Lafcadio Hearn Memorial Museum



The Lafcadio Hearn Memorial Museum (小泉八雲記念館) is a writer's house museum established in Matsue, Shimane Prefecture, Japan in 1933.

The original museum was modeled on the Goethe-Nationalmuseum in Weimar, and its collection was based on 22 manuscripts donated by the Koizumi family through the efforts of his disciples Teizaburo Ochiai and Seiichi Kishi. Another 350 books were donated by the commemorative society. The current facility was renovated into a more traditional Japanese style. The collection now consists of approximately 1,500 items, including Hearn's personal belongings, his books, related books and materials, and items left behind by his wife Setsu. Since 2016, Hearn's great-grandson, Bon Koizumi, has been appointed as director. The museum attracts around 150,000 visitors a year.

Lafcadio Hearn Former Residence
The museum is adjacent to the house in Kitahori-cho, Matsue where Hearn lived as newlyweds with his wife, Setsu, from May 1891 until he was transferred to Kumamoto's Daigo Junior High School in November of the same year. The location is in a corner of Shiomi Nawate, where samurai residences line the moat of Matsue Castle and the atmosphere of the old castle town remains. It is a one-story house with a tiled roof, approximately 15.5 meters in width and 10 meters in depth, and was built during the Kyōhō era (1716-1735) as a residence for a samurai family with a stipend of less than 500 koku. The owner, Negishi Tate, was the district officer of Hikawa District, Shimane, and Hearn was renting this house while he was away. He mainly used the three rooms on the left side, which overlooked the garden on three sides. Despite the relatively short stay in this residence, he was deeply nostalgic for this house, and wrote about it is several of his works, notably in Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan. The house was designated a National Historic Site in 1940.