Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 17.1. 1855 Colton Map of Japan
And what of the sword? It was the weapon of Japan's hereditary warrior class, the
samurai. Every samurai carried two swords, one a long curved blade imbued with sacred
power and the other a short dagger-like weapon. For the samurai, swords embodied his
code of honor, Bushido: the way of the warrior. Two swords were a mark of the samurai.
The short sword also carried the disgraced warrior into eternity. He used it for ritual suicide
rather than face dishonor.
WHO WAS LAFCADIO HEARN?
Lafcadio Hearn (1850-1904) was himself a person of transformations. Born to an Irish fath-
er and Greek mother on the island of Levkos, Hearn was educated in Britain and Switzer-
land, lived in the West Indies, and became a newspaper reporter in Cincinnati. Sent to Japan
on a magazine assignment in 1890, he took a Japanese wife, fathered a Japanese family,
taught at Japanese universities, became a Japanese citizen, and changed his name to Yak-
umo Koizumi. His written and spoken Japanese was clumsy, but his writings about Japan
charmed English-reading audiences, especially because he lived in Japan during a time of a
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