KWAIDAN:

STORIES AND STUDIES OF STRANGE

THINGS A small decorative flourish with swirling lines LAFCADIO HEARN

LECTURER ON ENGLISH LITERATURE AT THE IMPE-

RIAL UNIVERSITY OF TŌKYŌ, JAPAN (1896–1903)

HONORARY MEMBER OF THE JAPAN SOCIETY, LONDON

Two large, stylized Japanese kanji characters printed vertically in a reddish-brown ink: 怪 (Kwai/Kai) and 談 (Dan), which together mean "Ghost Stories" or "Strange Tales." Kwaidan is an older romanization of the Japanese word "kaidan," referring to traditional stories of the supernatural and the uncanny.

怪

談

BOSTON AND NEW YORK

HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COM-

PANY 1908 original: MDCCCCVIII