Japanese Fairy Tales - Paperback

Hearn, Lafcadio: - Lafcadio Hearn (1850-1904) was born to a Greek mother and a British Army father. His parents separated soon after his birth, and he became the ward of a great aunt and attended school in Ireland, England, and France. He emigrated to the United States in 1869 and became a newspaper reporter in Cincinnati, then New Orleans (1877-1887), and the West Indies as well. He came to Japan in 1890; married Koizumi Setsuko, daughter of a samurai family; became a Japanese citizen; and adopted the name Koizumi Yakumo. He wrote extensively about Japan and taught literature at Tokyo Imperial University. His tales in this volume were originally published by T. Hasegawa of Tokyo, as follows: The Boy Who Drew Cats (1898), The Goblin-Spider (1899), The Old Woman Who Lost Her Dumpling (1902), and Chin-Chin Kobakama (1903). Basil Hall Chamberlain (1850-1935) was the son of a British admiral and grandson of the travel writer Basil Hall. He came to Japan in 1873, taught at the Imperial Naval Academy, and in 1886 became professor of Japanese at Tokyo Imperial University. He wrote numerous books about Japan and translated Japanese and Aino works. His translations of The Serpent with Eight Heads, My Lord Bag-o'-Rice, The Silly Jelly-Fish, and Urashima were published in the 1880s and 1890s by Kobunsha in Tokyo and Griffith, Farran & Co. in London & Sydney. Grace Edith Marion James (1882-1965) was the daughter of a British naval officer. She was born in Tokyo and resident there until the age of 12, when her family returned to England. Her 1910 volume Green Willow and Other Japanese Fairy Tales, illustrated by Warwick Goble, included Green Willow, The Flute, Reflections, The Spring Lover and the Autumn Lover, and Momotaro. Her mother, Mrs. T. H. James (1845-1928), translated The Hare of Inaba, Shippeitarō, The Matsuyama Mirror, The Wooden Bowl, and The Tea-Kettle for publication by Hasegawa in the 1880s. The Old Man and the Devils, translated by James Curtis Hepburn, and The Tongue-Cut Sparrow, translated by David Thomson, were published by Hasegawa in Tokyo in 1885 and 1886.