HEARN-KOIZUMI HOME

HEARN-KOIZUMI HOME IN TOKYO HAS BEEN DEMOLISHED!

The struggle to save the house and gardens lasted three years.Gratitude should be expressed to the many people and institutions who contributed their efforts and concern to this cause. Although the house and gardens were lost, the spirit of Lafcadio Hearn will prevail. This netpage will continue to present the beautiful site that was the last domain of the Hearn-Koizumi family.

Lafcadio Hearn was a famous writer who made an essential contribution to the understanding of traditional Japan. Born in 1850, the son of a Greek mother and an Irish father, he moved to Japan in 1890. After becoming a Japanese citizen following his marriage to Koizumi Setsu, a woman of the samurai class, Hearn assumed the Japanese name Koizumi Yakumo. Hearn spent more than a decade writing and publishing numerous books and articles concerning Japan and also was a Professor of English at the Imperial University in Tokyo. He died in 1904.

His literary contribution includes recording and translating the oral traditions of Japanese folk tales. His fiction includes the famous collection of stories entitled Kwaidan (1904). His nonfiction works designed to contribute to Western understanding of Japan include Glimpses of an Unfamiliar Japan (1894) and JAPAN: An Attempt At Interpretation (1904).

In 1955, the son of Lafcadio Hearn, Kazuo Koizumi, constructed a unique residence in Tokyo for the family which was designed to be consistent with the philosophy of his father's work.

Outer View of House and Garden
Tile roof, earthen walls, bamboo fence,
wooden gate and maple tree

The house and garden embody the spiritual elements of both Eastern and Western cultures. The garden contains a collection of rare mountain foliage which blooms through three seasons, combining the sensibilities of the Japanese Zen Garden with an Irish/English garden. An Okinawa Fox Shrine is strategically placed in a position of protection.

Okinawa Fox Shrine in Garden

The actual home where Lafcadio Hearn lived in Shin-Okubo was destroyed before 1950. This Seta house and gardens were designed and built by Kazuo Koizumi as a smaller version of the Shin-Okubo home.

The house includes the architectural principles of the cha-no-yu (tea ceremony) on the Japanese side of the house and the rooms open out onto a garden on a hill overlooking the Tama river.

Kazuo Koizumi built a butsudan (Buddhist altar) dedicated to his father into the six-mat room. The actual painted lotus blossom petals which were distributed at Lafcadio Hearn's funeral are appliqued onto the gold-leaf covered walls of the altar.

Hearn's Butsudan
(Buddhist Altar for
Lafcadio Hearn/
Yakumo Koizumi)

Other concepts common to both Japanese and Irish/English cultures, such as a respect for and an awareness of nature, are found in the incorporation of the garden into the house design, and vice versa.

The house also included architectural features usually associated with the West, such as wooden floors, chapel ceilings, and built-in bookcases. According to Bon Koizumi, the great-grandson of Lafcadio Hearn/Yakumo Koizumi, the wooden floors and chapel ceilings were also intended to be a reference to the old Japanese countryside home.

The structure was threatened with demolition to create a car-parking lot. The tenant, Tei Kobayashi, an artist who exhibits internationally and a lecturer at several Japanese universities, was trying to preserve the home. Among the courses which she teaches is an East-West Comparative Studies Seminar at the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies which includes the introduction of Lafcadio Hearn as one of the first Westerners to live and work in Japan.

Tei Kobayashi held art exhibitions and gave performances televised in support of the preservation effort. On October 25, 1997, she performed "Traditions: Homage to Lafcadio Hearn" in an installation sculpture she created for the Celtic Festival '97 Japan. Last January, her solo exhibition and performance titled "Terra non Terra" also focused on the issue of destruction/preservation of nature and monuments to culture.

The great-grandson of Lafcadio Hearn, Bon Koizumi, wrote in a personal letter to Ms. Kobayashi "I am glad and express my deep sense of gratitude [for] your struggle to save the house and gardens."

Mr. Hajimi Morita, Curator of the Kawaguchi Museum of Contemporary Art, has stated that "This traditional Japanese house and garden, which are directly related to Lafcadio Hearn and his family, would make an excellant residency or spot for a short stay for artists from abroad."

Ms. Kobayashi believes that the house and gardens embody the spirit of Japanese-Euroamerican communication. That view is reinforced by the sentiments expressed in a letter of support by the Cultural Attache of the Irish Embassy in Tokyo, which stated "[s]ince most of the places associated with Lafcadio Hearn in Tokyo have long since been altered beyond recognition, the Embassy of Ireland is concerned that this link with the Hearn family's shining example of Irish-Japanese connections and of Japan's internationalism should be preserved.

The current owner of the house, Japanese Buddhist Temple Hotokuji, had filed a lawsuit to evict Ms. Kobayashi. They planned to destroy the house and garden and build a car-parking lot. Time was of the essence as a court decision was expected on December 11, 1997, following the court hearing of October 21, 1997. In July 1998 the Supreme Court decision was made in favor of the temple. The garden and house were destroyed in September, 1998.