Lafcadio Hearn was a man whose life could be described as ‘a succession of unlikely events.’ Born to an Anglo-Irish military father and a Greek mother in a military house on the Ionian island of Lefkada, Hearn’s very existence was met with disapproval by his father’s family. Sent to Ireland by his father, who did not want his child to negatively impact his military career prospects, Hearn was placed in the care of an aunt. His mother and father separated, remarried other people, had more children, and never saw or spoke to him again. Although his aunt was kind, she was a staunch Catholic, and went to great lengths to ensure Hearn did not stray from the faith. Eventually, fearing the boy’s lack of religious conviction would result in his abandonment of the church, she shipped the 11-year old Hearn to a Catholic school in France. The move backfired, and the experience solidified Hearn’s negative views of Catholicism. In one final upheaval, Hearn was sent back to England for a final three-year stretch of Catholic education.
You’d be forgiven for thinking Hearn’s young life could have been made easier by his wearing a luggage tag with a forwarding address around his wrist. However, this tumultuous youth, spent at the mercy of largely self-serving and dispassionate adults, produced a young man who was remarkably level-headed. At sixteen, Hearn took a cricket ball to the left eye; after a year of surgeries and infections, he lost the use of this eye completely, and suffered from severe short-sightedness in his right eye. As a budding writer and translator, it’s easy to imagine the difficulties this caused him.
And still, young Lafcadio Hearn would eventually be considered the ‘national poet of Japan’, and be happily married with a loving family. He’d be accepted by his Japanese parents-in-law, in stark contrast to the fate of his own mother, who was rejected by her Anglo-Irish husband’s family for her foreignness. While real life is no fairy tale, Hearn’s tenacity carried him through the hardest of times.
Aged 19, Hearn was handed a one-way ticket from England, to Cincinnati, Ohio, in the U.S.A. This decision was made by his guardian aunt’s financial advisor, a man who was keen to release himself and Hearn’s aunt from any obligation to the young man. Hearn was told he’d be met by family members who would employ him. Instead, these family members showed no interest in knowing him, and threw him out onto the streets with only a five dollar bill in his hands. Not long after, his aunt died. Hearn had been a beneficiary of her will, but her ‘financial advisor’ made sure that Hearn received nothing.
Despite these endless challenges, Hearn managed to obtain work at a newspaper, by virtue of his notable writing talent. For the next 15 years, he worked in Cincinnati and then New Orleans, was married and divorced once, and focused on his work as a translator of French literature. His skills in both the French and English languages saw him briefly employed in the French West Indies, before landing the all-important newspaper commission that took him to Japan.
Hearn quickly developed a fascination with Japan. Although his commission as a newspaper correspondent was terminated shortly after he arrived, he was awarded a school teaching position in Matsue, Shimane prefecture. Within a year, he had met and married Koizumi Setsuko, with whom he went on to have four children. In 1896, he officially became a Japanese citizen, adopting the Japanese name ‘Koizumi Yakumo.’ ‘Koizumi’ was his Japanese family’s name, but ‘Yakumo’ was his chosen name. It’s an odd-sounding name, made from an unusual combination of kanji: ‘ya’ [八] meaning ‘eight’ and ‘kumo’[雲] meaning ‘clouds.’ And so, here began the Japanese adventures of Lafcadio ‘Eight Clouds’ Hearn.
In 1891, Hearn obtained a teaching position in Kumamoto city, and it’s here that visitors will find his life intersecting with their own, as they stand at his front door. Hearn’s house is a traditional Japanese home, with grey slate tiles on the roof, and sliding doors and tatami floors throughout. It’s surrounded on three sides by a traditional Japanese garden, carpeted with a patchy layer of moss atop Kumamoto’s dusty volcanic soil. Spindly trees grow in the rear courtyard, against the backdrop of a 1980s apartment building. His house is a stark contrast to the contemporary buildings surrounding it, but its historical atmosphere amongst the grey concrete of modernity makes it all the more unique.
Set one street back from Kumamoto’s central shopping avenue, the house is unobtrusive, and almost easy to miss. A sign bearing Hearn’s face marks the entrance to the property, and the doors remain open to visitors. Removing your shoes, you can visit the rooms of the house in whichever order suits you. Hearn’s writing room carries the most tranquil atmosphere, and faces out into a small rear garden through a doorway hung with a wind chime.
For all his adopted Japanese-ness, Hearn retained a Western-style high desk and chair. These sit in a corner facing the wall. In contrast to his neighbour and contemporary, Sо̄seki Natsume, it seems that Hearn blocked out the outer world in order to concentrate, while Sо̄seki positioned his writing desk to face outwards, into the tiny woodland of his own garden. Throughout the house, books, photographs, and information sheets offer extensive background information on Hearn and his past, written in both Japanese and English. It’s a calm place, and it’s not uncommon for visitors to have the house to themselves. This gives ample opportunity to sit on the main room’s sunny veranda and let your mind wander, perhaps visualising a day in the life of Hearn in his newly adopted country.
Lafcafio Hearn’s house in Kumamoto is a short walk across town from the former residence of the aforementioned Sо̄seki Natsume. Sо̄seki also succeeded Hearn in the position of English language lecturer at the University of Tokyo, in 1903, although there aren’t any known records of the two men meeting in person.
Hearn’s wife Setsuko once commented that their house was often populated by an infuriating number of mosquitoes for long stretches of the year. Hearn had also written about his hatred of the ‘silver-striped’ variety of blood-suckers who inhabited his house and garden. Setsuko remarked that they would bite him as he worked, and draw blood until they were too fat to fly, instead having to crawl across the tatami matting. The descendants of those mosquitoes, it seems, still live in Hearn’s house in Kumamoto, and are no less ravenous for the exotic taste of Westerner blood. Be sure to wear insect repellent when you visit, no matter your nationality.
It’s hard not to draw parallels between Hearn and his neighbour and contemporary, Sо̄seki Natsume. Hearn is survived by the mosquitoes who inhabit his house, as Sо̄seki is survived by the cats who live outside of his own former home. Each respective animal was, at one point, of literary interest to the two men. And, while Hearn never made an written sojourn into the nature of cats, Sо̄seki Natsume, in his book Kusamakura (1906), posited that “there is no point in moving to the land of mosquitoes because you’re sick of the land of fleas.”
Lafcadio Hearn, however, left many flea-lands before arriving, quite literally, in the land of mosquitoes. For all the bites, though, he created a life worth living in the complex and beautiful world of Meiji period Japan. Hearn died at the young age of 54, from heart failure. Although he is buried in Tokyo, you’ll find his spirit – and his mosquitoes – living on in Kumamoto city.
Access:
From Kumamoto station, board the ‘A-Line’ tram and ride for 8 stops, alighting at ‘Torichosuji’ station. Follow the walking route detailed here.
Name: Koizumi Yakumo/Lafcadio Hearn Former Residence
Address: 2-6 Anseicho, Chuo-ku, Kumamoto 860-0801
Open: 9:30am – 4:30pm, all week except Mondays and Dec 29-Jan 3 each year.
Admission: Free
Website: https://kumamoto-guide.jp/spots/detail/62
Post by Japan Journeys.
