japan can still be deepened by Hearn's heartfelt prose.

Deriving its title from the word for ghost story in Japanese Kwaidan is a compilation of supernatural tales from Japan. Hearn writes in his introduction, written only months before his death, that the majority of the stories were translated from old Japanese texts (some of which themselves were based on earlier Chinese tales), although one of the stories, Riki-Baka, he declares to be of his own making, based on a personal experience. Unmentioned in the introduction, another of the stories - Hi-Mawari, written in the first person - appears almost certainly to be born from his own experience also, a recollection of a childhood experience in Wales.

Among the many curious happenings related in the other stories, we read of man-eating goblins, a musician who performs for the dead, a mysterious face appearing in a cup of tea, and, rather terrifyingly, a featureless girl with a face as smooth as an egg.

The final section of the book, Insect-Studies, presents Chinese and Japanese superstitions relating to the insect world: butterflies (personifications of the human soul), mosquitoes (karmic reincarnations of jealous or greedy people), and ants (humanity's superior in chastity, ethics, social structure, longevity, and evolution).

Vastly different from ghost stories in the West, this collection will haunt your dreams and leave you shivering in the dark.