Japan: An Attempt at InterpretationThe belief that the dead need affection, that to neglect them is a cruelty, that their happiness depends upon duty, is a belief that has almost cast out the primitive fear of their displeasure. They are not thought of as dead; they are believed to remain among those who loved them.... From their shrine they observe and hear what happens in the house; they share the family joys and sorrows; they delight in the voices and the warmth of the life about them.-from "The Religion of the Home"In 1889, Westerner Lafcadio Hearn arrived in Japan on a journalistic assignment, and he fell so in love with the nation and its people that he never left. His love letters to his adopted country, including 1894's Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan and 1896's Kokoro: Hints and Echoes of Japanese Inner Life (both available from Cosimo Classics) helped fire global interest in Japanese culture as it was opening to the West in the 1890s, and in 1904, he published this engaging and highly entertaining series of essays. An early Western attempt to decipher the "outward strangeness" of all things in Japan, and to place the nation and its people in a larger historical context, this is a lyrical work, singing with respect and love.Bohemian and writer PATRICK LAFCADIO HEARN (1850-1904) was born in Greece, raised in Ireland, and worked as newspaper reporter in the United States before decamping to Japan. He also wrote In Ghostly Japan (1899). |
Contents
| 5 | |
| 11 | |
| 28 | |
THE COMMUNAL CULT | 72 |
VIII | 98 |
THE HIGHER BUDDHISM | 209 |
THE RISE OF THE MILITARY POWER | 264 |
THE SHINTO REVIVAL | 401 |
REFLECTIONS | 499 |
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTES | 535 |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
according ancestor-cult ancestor-worship ancestors ancient Ashikaga became become beliefs Buddha Buddhism century ceremony character charm Chinese Christianity civilization clan creed custom daimyō dead death deities developed divine doctrine domestic cult duty early Emperor Emperor Temmu ethics evolution existence fact faith feudal filial piety foreign ghosts gods Greek harakiri Heavenly Sovereign Herbert Spencer Hidéyoshi Hirata household human idea imperial individual Isé Iyéyasu Izanagi Izumo Japanese society Jesuits junshi Karma kind koku Kyōto Kyūshū less living lord loyalty maintained matter ment Mikado military modern moral nature Ninigi-no-Mikoto Nobunaga obedience official Old Japan patriarchal period person political present priests punished race regard regulated relation religion religious remains represented rites Roman Roman Catholicism rule rulers samurai scarcely sentiment Shinto shōgun Shōgunate shrine signified social spirit supposed supreme temples things thousand tion to-day Tokugawa traditions Ujigami Western worship
Popular passages
Page 48 - When a man dies, there have been cases of people sacrificing themselves by strangulation, or of strangling others by way of sacrifice, or of compelling the dead man's horse to be sacrificed, or of burying valuables in the grave in honour of the dead, or of cutting off the hair, and stabbing the thighs and pronouncing an eulogy on the dead (while in this condiXXv. 32. tion). Let all such old customs be entirely discontinued. A certain book says : — ' No gold or silver, no silk brocades, and no coloured...
Page 11 - When you find, in four or five years more, that you cannot understand the Japanese at 9 all, then you will begin to know something about them," After having realized the truth of my friend's prediction, — after having discovered that I cannot understand the Japanese at all, — I feel better qualified to attempt this essay.