Lafcadio Hearn was a writer born in Greece and raised in Ireland and the United States. He came to Japan in 1890, taught English at a middle school in Matsue, Shimane Prefecture, and later became a Japanese citizen under the name Koizumi Yakumo. He also lectured on English literature at Tokyo Imperial University and elsewhere.
Deeply fascinated by Japanese legends and ghost stories, he published Kwaidan in English in 1904, including “Yuki-onna,” “Mimi-nashi Hoichi” and “Rokuro-kubi.” He is known for introducing Japanese ghost stories to the world, and the Lafcadio Hearn Memorial Museum stands in Matsue.
