In a Japanese Garden Coloring Book: With Reflections from Lafcadio Hearn's 'in a Japanese Garden'

Biographical Note:
Lafcadio Hearn (1850-1904) was born on the Greek island of Lefkas, the son of an Anglo-Irish surgeon in the British army and a Greek mother. After his parent's divorce when he was six, he was brought up in Dublin by a great aunt. At the age of nineteen, he went to America, eventually ending up in New Orleans as a newspaper reporter. His flight from Western materialism brought him to Japan in 1890, where he worked for an English newspaper, the Kobe Chronicle, and taught in various schools. In 1896, he began teaching English literature at Tokyo Imperial University, a position he held until 1903, and at Waseda University. Hearn married a samurai's daughter, Koizumi Setsu, became a Japanese citizen and a Buddhist, and changed his name to Koizumi Yakumo. At the young age of 54, he died of a heart attack. Hearn's search for beauty and tranquility, for pleasing customs and lasting values made him a confirmed Japanophile. His keen intellect, poetic imagination, and wonderful clear style permitted him to penetrate to the very essence of things Japanese. He became the great interpreter of things Japanese to the West. Hearn's most famous work is a collection of lectures entitled Japan: An Attempt at Interpretation (published posthumously in 1905). His other books on Japan include Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan (1894), Out of the East (1895), Gleanings in Buddha Fields (1897), Exotics and Retrospectives (1898), In Ghostly Japan (1899), Shadowings (1900), A Japanese Miscellany (1901), and Kwaidan (1904).

Review Quotes:
"...The prints depict peaceful and serene images of parks, gardens and Mother Nature herself. Each print shares the name of the artist, an explanation of the print from the artist themselves and a copy for you to put colored pen to paper." -- Pausitive Living blog

Review Quotes:
" In a Japanese Garden is highly colorable and quite lovely...The text really takes the coloring experience to a whole other level -- one where you can think and reflect upon the words while you color and perhaps feel a sense of peace and calm." -- I Sniff Books blog

Review Quotes:
"The pages are perforated so that you can easily remove them for easier colouring. And, as the pictures are so beautiful, this also make them easy to hang on your wall." -- CastleViewAcademy.com

Review Quotes:
"This adult coloring book recreates 23 artworks for you to color--images of flowers and trees, garden residents such as the bird and the butterfly, and in-the-moment scenes of people taking in the pleasures of these peaceful corners of the world. A copy of the original print sits opposite your coloring "canvas" as a reference. Reflections from Lafcadio Hearn's In a Japanese Garden as well some works of the great haiku masters will inspire you as you apply pencils or fine markers to your page." -- ColoringBookAddict.com

Review Quotes:
"This book has twenty-three coloring pages based on beautiful Japanese artwork...The coloring pages vary in amounts of details and sizes to color. The more detailed pictures are easier to color with finer print pens or pencils. This book is a high quality as well and full of lots of culture and more." -- Crafty Moms Share blog

Review Quotes:
"This lovely book comprises images of some 23 Japanese prints opposite which is a line-drawing copy for colouring as one wishes...The pages to be coloured are perforated to make it both easier to work on them but also permit subsequent framing. So, a delightful selection of images with a Japanese garden theme accompanied by quotations that will, I am sure, have one searching for the books from which they are extracted." -- The Journal of the Japanese Garden Society

Review Quotes:
"This is a compilation of 23 prints of paintings by Japanese artists from the 1700s to the 1900s. A color reproduction of each painting is printed alongside a line drawing of the same painting so you can match or contrast your coloring to the original." -- Nichi Bei Weekly