73 Upper Leeson Street

Lafcadio Hearne, author of many volumes of Japanese folk tales and studies of Buddhism, lived from the time he was a small child until he was about sixteen with a strict great-aunt, Mrs. Brenane, in No. 73 Upper Leeson Street. He left Ireland in 1869 for Cincinnati and in 1890 went to Japan on an assignment. His books opened Japan to the outside world and also preserved many of the folk-tales and the simple traditions for the Japanese themselves. In his later years he became head of the English Department at Tokyo University. He is celebrated in Japan and some years ago, the Mayor of Matsue, the city in which he lived and married, unveileda plaque at 73 Upper Leeson Street. Hearne died in 1904.