Lafcadio Hearn (1850–1904) came to Japan in 1890 as a reporter for Harpers magazine. He soon found a position teaching, and immersed himself in Japanese culture, authoring a number of books that revealed to Western readers previously unknown aspects of local folklore, including Kwaidan, Japanese Fairy Tales and In Ghostly Japan. They were also translated into Japanese, achieving lasting popularity for recording a previously undervalued oral tradition that may otherwise have been lost.
