Drama based on the life of Lafcadio Hearn and his wife airs in Japan
The Lafcadio Hearn Memorial Museum in Matsue, Japan. Stock Image.
A Japanese drama based on the wife of Lafcadio Hearn and their life together has aired in Japan.
The first episode of the 15-minute morning drama aired on Japanese broadcaster NHK on Monday, September 29, and will run until October 3.
The show is called Bakebake in Japan and The Ghost Writer’s Wife in English.
It is hoped the drama will air in Ireland, but no information is currently available for an international broadcast.
Bakebake is an Asadora, a 15-minute morning drama in Japan.
The show stars Akari Takaishi as Toki Matsuno/ Koizumi Setsu and Tommy Bastow as Lefkado Heaven/ Lafcadio Hearn/ Koizumi Yakumo.
Announcing the drama in July, the Japanese Ambassador to Ireland, Shimada Junji, said he hopes the drama will make Hearn's achievements better known in Japan and that the show will also air in Ireland.
“The mayor of Matsue, Mr Akihito Uesada, to whom I paid a courtesy visit, spoke enthusiastically of his wish to take this opportunity to further deepen the relationship between Matsue and Ireland.
“We, too, would like to cooperate as much as possible. We hope that the drama will gain popularity and become a powerful tailwind for the promotion of relations between Japan and Ireland,” said Ambassador Shimada.
The city of Matsue is where Hearn settled in 1890.
Today, his former residence, along with its garden, is open to the public.
Beside the home is the Koizumi Yakumo Memorial Museum (Lafcadio Hearn Memorial Museum), which honours author's work.
Lafcadio Hearn settled in Japan for the last 15 years of his life, and when he became a Japanese citizen, he took the name Koizumi Yakumo.
Koizumi was his wife Setsu’s family name.
Setsu was from a samurai family and met Hearn when she began working for him, and the pair eventually married and had four children.
According to the Matsue City website, the show's name, Bakebake, comes from the word Bakemono, which is a spirit or monster that wasn’t always so but transformed or can shapeshift.
This may, of course, be a reference to Hearn’s most famous work, Kwaidan, which was a collection of Japanese ghost stories.
Friday, September 26, marked 121 years since Lafcadio Hearn’s death.
An incense stand was installed at the monument at the museum in Matsue.
