Read Lafcadio Hearn's Japan Online
Authors: Donald; Lafcadio; Richie Hearn
Note:
Entries in the glossary follow modern Romanized spelling. Terms within brackets are written in Hearn's original Romanization.
ama-zake:
sweet saké
ame:
candy
ameya:
sweets shop
azukimeshi [adzukimeshi]:
rice and red beans
bake-mono ki:
literally, ghost tree
bokkuri:
girl's clogs
butsu-ma:
room with a Buddhist altar
ch
Å
:
1. distance of about 120 yards 2. town
ch
Å
zu-bachi [chodzu-bachi]:
basin for washing the hands
daimy
Å
:
feudal lord
dohy
Å
-ba:
wrestling ring
d
Å
shin b
Å
zu:
priest
enoki:
(Chinese) nettle tree
eta:
outcast class
fukusa:
square cloth for wrapping a small gift
fumi-bako:
lacquered box for keeping letters
gaki:
hungry ghost; famished devil
geta:
wooden clogs
gohei:
hanging white paper strip in a Shinto shrine
gosh
Å
:
the future life; the life to come
hachiya:
outcast class
haka:
tomb
hakaba:
cemetery
hakama:
man's formal divided skirt
hanashi-ka:
storyteller
hara-kiri:
ritual suicide by cutting the abdomen
hashira [bashira]:
pillar
hata-moto:
direct vassal of the shogun
heike-gani:
mask crab
heimin:
commoner
hibachi:
charcoal brazier
hij
Å
:
inanimate nature
hiki-gaeru:
toad
hinoki:
Japanese cypress
hotaru:
firefly
hotoke:
the Buddha
hototogisu:
cuckoo
ihai:
mortuary tablet; memorial tablet
inki:
gloom; melancholy
inkyo [inky
Å
]:
retired person
Jiz
Å
: bodhisattva usually shown with a jewel in one hand and a staff in the other, commonly regarded as the patron of children
jor
Å
:
prostitute
jor
Å
ya:
brothel
j
Å
shi:
lovers' suicide
j
Å«
jutsu:
judo
kach
Å«
yashiki [katchi
Å«
yashiki]:
house of a retainer of a
daimy
Å
kaimy
Å
:
posthumous Buddhist name
kake-mono:
hanging scroll
kakitsubata:
rabbit-ear iris
kamakake:
praying mantis
kami:
god; gods
kami-yui:
hairdresser
kannushi:
Shinto priest
katsuo-no-eboshi:
Portuguese man-of-war
kawarake:
unglazed earthenware
kazari:
ornament; decoration
ken:
prefecture
koku:
unit of dry measure equivalent to about 5.1 US bushels
koniwa:
small garden
kura:
storehouse; godown
kuruma:
ricksha
kuruma-ya:
ricksha man
Kwannon: the bodhisattva Kannon; goddess of mercy
ky
Å
:
sutra
mamori:
amulet; charm
meido:
hades; the underworld
minmin-zemi:
robust cicada
mi-tarashi:
holy washing trough
mizu-ame [midzu-ame]:
thick clear syrup
mokugyo [mokyogy
Å
]:
hollow wooden block shaped like a dolphin's head, which is tapped to accompany the chanting of a Buddhist sutra
nins
Å
-mi [ninsomi]:
physiognomist
nobori:
banner; streamer
o-bake:
monster; ghost
obi:
sash
o-ch
Å
zu-bachi:
wash basin for washing the hands
o-fuda:
holy text; holy charm
oni:
goblin; fiend
ri:
distance of about 2.44 miles
rin:
unit of currency equal to one-thousandth of a yen
rokushaku:
loincloth
sakura-no-hana:
cherry blossom
sakura-no-ki:
cherry tree
sanb
Å
[sambo]:
small wooden stand for an offering at a Buddhist temple or Shinto shrine
segaki:
mass for the dead
semi:
cicada
sen:
unit of currency equal to one-hundredth of a yen
shachihoko:
dolphin-like ornament on the roof of a castle
shikimi:
sacred plant used for offerings in Buddhist ceremonies for the dead;Â Japanese star anise
shime-nawa:
sacred rope of twisted rice straw
shinj
Å«
:
lovers' suicide
shiry
Å
-yoke:
charm used as protection against a ghost
shizoku:
person of samurai descent
sh
Å
ji:
paper-covered wooden sliding door
sh
Å
konsha:
Shinto shrine for the spirits of war dead
sh
Å
ry
Å
-bune:
straw boat for the spirit of a dead person
sh
Å
ry
Å
-dana:
shelf to welcome the souls of the departed at O-Bon, theÂ
Buddhist observance for the spirits of ancestors
sh
Å«
:
sect
soba:
buckwheat noodles
sobaya:
shop selling buckwheat noodles
suiban [suïbon]:
shallow container for flowers
tabi:
Japanese sock with the big toe separated from the other toes
tai:
sea bream
taka-geta:
clogs with high supports
tanabiku:
to hang or lie over, as of clouds
tasuki:
sash cord for holding up tucked kimono sleeves
tegashiwa:
kind of oak
tengu:
creature in Japanese folklore with a long beak, feared as an abductor of humans
to:
door
toko: toko-no-ma
tokoniwa:
miniature garden within a
toko-no-ma
toko-no-ma:
wall niche in a Japanese home for displaying a scroll, flowers, etc.
torii:
gatelike structure at a shrine or on a path leading to a shrine
t
Å
r
Å
:
1. lantern 2. praying mantis
tsukutsuku-b
Å
shi:
kind of cicada
uguisu:
Japanese nightingale
ujigami:
tutelary god of a place; patron saint
ujiko:
person living under the patronage of a local god
uj
Å
:
animate thing
ume-no-hana:
plum blossom
ume-no-ki:
plum tree
waraji:
straw sandals
yama:
mountain
yama-bato:
turtledove
yama-no-mono:
outcast class
yashiki:
mansion; estate
y
Å
ki:
loveliness; vivacity
yuzuri-ha:
kind of evergreen used for New Year's decoration
zashiki:
room
zuihitsu:
light essay; random notes
Writings on Japan by Hearn
Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan,
1894. Reprint. Tokyo: Charles E. Tuttle, 1976.
Out of the East: Reveries and Studies in New Japan,
1895. Reprint. Tokyo: Charles E. Tuttle, 1972.
Kokoro: Hints and Echoes of Japanese Inner Life,
1896. Reprint. Tokyo: Charles E. Tuttle, 1972.
Gleanings in Buddha Fields: Studies of Hand and Soul in the Far East,
1897.
Reprint. Tokyo: Charles E. Tuttle, 1971.
Exotics and Retrospectives,
1898. Reprint. Tokyo: Charles E. Tuttle, 1971.
Japanese Fairytales
, 1898 through 1922, five volumes.
In Ghostly Japan,
1899. Reprint. Tokyo: Charles E. Tuttle, 1971.
Shadowings,
1900. Reprint. Tokyo: Charles E. Tuttle, 1971.
A Japanese Miscellany: Strange Stories, Folklore Gleanings, Studies Here and There,
1901. Reprint. Tokyo: Charles E. Tuttle, 1967.
Kott
Å
: Being Japanese Curios, with Sundry Cobwebs,
1902. Reprint. Tokyo: Charles E. Tuttle, 1971.
Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things,
1904. Reprint. Tokyo: Charles E. Tuttle, 1971.
Japan: An Attempt at Interpretation,
1904. Reprint. Tokyo: Charles E. Tuttle, 1955.
The Romance of the Milky Way and Other Studies and Stories,
1904. Reprint.
Tokyo: Charles E. Tuttle, 1974.
Uncollected Pieces:
“A Winter's Journey in Japan.”
Harper's Monthly,
November, 1890.
“From My Japanese Diary.”
Atlantic Monthly,
November, 1894.
“The Ballad of Shun Toku Maru.”
The Chrysanthemum,
vol. 2, no. 1, 1897.
“Notes on a Trip to Izumo.”
Atlantic Monthly,
May, 1897.
“The Nun Ryone.” London:
Transactions of the Japan Society,
vol. VI, part 3.
Writings on Hearn
Allen, Louis, and Jean Wilson.
Lafcadio Hearn: Japan's Great InterpreterâA New Anthology of His Writings.
Folkestone, Kent: The Japan Library, 1992.
Barel, Leona.
The Idyll: My Personal Reminiscences of Lafcadio Hearn.
Tokyo: Hokuseido Press, 1933.
Bellair, John.
In Hearn's Footsteps.
Huntington University Editions, 1994. Beong-cheon Yu.
An Ape of the Gods: The Art and Thought of Lafcadio Hearn.
Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1964.
Bisland, Elizabeth.
Life and Letters of Lafcadio Hearn.
Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1906.
Chamberlain, B. H.
Letters
. Tokyo: Hokuseido Press, 1936.
ââââ .
More Letters.
Tokyo: Hokuseido Press, 1937.
Chisolm, Lawrence.
Fenollosa: The Far East and American Culture.
New Haven: Yale University Press, 1963.
Cott, Jonathan.
Wandering Ghost: The Odyssey of Lafcadio Hearn.
New York: Alfred Knopf, 1991.
Dawson, Carl.
Lafcadio Hearn and the Vision of Japan.
Baltimore & London: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1922.
Goebel, Rolf J. “Japan Was Western Text: Roland Barthes, Richard Gordon Smith, and Lafcadio Hearn.” Pennsylvania State University:
Comparative Literature Studies,
vol. 30, no. 2, 1993.
Goodman, Henry, ed.
The Selected Writings of Lafcadio Hearn.
New York: Citadel Press, 1949.
Hasegawa Yoji.
Lafcadio Hearn's Japanese Wife: Her Memoirs.
Tokyo: Micro Printing Co., 1988.
ââââ .
Walk in Kumamoto: The Life and Times of Setsu Koizumi, Lafcadio Hearn's Japanese Wife. With a New Translation of Her Memoir, “Reminiscences.”
Folkestone, Kent, UK, Global Oriental, 1997.
Hearn Centennial Committee.
Selected Writings of Lafcadio Hearn
. Tokyo: Kenkyusha, 1953.