Kwaidan – Lafcadio Hearn

Dover
1904 (this edition 1968)
Strange that it took an American emigre to immortalize Japanese folk tales, writing at a time when the oral traditions he was capturing were dying out. Strange also that his Kwaidan (“odd tales”) is so short, when Japan is brimming with ghost stories and monsters. Of course, there are other books in Japanese by Japanese authors of folk tales, but this is the classic, and Hearn became an honorary Japanese. Kobayashi’s film of the same name tells five of these stories, but readers will spot that only three come from the “Kwaidan” volume, the rest from his other books. Hearn’s insect studies are also included here–his essay on ants is particularly good, as he compares human society to the ant colony, and the colony wins. He also tries to get his mind around how humans would adapt to living with a hive/soldier ant mentality of pure selflessness, and doesn’t succeed.
My friend Gerald gave this to me in 2003 on my birthday, along with The Glass Key by Hammett. I finally got around to it. In fact, I think I read it in Japan, but my memory is foggy–I surely don’t remember the ants article.