Photo/Illutration The Lafcadio Hearn Memorial Museum showcases the life and work of former Matsue resident Lafcadio Hearn, as well as some of the writer’s personal effects. (Photo by Lisa Vogt)

My phone rings. “Hello? I’m fine, fine. I’m, uh, in Matsue at the moment. I said Matsue. In Shimane Prefecture. What’s it like?

"Well, I’ve only been here a short while, and I’m walking around the samurai district with its historical residences near Crow Castle’s moat. The castle’s roof is black. Look, I’m about to enter the Lafcadio Hearn Memorial Museum now. I’ll call you later. Bye.”

And I went inside the museum. All I knew about Hearn (1850-1904) was that he had a Japanese name, Koizumi Yakumo, and that he wrote ghost stories called “Kwaidan,” which is spelled weirdly.

OK, first, let me get this out of my system. At the museum, I learned that he only lived in Matsue for 14 months. Excuse me, but that’s just a little over a year. One measly year! And this museum is one of the top attractions in Matsue--talk about milking this for all it’s worth! There, now I can get on with the column.

The museum whetted my appetite to learn more, and I did.

Hearn was a "hafu": his mother was Greek and father Irish. Abandoned by both parents, he was raised by an aunt who would lock up the nyctophobic boy in a pitch-dark room.

Then, he was sent to a Catholic boarding school in England, where he was further traumatized and lost his left eye. He moved to the United States and the French West Indies, and upon reading “Kojiki,” a collection of Japanese myths, he came to Japan.

Otherworldly mysteries always pulled at him and stories from Shimane abound in “Kojiki.” The similarities to Greek mythology are also hard to ignore. He met his future wife, Setsuko Koizumi, here, so, all right, I concede, it was a short stay but a significant one.

Upon returning from the museum, I read several of his works. Hearn, famous in Japan for his ghost stories, marveled at and loved small creatures and insects. I loved “Kusa-Hibari,” a masterpiece about a pet cricket that shines light on a different aspect of the Japanophile. It’s a beautiful story about living and dying.

The museum is currently holding an exhibition titled, “The Poetry of Insects--Loving the Voices of Fleeting Lives.” If you’re the type who revels in the beauty of small weeds or stops in midsentence to listen to the sweetness of bug and birdsongs, this exhibition is for you.

I called my friend back, and now she’s planning a visit, too.

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This article by Lisa Vogt, a Washington-born and Tokyo-based photographer, originally appeared in the Oct. 30 issue of Asahi Weekly. It is part of the series "Lisa’s Wanderings Around Japan," which depicts various places across the country through the perspective of the author, a professor at Meiji University.

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