Lafcadio Hearn

Patrick Lafcadio Hearn (June 27, 1850 - September 26, 1904), also known as Koizumi Yakumo (????) after gaining Japanese citizenship, was an author, best known for his books about Japan. He is especially well-known to the Japanese for his collections of Japanese legends, one of which was made into a film by Masaki Kobayashi (Kwaidan (1965)).

The legacy of Lafcadio Hearn

While Lafcadio Hearn is no longer well-known in the West, and is even falling out of common knowledge in Japan, he still has a small, fairly devoted fanbase, and his influence on Western knowledge of Japan (though most cannot put his name to it) cannot be denied.

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His life and works were celebrated in The Dream of a Summer Day, a play that toured Ireland in the April and May of 2005, which was put on by the Storytellers Theatre Company and directed by Liam Halligan. It was a detailed dramatisation of Hearn's life, with four of his ghost stories woven in.

Related Topics:
The Dream of a Summer Day - 2005 - Storytellers Theatre Company - Liam Halligan

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