Meet me at the cemetery gates ...

Near our Ikebukuro inn is located the cemetery where the Nihonophile and writer Lafcadio Hearn is buried. As we (at the moment) hail from Matsue, a town where Lafcadio Hearn lived and scribbled for just over a year, we decided to pay our respects. The graveyard is a Buddhist one, and Hearn is buried alongside his wife and child. The headstone bears his Japanese name, Koizumi Yakumo. In this snap, Hearn looks a picture of shyness and modesty. This image of Hearn is often spotted around Matsue: in wrought iron friezes on lamp-posts, postcards, bookmarks and chocolate boxes. He is rather an icon about town!