Bro - you guys rock - thank you for this. Mizuki’s Showa history manga series was the first to help me take the genre seriously and though I’m newer to Hearn, it seems a pilgrimage to the mountainous empty-not-so-empty heart of the country will be in order before long. Much appreciated, as usual.
And then a bit further west there's Izumo and all the legends Susanoo, Okuninushi and so on. And beyond that we have Iwami Kagura - https://lessknownjapan.substack.com/p/iwami-kagura?r=7yrqz
San'in is a Japan mythological heartland
Absolutely it is. And really, aside from the big attractions like Izumo and Mizuki Road, quite under-appreciated as a destination.
Thanks for this interesting piece! I also recently wrote about Barthes, Hearn, and another outsider, Byung-chul Han, here: https://quiethills.substack.com/p/observers
From your essay, "Japan seems to draw the dilettante." Very true, and especially so now with the weak yen fueled tourist boom!
Bro - you guys rock - thank you for this. Mizuki’s Showa history manga series was the first to help me take the genre seriously and though I’m newer to Hearn, it seems a pilgrimage to the mountainous empty-not-so-empty heart of the country will be in order before long. Much appreciated, as usual.