The modest wooden house where Lafcadio Hearn lived during his time in Kumamoto in the early 1890s, before moving on to Matsue and eventually Tokyo. The rooms are spare and atmospheric, furnished as they would have been during his residency. Hearn's writing desk overlooks a small garden. Fans of Japanese literature or of Meiji-era history will find it worth the short detour from the castle.
Lafcadio Hearn Old Residence
Modest wooden home of the writer who introduced Japan to the West
A story
Lafcadio Hearn — known in Japan as Koizumi Yakumo — was an Irish-Greek writer who arrived in Japan in 1890 and never left. He married a samurai's daughter, became a Japanese citizen, and wrote the stories that introduced Western readers to Japanese ghost tales and folk literature. His most famous collection, Kwaidan, was later adapted into an acclaimed 1964 film.