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