1918 Scarce First Edition - Japanese Fairy Tales by Lafcadio Hearn

A scarce early American collection of Japanese folklore, bringing together Lafcadio Hearn’s celebrated retellings with traditional tales adapted by Grace James, Basil Hall Chamberlain and others.

Author: Lafcadio Hearn and others.
Title: Japanese Fairy Tales.
Publisher: New York: Boni and Liveright, 1918.
Edition: First Edition in this format. The first four tales, Chin-Chin Kobakama, The Goblin-Spider, The Old Woman Who Lost Her Dumplings and The Boy Who Drew Cats, are in versions by Lafcadio Hearn. The remaining tales are by Grace James, Professor Basil Hall Chamberlain and others.
Language: English.
Pages: 160 pages.
Size: 7.5 x 4.5 inches.
Binding: Very good original publisher’s binding of blue-grey paper-covered boards with cream cloth spine. Front board attractively lettered and ruled in dark brown with decorative corner ornaments, publisher’s imprint at foot; spine lettered in dark brown. Light age toning and minor wear to the cloth spine and extremities, as shown. Hinges firm. Protected in a removable mylar cover. 
Content: Very good content, bright, tight and clean throughout, with only light age toning and occasional minor signs of age. Complete.

Estimate: USD 225–250.

The book: A scarce and attractive 1918 First Edition in this format of Japanese Fairy Tales, presenting twenty traditional Japanese stories drawn from several of the most important early interpreters of Japanese folklore for English-speaking readers.

The collection opens with four tales in Lafcadio Hearn’s distinctive versions: Chin-Chin Kobakama, The Goblin-Spider, The Old Woman Who Lost Her Dumplings and the now-classic The Boy Who Drew Cats. These are followed by stories from Grace James, Basil Hall Chamberlain and others, including The Silly Jelly-Fish, The Hare of Inaba, Shippeitaro, The Matsuyama Mirror, The Tongue-Cut Sparrow, The Tea-Kettle, Urashima, Green Willow, The Spring Lover and the Autumn Lover and Momotaro.

The volume is particularly appealing as an early twentieth-century American presentation of Japanese folklore, published at a time when Hearn’s writings were playing an important role in introducing Japanese legends, supernatural traditions and popular culture to Western readers.

The author: Patrick Lafcadio Hearn (1850–1904), later known in Japan as Koizumi Yakumo, was a writer, journalist and teacher whose evocative writings on Japanese life, folklore and supernatural tradition made him one of the most influential interpreters of Japan for Western audiences. After settling permanently in Japan in 1890, he immersed himself in the country’s language, customs and oral traditions. His best-known works include Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things, Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan and numerous retellings of Japanese legends and folk tales.