Hearn dreams his way through Japan in eleven sketches, from the fisher-boy Urashima's vanished centuries to a hotel balcony by the sea. He quizzes Kyushu students on Western stories, watches jiujutsu masters throw men with a touch, and follows soldiers marching to the Chino-Japanese war. He keeps asking what the Japanese mind sees that the West cannot.
Books mentioned in Out of the East: Reveries and Studies in New Japan (14)
Man'yoshu: “But the most impressive and the most ancient is found in the "Manyefushifu," a collection of poems dating from the fifth to the ninth century.”
Urashima by Basil Hall Chamberlain: “Then out of the dreaming of the sea rose up a beautiful girl,--just as you can see her in the picture to Professor Chamberlain's "Urashima,"--robed in crimson and blue”
Classical Poetry of the Japanese by Basil Hall Chamberlain: “See The Classical Poetry of the Japanese, by Professor Chamberlain, in Trübner's Oriental Series.”
Rappaccini's Daughter by Nathaniel Hawthorne: “The marvelous tale of "Rappacini's Daughter" proved greatly to their liking; and the spirit of Hawthorne might have found no little ghostly pleasure in their interpretation of it.”
Silence — A Fable by Edgar Allan Poe: “"Monos and Daimonos" found favor; and Poe's wonderful fragment, "Silence," was appreciated after a fashion that surprised me.”
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley: “On the other hand, the story of "Frankenstein" impressed them very little. None took it seriously.”
Le Morte d'Arthur by Thomas Malory: “So I related to them the story of Sir Bors, which is in the sixteenth book of Sir Thomas Mallory's "Morte d'Arthur,"”
Alcestis by Euripides: “Then it occurred to me to tell them the immortal story of Alkestis. I thought for the moment that the character of Herakles in that divine drama would have a particular charm for them.”
Lotus Sutra: “In the eleventh chapter of the Sutra of the Lotus of the Good Law, it is written that mention was made before the Lord Buddha of a young girl who had in one instant arrived at supreme knowledge”
The Dhammapada: “came a memory of the two hundred and fifteenth verse of the Dhammapada: "From love comes grief; from grief comes fear: one who is free from love knows neither grief nor fear."”
First Principles by Herbert Spencer: “First Principles, 2d Ed., § 178.”
The Matsuyama Mirror by T. H. James: “the memory of the old Japanese story Matsuyama no Kagami. Though related in the simplest manner and with the fewest possible words,”