Kokoro:Hints and Echoes of Japanese Inner Life, is a collection of fifteen essayswhich capture the innermeaning or spirit of the Japanese.Kokoro opens with"At a Railway Station", the story of a criminal captured in Fukuoka andmadeto face the wife of his victim, the moving tale of a street singer and thecharming portrait of a Geisha in "Kimiko". Kokoro: Hints and Echoes ofJapanese Inner Life, was first published in 1896 at a time when Japan waslargely unknown to the Western world. Kokoro (心) which translates as'heart' in English offers the reader the first glimpses into pre-industrial andMeji era Japan.Today the works of LafcadioHearn aremostly forgotten in theWest and are fading fromthememories of the Japanese, butHearn's work stilloffers valuable insight into Japan and its customs.