Lafcadio Hearn: Profile of the first legally Naturalized Imperial Japan Subject

reject, misfit, trailblazer, journalist /
muckraker, writer / hack,
pioneer / legend

Patrick "Lafcadio" Hearn, who would later become 小泉八雲 {KOIZUMI Yakumo}, was a Greek Anglo-Irish* writer/journalist and English language teacher who might hold the distinction of being the very first person to legally acquire Japanese nationality via naturalization. He did this by marrying the daughter of a samurai who had just been stripped of his feudal class ranking due to the Meiji Restoration (明治維新 {Meiji ishin}) and the introduction of Japan's first constitution: the Constitution of the Empire of Japan (大日本帝国憲法 {Dai-Nippon teikoku kempō}), aka the Meiji Constitution (明治憲法 {Meiji kempō}).

* Although Hearn lived in America for much of his young adult life, he never legally became a U.S. citizen. It is assumed he was a British subject as his father was British and he was born on a Greek island that was British controlled.

Why is he probably the first foreigner to become legally Japanese? Because he came to Japan just prior to the existence of Japan's first Constitution and naturalized soon after the law's introduction.

Name changed in Japan to
ドナルド・マクドナルド
(Donald McDonald)
in deference to the first

Prior to Japan resident Lafcadio Hearn, there was one other notable native non-university English teacher who had stayed in Japan during the post Shogun (将軍 {shōgun}})/Samurai (侍 {samurai}) era: ラナルド・マクドナルド {Ranarudo · MAKUDONARUDO} (Ranald MacDonald). Whereas Hearn distinguished himself by being the first legal native English speaking teacher in Japan, MacDonald distinguished himself by being the first illegal native English speaking non-Japanese in Japan! Sneaking first into 焼尻島｛Yagishiri-tō} (Yagishiri Island) on June 27th, 1848, then 利尻島Rishiri-tō (Rishiri Island) on July 1st by shore excursion boat, he pretended to be shipwrecked so he wouldn't be put to death, — as per the isolationist policy of the time.

And some think modern immigration rules are tough!

The Ainu people of Hokkaidō turned him over to their area samurai clans' lords, who sent him to Nagasaki, which was the only place in Japan that dealt with foreigners at the time.

A Sloop-of-War with sixteen cannons per side

He was confined and restricted to living in a temple and taught fourteen samurai English while picking up a little Japanese for about ten months before the American warship USS Preble† picked him up along with other shipwrecked sailors and he was essentially deported less than a year later in April, 1849.

MacDonald's lasting achievement was teaching a dozen samurai enough English to negotiate with Commodore Matthew Perry and testifying to the United States Congress that the Japanese were not savages; they were civilized.

†The Captain of the USS Preble, James Glynn, is actually the first American to even successfully negotiate with Japan during its "closed country" (鎖国 {sakoku}) foreign relations policy days.

Legally speaking...

George CHAKIRIS plays Yakumo KOIZUMI
in NHK's 『日本の面影』 {Nihon no omokage} (1984)

In the Empire of Japan's first constitution, Article 18 reads:

Article 18. The conditions necessary for being a Japanese subject shall be determined by law.
第18条日本臣民タル要件ハ法律ノ定ムル所ニ依ル

[The Meiji Constitution is written in pre-"modern" Japanese.]

Those words should look familiar to those that have read the modern Japanese constitution (which is technically an amendment that completely replaces the previous one): with the exception of changing the word "[Emperor's] subject" to "national" and the re-writing into more modern Japanese, it is identical to Article 10 of the current Constitution of Japan (日本国憲法 {Nipponkoku kempō}):

Article 10. The conditions necessary for being a Japanese national shall be determined by law.
第10条日本国民たる要件は、法律でこれを定める。

Although the modern constitution of Japan was almost completely re-written to be a constitution that embraced true representative progressive democracy, some articles were adopted almost unchanged. This is one of them.

Articles 10 &18 are important because they are responsible for creation of Japan's "Nationality Law", and the "Nationality Law" is responsible for creating the rules for naturalization.

Hearn is the first person I can find that became legally (as opposed to ad hoc / de facto / assumed) Japanese through a legal process ultimately established by Japan's first constitution. Remember that Imperial Japanese passports (大日本帝国旅券 {Dai-Nippon Teikoku ryoken}) didn't exist until 1867 (the first one issued just before the start of the Meiji Restoration (明治維新 {Meiji Ishin}), and modern 戸籍 {koseki} (family registers) that incorporated every Japanese subject (regardless of class, etc) didn't appear until 1872.

Reason for Naturalizing

Although he had "announced" his marriage to the United States … there was no American embassy in Japan at the time to register his marriage … he had neither legally registered it in any state in America (probably because he hadn't properly divorced his previous wife‡) nor had he legally registered his second marriage in Japan.

After his son's birth, Hearn wanted to have Setsu legally registered in Japan as his wife, but he has having trouble getting bureaucracy to register a marriage between a Japanese and a non-Japanese on a family register. He was told that if he wished the boy to remain Japanese he must register the child's birth in the Japanese mother's name only. If he registered him in his own name his son became a foreigner. In weighing the pros and cons of becoming legally Japanese, Hearn worried that by naturalizing his compensation would be reduced to a Japanese levels, — a perk that foreigners received back then (and often still today) was higher compensation. Hearn summarized:

"I don't quite see the morality of the reduction, for services should be paid according to the market value at least;—but there is no doubt it would be made. As for America, and my relatives in England, I am married: that has been duly announced. Perhaps I had better wait a few years and then become a citizen. Being a Japanese citizen would, of course, make no difference whatever as to my relations in any civilised countries abroad. It would only make some difference in an uncivilised country,—such as revolutionary South America, where English or French, or American protection is a good thing to have. But the long and the short of the matter is that I am anxious about Setsu's and the boy's interests: my own being concerned only at that point where their injury would be Setsu's injury."

Hearn thought that the way for his son to be legally Japanese and have his name registered with his son was to automatically abandon his British nationality by naturalizing (Britain did not allow its subjects to have dual nationality at that time) and take his wife's family name, Koizumi, — family registers, both now and back then, do not allow for separate family names. It is not 100% clear if this implies that he naturalized by having the Koizumi family legally adopt him by listing him as a family member in the existing Koizumi family register (婿入り {mukoiri}) or if he had his own new family register made with him, the male husband, at the top as the head of the household and record.

‡ However, during estate and royalty battles after his death, his first wife argued that she was entitled to portions of his monetizable legacy. The executors of his estate would counter claim that their marriage was invalid as interracial marriage was illegal in most states back then, including the state where they married and lived.

Reasons behind the names

Lafcadio (ラフカディオ {Rafukadio})

Patrick Hearn began using his middle name as his first name and pen name around the time he came to America. It is said that he did this for one or more of these three reasons:

1. He became so alienated by Christianity, due to the church failing to recognize his parents' marriage, his being shipped off to various religious boarding schools to become a priest, and later losing an eye at one of the schools, that he wanted to use a given name other than his namesake taken from Saint Patrick.
2. After coming to America, using the name Lafcadio, which is derived from his birthplace, allowed him to convey his roots.
3. It was more memorable and catchy as a pen name for publishing.

ヘルン {HERUN}

When Hearn originally arrived in Matsue, his name was recorded in this way in his employer / school's roster. Hearn is said to have like the way it looked. Hearn's name began to become well known and spread from this source, even though his wife attempted to correct him and others by telling people a closer transliteration was 『ハーン』 {"Hān"}.

八雲 {Yakumo}

For his naturalized given name, he made up a name that was the combination of the first sinogram from the opening word / song 『八重垣』 {yaegaki} ("fences within fences" / multilayered) and the last 漢字 {kanji} (sinogram) from the old province name for the 松江 {Matsue} area, "Izumo" (『出雲国』 {"izumonokuni"}). 『八雲』 {"Yakumo"} thus literally means "eight clouds".

小泉 {KOIZUMI}

His wife's family name, and the name of a "downtrodden" samurai clan family that lost their feudal class status after the Meiji Revolution. A man in Japan, even today, sometimes takes a woman's family name in Japan after marriage (or naturalization) when:

• Their are no male siblings to continue the name.
• The woman's family name and/or reputation has high status.
• The man's name has low status and/or is tainted by scandal.

However, Hearn mentioned that his motivation for taking his spouse's name was connected to the preservation of his first son's Japanese nationality.

"Old Semicolon"

A nickname given to him by other journalists who worked with or knew of him from his writings in newspapers and magazines due to what they thought was an overuse/abuse of ellipses and semicolons. Hearn used punctuation more than other writers of the time and used it unconventionally. For example, he often used a semicolon followed by an em dash to indicate a significant pause. Hearn usually insisted that he have final editorial control on his published works, and he'd claim that he'd rather turn down a commission fee than allow another editor to alter his punctuation, capitalization, or style.

As a homage (and perhaps also to poke a little fun), this post is written using some of his punctuation quirks regarding semicolons, dashes, and ellipses.

正覚院殿浄華八雲居士

His new Buddhist name received after death, — his 戒名 {kaimyō} ("precept name"). These names, received from the temple, are intentionally long and hard to pronounce as a superstition which prevents the return of the deceased if their name is accidentally called.

Post-Death Influence & Legacy

Unlike many artists, Hearn was relatively well-known during his active years in America, the Caribbean, and especially Japan because he was published in major widely-distributed periodicals.

However, due to his personality and lifestyle choices, he only saw a modest amount of wealth during his lifetime. He was never destitute or starving, however. After death, however, his works were studied for over 100 years due to his unique viewpoint into Japanese society that he obtained by becoming legally Japanese.

Bonner Fellers and Douglas MacArthur during the Pacific War & the Occupation

The nonfiction Fellers did not have
a love interest in Japan

Fellers was MacArthur's military attaché and psychological warfare advisor. Both during the Pacific war and afterwards during the occupation of Japan when Japan was under SCAP control, Fellers advised MacArthur about the psyche of the Japanese people, among other things.

It is know that Fellers had read and relied on Hearn's 1904 book, "Japan: An Attempt at Interpretation", which was published after he passed away, and used it as part of PsyOp strategy for dealing with the Japanese.

The Shōwa Emperor (昭和天皇 {Shōwa Tennō})§ awarded Fellers with the Second Order of the Sacred Treasure (勲二等瑞宝章 {kun-ni-tō zuihōshō}) for his "long-standing contribution to promoting friendship between Japan and the United States."

§ Posthumously (and only after death), Japanese Emperors such as Hirohito (裕仁 {Hirohito}) are referred to by the name of their calendar era name (和暦 {wareki}).

Ian Fleming's James Bond "You Only Live Twice"

I'd be too embarrassed to
purchase a book with a cover
like this at a bookstore.

The concept of Hearn "becoming Japanese" fascinated the author of the James Bond series, Ian Fleming. Fleming's last James Bond book … which he wrote while ill and died soon afterwards … and 12th in the Bond series, "You Only Live Twice", has the entire chapter six ("006. Tiger! Tiger!") devoted to Bond and PSIA (公安調査庁kōanchōsachō) chief "Tiger Tanaka" (タイガー田中Taigā TANAKA) discussing whether one can truly "become Japanese", using Lafcadio Hearn as an example. At first, Tiger opines that people like Hearn can never be culturally/ethnically accepted:

"... there have from time to time been foreigners who have come to this country and settled here. They have for the most part been cranks and scholars, and the European-born American Lafcadio Hearn, who became a Japanese citizen [sic], is a very typical example. In general, they have been tolerated, usually with some amusement."

After going on for a few paragraphs about how American soldiers in Occupied Japan were ruining Japan because they were living in Japan, James Bond retorts that a soldier that comes to Japan and lives there for a few years is a very different thing from someone who decides to naturalize:

"Presumably you're talking of the lower level G.I.s — second generation Americans ... swaggering around a conquered country under the blessed coverlet of the Stars and Stripes with too much money to spend. I daresay they occasionally marry a Japanese girl and settle down here. But surely they pull up stumps pretty quickly. Our Tommies have done the same thing in Germany. But that's quite a different thing from the Lafcadio Hearns of the world."

Ian Fleming would then, unfortunately, Jump The Shark in a later chapter by exploring whether a white person (Scottish James Bond) could become racially Japanese by dying his skin and making other cosmetic changes to his appearance; — to give him a little bit of credit, in the book, he avoids the question of whether a British spy could ethnically pass for Japanese by having the foreign secret agent pretend to be deaf, dumb, and mute by carrying a card saying so.

This depiction isn't realistic. There are no personal handguns in Japan.

In the final showdown between Bond and his arch-nemesis, Blofeld attempts to use the Japanese samurai expression 『斬り捨て御免』 {"kirisute gomen"} to loosely mean "license to kill" (a catchphrase of the 007 franchise). In response, James Bond mocks him for evoking a little too much forced Japonisme with his vocabulary:

'... Have you ever heard the Japanese expression "kirisute gomen"?'

Bond groaned. 'Spare me the Lafcadio Hearn, Blofeld!'

'It dates from the time of the samurai. It means literally "kill and and going away". If a low person hindered the samurai's passage along the road or failed to show him proper respect, the samurai was within his rights to lop off the man's head. I regard myself as a latter-day samurai. My fine sword has not yet been bloodied. Yours will be an admirable head to cut its teeth on.'

His Family

Many of his family members were relatively well known and achieved much with their lives. Many of them wrote books, much like Koizumi.

His wife published her memoirs in the book "Reminiscences of Lafcadio Hearn", which talks about how the Meiji Renewal caused wealthy, distinguished and powerful families (like her own samurai lineage) to be forced to the streets after the civil war which abolished the feudal samurai class in favor of an Empire in the name of Westernization Modernization. Ironically, were it not for the drop in status, Lafcadio Hearn's marriage to Setsu and his acceptance into the family and use of the samurai family name probably would not have been possible.

His second son followed in his father's footsteps and became an English teacher. He too wrote a book about his experiences.

His third son became a poet and artist.

Hearn's most noted and representative work

Commemorative postage stamp
honoring "Kwaidan" and Hearn

Hearn's fascination with the macabre (including voodoo in New Orleans) — which began with his crime and news reporting in America — led him to write a collection of Japanese ghost tales in the book published at the end of his life: "Kwaidan". "Kwaidan" is an approximation of the modern Japanese word 『怪談』 {"kaidan"} which means "Ghost Story". The non-standard spelling and pronunciation is due to three reasons:

1. The pronunciation of 〔怪〕 in reverse-imported Japanese-approximated Chinese is 【クワイ {kuwai}】
2. In his wife's local Izumo dialect (出雲弁 {Izumo-ben}) of Japanese, the syllabet 〔か {ka}〕 was pronounced close to 【くゎ {kwa}】
3. Standardized forms of ローマ字 {rōmaji} (Japanese transliteration into Latin letters), such as ヘボン式 {Hebon-shiki} (Hepburn style) hadn't been well adopted yet; also 仮名 {kana} (Japanese syllabet) orthogonality and "spelling" hadn't been modernized yet.

This book both inspired a piano composition by Finnish composer Pehr Henrik Nordgren, and a 1964 Japanese movie which dramatized four of the stories in the book. This is the trailer for the movie:

The seventeen stories (along with three essays) in the book come from tales told to him by his wife.

Timeline of Lafcadio Hearn's Life

Hearn jumped around a lot of jobs, a lot of countries, and wrote a lot of works in a relatively short amount of time. His CV is so full of job-hopping that it would make a bubble-era internet startup veteran blush. According to biographers and other people who worked with him, Hearn was known to be extremely difficult to work with; he was not really known to be a team player.

To apply a modern internet term to a quill-and-parchment era, he was known to "flame" the very patrons that compensated him for his work … not to mention the school and country he belonged to … in letter correspondence. He would then quitting after alienating his colleagues. He had a lot of bridges to opportunity. And he burned a lot of them. Fortunately, he also had the ability to find new bridges and build them quickly.

In many ways, Hearn's experience in Japan is similar to what many Americans who came to Japan during the bubble era of "Japanese internationalization" (国際化kokusaika) 1980's and early nineties experienced living in Japan and working at an 英会話eikaiwa (English Conversation School); Hearn managed to exploit Japan's need for modernization … spurred by the Meiji Renovation … and catching up to the West by learning English from a native speaker in Japan.

The man that got Hearn a job in Japan

His timing on how he got to Japan was excellent. He got his first job by accidentally meeting 服部一三 {HATTORI Ichizō} at the New Orleans World Fair in 1884. Hattori was the Minister of Agriculture and Commerce at the time, and he would later be a bureau director for the Ministry of Education. Hattori's connections and introduction would be instrumental in getting Hearn his first teaching job in Japan.

Afterwards, he would rely on the connections of other people in Japan such as Tokyo U's Professor Basil Hall Chamberlain, who was a famous Japanologist in his own right and had been living in Japan since 1873. Friends at first, then colleagues thanks to Chamberlain's invitation, their relationship would unfortunately later become estranged.

Nellie Bly was famous for exposing
conditions in insane asylums

Met Hearn in 1880s
in New Orleans

The other thing that got him to Japan was professional rivalry and one-uppmanship; in the 1890's investigative journalists were taking advantage of modern travel technology (new steamships and railways) and were inspired by the fictional book "Around the World in Eighty Days" (八十日間世界一周 {hachijū nichikan sekai isshū}) by Jules Verne (ジュール・ヴェルヌ {Jūru · VERUNU}). Celebrity investigative journalist Nellie Bly, sponsored by Joseph Pulitzer's New York World, went east from New York; she had nothing but extra undergarments, a heavy coat, a small portable bag, £200, some gold and American currency.

Rival publisher Cosmopolitan (back then a New York newspaper, not a fashion magazine), sent their own famous female reporter, Elizabeth Bisland, in the opposite direction, attempting to beat both the book and Bly's time. Both women barely beat the book, with Bly coming in at 72 days, and Bisland coming in at 76½ days.

Hearn was fascinated by both the fictional book (in which one of the cities covered was Yokohama) as well as Elizabeth Bisland, whose travels and writings in her seven part newspaper series (compiled into "In Seven Stages: A Flying Trip Around the World" by Harper & Brothers in 1891) covered Japan extensively. Bisland would later publish a very well-reviewed two volume biography, "The Life and Letters of Lafcadio Hearn", which made the maverick look sympathetic.

Some photos & quotes in this post
were taken from this biography.

During his life he would write 11 books and countless newspaper and magazine articles.
Those works are omitted from this timeline for brevity.

YEAR (JP era year)	AGE ±1y	EVENT	DETAILS	COMMENT
1848 嘉永元年	-2	first (illegal) immigrant in Japan	ラナルド・マクドナルド {Ranarudo · MAKUDONARUDO} (Ranald MacDonald)	taught a little English, learned a little Japanese, deported a year later
1850 嘉永３年	0	birth	as Patrick Lafcadio Hearn	Greek mother and Irish father, out of wedlock and/or not recognized by church due to religion conflicts.
		death	of older brother, George
1852 嘉永５年	2	immigration	to Dublin, Ireland	via Liverpool, England
		deserted	by father	sailed away from Ireland to new marriage
		abandoned	by mother	returned to Greece, given to husband's aunt
1854 安政元年	4	Japan opened	Commodore Perry steams into the port of Yokohama with the "black ships."	Issued one year after Treaty of Peace with Japan aka The Treaty of San Francisco and the first Security Treaty
1862 文久２年	12	boarding school	Catholic Institution Ecclésiastique	learned French (and inspired move to New Orleans), came to hate Christian education and lose his religion, changing his common name from the St. Patrick inspired name to his middle given name.
1863 文久３年	13	school	St. Cuthbert's College	to prepare for priesthood
1866 慶応２年	16	accident	disfigured and loses sight in left eye	playground mishap with pole and ropes: "giant's stride"
1867 慶応３年	17	passport	first modern Japanese passport issued	to 隅田川浪五郎 {SUMIDAGAWA Namigorō}
1868 ㍾元年	18	Meiji Restoration	samurai class abolished	Nathan Algren: not the last samurai or the first gaijin
1869 ㍾２	19	immigration	to New York City, United States	Hearn came to NYC 17 years before the Statue of Liberty
		pen/name change	to his middle name: Lafcadio Hearn	in honor of birthplace, Ionian island of Lefkas
1872 ㍾５	22	new job	at Cincinnati Daily Enquirer	Ohio
		family register	modern Japanese family register established	first national system to include all people
1875 ㍾８	25	marriage	to Alethea ("Mattie") Foley	Mattie was a quote "colored [sic] kitchen hand"
1877 ㍾10	27	fired	due to interracial marriage	illegal under local miscegenation laws as Foley was, in her own words, "Creole". In other people of the time's words, "Mulatto".
		new job	at The Cincinnati Commercial	rival newspaper
		"dissolved" marriage	from Alethea ("Mattie") Foley	no official divorce record exists
		move	to New Orleans	His house still exists and is preserved.
		new job	at Item Newspaper / Daily City Item	carved politcal satire cartoons/drawings on wood blocks with a penknife to be printed alongside his articles
		new businesses	satirical magazine & The Hard Times Restaurant	both the magazine and the restaurant would fail in a few years
1881 ㍾14	31	new job	at Times=Democrat.	new competing paper
1887 ㍾20	37	travel	in French West Indies / Martinique / Caribbean	2 years around capital St. Pierre before being destroyed by volcano
		freelance commission	to Harper's Weekly	commissioned to write about Japan
1890 ㍾23	40	immigration	to 神奈川県横浜市 {Kanagawaken Yokohamashi} (Yokohama City, Kanagawa Prefecture) via Vancouver	Not much government sponsored tourism and promotion back then.
		renounces contractual obligations	to Harper's Weekly	"assailed…editor" with a "torrent of abusive letters" due to "some discontent magnified by paranoia"
		freelance commission	to The Atlantic	maintained a good relationship; published many articles with the magazine.
1890 ㍾23	40	new jobs	at a middle school and general school as an English teacher due to U.S. connection	now a HS and uni
		moved	to 松江 {Matsue}	The Lafcadio Hearn Memorial Museum (小泉八雲記念館 {Koizumi Yakumo Kinenkan}) is next door.
		new constitution	Meiji Constitution	Article 18 ⇒ nationality law
1891 ㍾24	41	(unregistered) marriage	to 小泉セツ {KOIZUMI Setsu}	Because he failed to properly divorce first wife, was now technically a bigamist.
		moved	to 熊本 {Kumamoto} in 九州 {Kyūshū}	had difficulty with the cold weather in 松江 {Matsue}
		new job	at Fifth High School	as an English teacher
1893 ㍾26	43	first son	小泉一雄 {KOIZUMI Kazuo}	English name: Leopold
1894 ㍾27	44	resigned	from Fifth High School	due to office politics
		new job	at 神戸クロニクル {Kōbe Koronikuru} (Kobe Chronicle) and ジャパンメール {Japan mēru} (Japan Mail)	also known/printed as The Japan Chronicle
		moved	to 神戸 {Kōbe}'s residences for foreign settlers	an area that was also becoming known for its foreign population
1896 ㍾29	46	naturalization	into 小泉八雲 {KOIZUMI Yakumo}	pre-naturalization and post-naturalization names were publicized until recently
		resigned	from 神戸クロニクル {Kōbe Koronikuru} (Kobe Chronicle)	due to health (failing eyesight)
		new job	at 東京帝国大学 {Tōkyō teikoku daigaku} (Tokyo Imperial University)	used connections from friendship with Professor Basil H. Chamberlain
		moved	rented new home in 牛込区市谷富久町 {Tanitomihisachō, Ushigome-ku (Ushigome Ward, Tokyo)	present day: 新宿区 {Shinjuku-ku} (Shinjuku Ward)
1897 ㍾30	47	second son	小泉巌 {KOIZUMI Iwao}	given away/adopted in 1901 by another family and took their family name: 稲垣巌INAGAKI Iwao. Became English teacher.
1899 ㍾32	49	third son	小泉清 {KOIZUMI Kiyoshi} English name: "Paul"	became a poet / artist
1902 ㍾35	52	moved	to 西大久保 {Nishi-Ōkubo}	final days were lived here
1903 ㍾36	53	first daughter	小泉寿々子 {KOIZUMI Suzuko}	All four children, grown. LTR: Kiyoshi, Iwao, Suzuko, Kazuo
		resigned	from 東京帝国大学 {Tōkyō teikoku daigaku} (Tokyo Imperial University) due to health and office politics	replaced by 夏目漱石 {NATSUME Sōseki}
1904 ㍾37	54	new job	at 早稲田大学 {Waseda daigaku} (Waseda University)	stayed in Tokyo
		leave of absence	from 早稲田大学 {Waseda daigaku} (Waseda University)	due to poor health
		death	due to heart attack	雑司ヶ谷霊園Zōshigaya Cemetery
1915 ㍽４	+11	conferral of posthumous rank	従四位 {jushii} (secondary 4th position) in the 神道 {Shintō} (Japanese religion) / court rank	8th from the top