At the conclusion of
Lafcadio Hearn’s collection of Japanese ghost stories, Kwaidan, he
introduces the mystical land of Horai, a sort of never-never land famous
in Japanese folklore. As a twentieth-century writer, he takes a suitably
pragmatic view of such fables:
“But that the people who wrote down those legends ever saw
Horai, even in a mirage, is not believable.
For really there are no enchanted fruits which leave the eater forever
satisfied—nor any magical grass which revives the dead—nor any fountain of
fairy water—nor any bowls which never lack rice—nor any cups which never lack
wine. It is not true that sorrow and
death never enter Horai; neither is it true that there is not any winter”
(Dover, 116).
