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"Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan: First Series" by Lafcadio Hearn. Published by Good Press. Good Press publishes a wide range of titles that encompasses every genre. From well-known classics & literary fiction and non-fiction to forgotten−or yet undiscovered gems−of world literature, we issue the books that need to be read. Each Good Press edition has been meticulously edited and formatted to boost readability for all e-readers and devices. Our goal is to produce eBooks that are user-friendly and accessible to everyone in a high-quality digital format.

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Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things features several Japanese ghost stories and a brief non-fiction study on insects. Most of these stories were translated from old Japanese texts. The author also states that one of the stories – Yuki-onna – was told to him by a farmer in Musashi Province, and his was apparently the first record of it. Riki-Baka is based on a personal experience of the author. Table of Contetns: The Story of Mimi-nashiHōichi Oshidori The Story of O-Tei Ubazakura Diplomacy Of a Mirror and a Bell Jikininki Mujina Rokurokubi A Dead Secret Yuki-Onna The Story of Aoyagi Jiu-Roku-Zakura The Dream of Akinosuke Riki-Baka Hi-Mawari Hōrai In the last half of the book, Hearn lists collected Chinese/Japanese superstitions and his own personal thoughts on various members of the insect world. Butterflies: Personification of the human soul. Mosquitoes: Karmic reincarnation of jealous or greedy people in the form of Jiki-ketsu-gaki or «blood-drinking pretas». Ants: Mankind's superior in terms of chastity, ethics, social structure, longevity and evolution.

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En un breve relato incluido en La muralla china, Kafka notó que, a riesgo de desmoronarse, el deseo de dejar pasar a través puede transformar a un hombre en puente. Hijo de madre griega y padre irlandés, Lafcadio Hearn abrazó Japón quizá para transformarse en eso mismo. Prueba de ello es La canción del arrozal, una delicada serie de observaciones minúsculas que procuran no solo poner al mágico mundo del Japón tradicional ante la mirada occidental sino también «abrir oídos».
Acaso el tratado De Anima, de Aristóteles, sea uno de los cimientos teórico-filosóficos sobre los que comenzó a edificarse la primacía óptica-háptica de nuestra sensibilidad occidental. Allí se establece una jerarquía entre los cinco sentidos en la que el tacto (que garantiza la vida animal) y la vista (perfecta en el hombre) asumen una posición central. ¿Cómo suponer una orientación estética similar para ese Japón amante de las sombras tan añorado, por ejemplo, por Tanizaki? ["A la luz del día, qué poco interesante eres, rana"].
Debemos al occidental más crítico de Occidente, Friedrich Nietzsche, un primer llamado de atención respecto de esta tiranía óptica-háptica; que se conjuga de mil maravillas en la Era Digital. No solo rescató la importancia del olfato sino, además, como hace Hearn registrando voces cantantes, el sentido de la audición. Por boca de su profeta Zaratustra (aunque bien podría haber salido de la de la rana kajika o la cigarra higurashi), Nietzsche hizo una advertencia que vale para futuros lectores de este libro lleno de pequeñas melodías: «Cantaré mi canción… y a quien todavía tenga oídos para oír cosas inauditas, a ese voy a abrumarle el corazón con mi felicidad»
Leandro Surce

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Upon his arrival in Japan in 1890, Lafcadio Hearn found himself enamored with the culture, people, and stories of the country, and would make Japan his home until his death in 1904. His collections of stories published during this time became the most popular of Hearn’s writings, and earned him veneration worldwide as not only a great translator of Japanese mythology, but as a sensational teller of strange and wonderfully macabre tales. “Kwaidan” is most commonly translated as weird or horror tales, but to assign one word to the people, places, ghosts, and gods in this work, one can only use the word strange. This collection of supernatural tales includes twenty stories translated from old Japanese texts. Hearn was made a professor of English literature in the Imperial University of Tokyo in 1895, and is today revered by the Japanese for providing significant insights into their own national character.

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A blind musician with amazing talent is called upon to perform for the dead. Faceless creatures haunt an unwary traveler. A beautiful woman &#8212; the personification of winter at its cruelest &#8212; ruthlessly kills unsuspecting mortals. These and seventeen other chilling supernatural tales &#8212; based on legends, myths, and beliefs of ancient Japan &#8212; represent the very best of Lafcadio Hearn's literary style. They are also a culmination of his lifelong interest in the endlessly fascinating customs and tales of the country where he spent the last fourteen years of his life, translating into English the atmospheric stories he so avidly collected.<BR>Teeming with undead samurais, man-eating goblins, and other terrifying demons, these twenty classic ghost stories inspired the Oscar&#174;-nominated 1964 film of the same name.<BR>

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