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HELLENIC JAPANESE CENTER
Interview with Αkio Inagaki, Lafcadio Hearn's grandson
Inteview: F. Gkritziotis
Please allow me to start with a personal question, which you have probably been asked many a time. It is known that Lafcadio Hearn named your father "Iwao Hearn". How is it that your surname is"Inagaki"?
My father, Iwao was born as second son between Lafcadio and Setsu Koizumi. Koizumi and Inagaki became relatives each other in old days. Inagaki has no successor at that time, so second son of Koizumi was asked to take after Inagaki family name and preserve their cemetery corner since feudal times they had kept.
Could you please give us a brief overview of the Hearn genealogical tree, so as to acquaint us with the descendants of Lafcadio Hearn?
I will try to explain in brief:
* Hearn and Setsu had 4 children, 3 boys, named Kazuo, Iwao and Kiyoshi and 1 girl, Suzuko.
Iwao was adopted by the Inagakis and registered with the Inagaki family before he was 2 year old.
*Kazuo Koizumi (1893-1965) was a writer, who wrote many books about Hearn.
*Iwao Inagaki (1897-1937) died young; he was an English teacher at middle-school. *Kiyoshi Koizumi(1899-1962), an artist and painter, became famous after his death.
The 3rd generation of descendants comprises 6 people, out of whom 4 are still alive.
*Toki Koizumi (1925-), Kazuo's son, an essayist, wrote many books about Hearn.
He lives in Yokohama, and is an advisor to the Hearn Societies in Japan.
*Yaeko Taneichi (1923-), Iwao's daughter, lives in Aomori Prefecture.
*Kyoko Sasaki (1929-), Iwao's 2nd daughter, lives in Aomori Prefecture as well .
*Akio Inagaki (1932-), Iwao's son, lives in Yokohama.
The 4th generation descendants are 5.
*Bon Koizumi (1961-) Toki's son. He is a Professor at Shimane University and has writen about L.H.'s. life in Matsue City. He is also advisor to Hearn's Societies all over Japan.
*Tatsuya Koizumi (1962) Kiyoshi's grandson is an export trade businessman
living in Tokyo.
*Ayako Inagaki(1944-), Yaeko's daughter, lives in Aomori Prefecture
*Tsukushu Araix (1966-) Akio's daughter, lives in Valencia, Spain.
*Akihiro Inagaki (1969-) Akio's son, is tutor of Physiology at Tokushima University.
A Lafcadio Hearn Museum (Yaizu Lafcadio Hearn Memorial Museum) was inaugurated in Yaizu last June. What was your contribution to its creation?
I have been going to Yaizu every year since 1997and gave them advice about the collections. I also donated some of Hearn's drawings. I recommend all Hearn scholars to visit Yazue.
Are there numerous Yakumo Societies in Japan and abroad, and, if so, where? Are you a member to any of those?
There are many Yakumo Societies in Japan, as far as I know, in Matsue, Kumamoto, Toyama, Hiroshima, Kobe, Matsushima, and Yaizu. I have been appointed advisor to two Societies, Matsue and Yaizu, but I was also invited to give talks about Hearn at Kumamoto and Toyama.
Are there numerous Lafcadio Hearn scholars in Japan and abroad? Could you name some of them? In general, would you say that interest in LH has been growing or declining in recent years and why?
"Yakumo Koizumi Encyclopedia (Reader's Guide to Lafcadio Hearn) was issued in 2000. More than 50 scholars and researchers were asked to contribute to it. Their representative is Professor S. Hirakawa. In 2004, "The Matsue International Symposium Commemorating the Centennial of the Death of KOIZUMI YAKUMO" was held at Matsue. Mr. Paul Murray, Director of EU External Relations in the Department of Foreign Affairs, Ireland, made an inaugural speech, titled "The Orient at Home: Lafcadio Hearn and the East in Ireland. At that symposium almost all Hearn scholars and researchers gathered from the world, Australia, Canada, China, French and USA, including most of Japan's authorities on LH.
I think that Symposium was the peak of the L.H. fever, so to speak. After that, interest in LH has been declining, especially among people under 40 years of age.
We must make efforts to make LH and his oeuvre more widely known.
I think June 2007 may be a turning point marked by the opening of L.H. Memorial Museum in Yaizu.
Is there an excerpt or a phrase out of Lafcadio Hearn's oeuvre which you consider most representative of his thought?
L.H. had a painful heart-attack at age of 50. After that, he gave up his plans to go abroad and went into a pensive and pessimistic mood. Day by day he took a greater interest in Buddhism. Despite his condition, he tried to work hard. As a result, he accomplished some fine work at that final stage of his life. For example, NOCTILUCAE (Shadowings, 1900) was published in 1900 and is my favorite work by him. In the last paragraph LH wrote:
[But of white lights there were none in all the Visible.
And I marvelled. Then a Voice said to me: "The White are of the Altitudes.
By the blending of the billions they are made. Thy part is to help to their kindling. Even as the color of thy burning, so is the worth of thee. For a moment only is thy quickening; yet the light of thy pulsing lives on: by thy thought, in that shining moment, thou becomest a Maker of Gods.]
" a Maker of Gods" means 'an Artist' who although a human being observes everything.
LH is generally perceived as the Westerner who introduced the Japanese culture to the West at a time when Japan itself was rapidly westernizing, in the sense of modernizing. Not surprisingly, your grandfather's writings have been perceived and interpreted differently in Japan and the West. In your eyes, who is the real Lafcadio Hearn?
This is a controversial theme among researchars even nowadays; my opinion is as follows: In his younger years when living in USA, L.H. was just an excellent reporter. After coming to Japan, he became an admirer of an alien culture very different from the western style, and loved the Japanese old-fashioned individualism. He observed the Meiji- era Japan thoroughly as an insider, not only as reporter but also as a real humanist.
Notwithstanding, he was misunderstood. At the last stage of his life, he became a Japanese patriot, abandoned Catholicism for Buddhism and wrote prophetically about his worries about Japan's future.
In my view, he will forever be remembered for introducing Japan to the west and contributing to Japan’s progress.
You are partly Greek, too. Do you visit Greece often? What does Greece mean to you? What, in your view, did it mean to your grandfather?
Of cource, I am partly Greek and I love the brilliant history of this beautiful country. I have to visit Kithira where my great-grand mother, Rosa Kasimatis was buried. I have been to Greece 3 times so far. Next time I hope to visit Greece via Spain on a Mediterranean cruise.
(Summer 2007)