Shadowings.

A bright copy of this collection of stories and essays by Lafcadio Hearn on Japanese culture, including notes on Japanese female names, songs, and cicadas ('Sémi').

Hearn (1850-1904) arrived in Japan in 1890, soon obtaining a teaching position in the town of Matsue where he married Koizumi Setsuko, the daughter of a local samurai family. Shadowings was published whilst Hearn was lecturer in English at The Imperial University, Tokyo. His writings offered unprecedented insight into Japan in an era when the nation was emerging from a 220-year period of isolationist foreign policy.

First edition, first printing; 8vo (19.5 x 13 cm); 5 photographic plates, title printed in red and black, 4pp ads to rear; publisher's pictorial blue cloth, lettered in gilt to upper cover and spine, lacking dust-jacket, top-edge gilt, others uncut, slightly toned, spine slightly faded, very good plus; [10], 268, [6]pp.

Perkins pp40-41.