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Author of "The Land of the Yellow Spring and Other Japanese Stories" "The Persian Mystics" etc.
With Thirty-Two Full-Page Illustrations by Evelyn Paul
London George G. Harrap & Company 9, Portsmouth Street, Kingsway, W. C. 1912
[Illustration: The Lovers who exchanged Fans. _Fr_. (_See page_ 245)]
In writing _Myths and Legends of Japan_ I have been much indebted to numerous authorities on Japanese subjects, and most especially to Lafcadio Hearn, who first revealed to me the Land of the Gods. It is impossible to enumerate all the writers who have assisted me in preparing this volume. I have borrowed from their work as persistently as Japan has borrowed from other countries, and I sincerely hope that, like Japan herself, I have made good use of the material I have obtained from so many sources.
I am indebted to Professor Basil Hall Chamberlain for placing his work at my disposal, and I have found his encyclopædic volume, _Things Japanese_, his translation of the _Kojiki_, his _Murray's Hand-book for Japan_ (in collaboration with W. B. Mason), and his _Japanese Poetry_, of great value. I thank the Executors of the late Dr. W. G. Aston for permission to quote from this learned authority's work. I have made use of his translation of the _Nihongi_ (_Transactions of the Japan Society_, 1896) and have gathered much useful material from _A History of Japanese Literature_. I am indebted to Mr. F. Victor Dickins for allowing me to make use of his translation of the _Taketori Monogatari_ and the _Ho-jo-ki_. My friend Mrs. C. M. Salwey has taken a sympathetic interest in my work, which has been invaluable to me. Her book, _Fans of Japan_, has supplied me with an exquisite legend, and many of her articles have yielded a rich harvest. I warmly thank Mr. Yone Noguchi for allowing me to quote from his poetry, and also Miss Clara A. Walsh for so kindly putting at my disposal her fascinating volume, _The Master-Singers of Japan_, published by Mr. John Murray in the "Wisdom of the East" series. My thanks are due to Messrs. Houghton, Mifflin Company, for allowing me to quote from Lafcadio Hearn's _Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan_ and _The Japanese Letters of Lafcadio Hearn_; to Messrs. George Allen & Sons, for giving me permission to quote from Sir F. T. Piggott's _Garden of Japan_; to the Editor of the _Academy_, for permitting me to reprint my article on "Japanese Poetry," and to Messrs. Cassell and Co. Ltd., for allowing me to reproduce "The Garden of Japan," which I originally contributed to _Cassell's Magazine_. The works of Dr. William Anderson, Sir Ernest Satow, Lord Redesdale, Madame Ozaki, Mr. R. Gordon Smith, Captain F. Brinkley, the late Rev. Arthur Lloyd, Mr. Henri L. Joly, Mr. K. Okakura, the Rev. W. E. Griffis, and others, have been of immense value to me, and in addition I very warmly thank all those writers I have left unnamed, through want of space, whose works have assisted me in the preparation of this volume.