Kokoro: Hints and Echos of Japanese Inner Life (Tuttle Classics of Japanese Literature) (Paperback)

~ Lafcadio Hearn (Author) "YESTERDAY a telegram from Fukuoka announced that a desperate criminal captured there would be brought for trial to Kumamoto to-day, on the train due at..." (more)
Key Phrases: young samurai, foreign settlements, Matsushima Kan, Black Ships, Herbert Spencer (more...)

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Product Description

The 15 essays collected here examine the inner spiritual life of Japan through the people that make Japan the unique place it is. The word "Kokora" itself can be translated as "heart," "spirit" or "inner meaning," and that's exactly what this title teaches us about Japan.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Tuttle Publishing; First Edition edition (March 15, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0804836604
• ISBN-13: 978-0804836609
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #531,669 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Heart of Things, November 10, 2008

By	Zack Davisson "All Good Things" (Seattle, WA, USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

"Kokoro" is a difficult word to translate from Japanese to English. Heart, Spirit, Way of Being...it is all of these things. Rather than attempt a direct translation, Lafcadio Hearn offers a selection of stories focusing on Japanese inner life, so that by the end you will understand kokoro.

The stories follow Hearn's particular interests of Japanese folklore and the vanishing culture of which he found himself a part in post-Meji Japan. Each story is a slice of life focusing on Japanese character, morals and feelings. This is what the Japanese people care about, what they think is important, what is inside.

The selected tales are non-judgmental and non-orientalist. This is no attempt to explain or highlight the "strange" Japanese, but merely a record and an illumination, in the best sense of the term.

The collected stories:

"At a Railway Station"
"The Genius of Japanese Civilization"
"A Street Singer"
"From a Traveling Diary"
"The Nun of the Temple of Amida"
"After the War"
"Haru"
"A Glimpse of Tendencies"
"By Force of Karma"
"A Conservative"
"In the Twilight of the Gods"
"The Idea of Pre-Exsistance"
"In Cholera Time"
"Some Thoughts about Ancestor Worship"
"Kimiko"