Career
Hasegawa employed leading foreign residents as translators and noted Japanese artists as illustrators, and became a leading purveyor of export books and publications for foreign residents in Japan. The books were illustrated by Kobayashi Eitaku until his death in 1890, and by various other artists afterwards. By 1903, the series reached 28 volumes in two series.
Most of the stories were based on well-known Japanese folk tales, but some of the later books, including several by Lafcadio Hearn, are thought to have been invented rather than translated, or perhaps combine elements of several folk tales.
The books continued to be reprinted, sometimes with variant titles, for several decades. The two series of fairy tale books were also packaged into various types of sets.
In 1922 an additional Lafcadio Hearn title, The Fountain of Youth was added, and a five volume Hearn set was sold. Princess Splendor: The Woodcutter"s Daughter, a translation of Taketori monogatari by American missionary Edward Rothesay Miller, was presumably excluded from the series because of its greater length.
Many of the fairy tale books appeared in other European language translations, including French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, and Swedish.
