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12 unusual facts about Lafcadio Hearn


1856 Last Island hurricane

Lafcadio Hearn's Chita: A Memory of Last Island (1889) based on the Last Island hurricane of 1856, was a popular story when published; however, it either created or perpetuated several myths about the tragedy.

Bond Hill, Cincinnati

A utopian communalist and expatriat English printer, Watkin attained some renown as the adopted father and mentor of the once famous writer, Lafcadio Hearn.

Gillian Rubinstein

It has also been suggested that the surname is most likely borrowed from Lafcadio Hearn; one of the first Western writers to tackle Japanese mythology.

Hirogawa, Wakayama

Thanks to the story called Inamura no Hi: The Burning Rice Fields" by Tsunezo Nakai (translated and published in English by Sara Cone Bryant) and Lafcadio Hearn's Gleanings in Buddha-Fields(1897), Hirogawa (then Hiro-Mura) is often referred to the home of "A Living God" : Goryo Hamaguchi (1820-1885).

Hirohito Ōta

Present studies are devoted to Suika Shintō, a branch of Shintō developed by Yamazaki Ansai, religious sociality, and religious activities of Lafcadio Hearn.

Lafcadio Hearn

His father's brother Richard was at one time a well-known member of the Barbizon set of artists, although he did not become well known as a painter, possibly due to a lack of personal ambition.

Lafcadio was baptized Patricio Lefcadio Hearn in the Greek Orthodox Church.

Hearn relocated to Dublin, Ireland, at the age of two years, where he was brought up in the suburb of Rathmines.

Some of his stories have been adapted by Ping Chong into his puppet theatre, including the 1999 Kwaidan and the 2002 OBON: Tales of Moonlight and Rain.

Masaki Kobayashi

In 1965, Kobayashi made Kwaidan (1965), a collection of four ghost stories drawn from books by Lafcadio Hearn.

Roy Starrs

He has also published essays on Japan-related topics such as the Kojiki, Lafcadio Hearn and Japanese calligraphy.

Wenceslau de Moraes

He has been compared to Lafcadio Hearn, a contemporary who settled in Japan but wrote in English.


Conrad Hall

Named after writers Joseph Conrad and Lafcadio Hearn, he was best known for photographing films such as In Cold Blood, Cool Hand Luke, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, American Beauty, and Road to Perdition.

Saint Malo, Louisiana

It wasn't until journalist Lafcadio Hearn published an article in Harper's Weekly in 1883 that their existence was finally exposed to the American people.

Tomishige Rihei

He took photographs of the novelist Natsume Sōseki, Hannah Riddell (who first built Kumamoto's first leprosy hospital), Nogi Maresuke (one of the most famous generals in Japan), Prince Kitashirakawa Yoshihisa (who learned photography under Tomishige), Viscount Kawakami Sōroku, Kodama Gentarō and Lafcadio Hearn (a writer).