Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan

Essays and sketches by Japan’s first Western chronicler, conveying the first, strongest impressions from meeting the traditions, customs, and myths of the Land of the Rising Sun.

Lafcadio Hearn came to Japan as a correspondent for a magazine, but the Land of the Rising Sun charmed him so much that he stayed there for the rest of his life—found permanent work, married, and even changed his name to match local customs, becoming Yakumo Koizumi.

The collection “Fleeting Visions of an Unfamiliar Japan” includes essays and sketches written in the first few years after his move, dedicated to Japanese traditions, customs, beliefs, and myths. Hearn devoted many books to these topics, but “Fleeting Visions” most vividly and accurately conveys the first emotions of a person who found himself in the Land of the Rising Sun—strong, yet “lightweight and short-lived, like the scent of perfume.” “Fleeting Visions of an Unfamiliar Japan” brought Hearn fame as an authoritative orientalist and for many years remained one of the main sources of information about the distant Eastern country.

For the first time in Russian—the first part of the collection “Fleeting Visions of an Unfamiliar Japan”!