PhotoBook Journal
"Wonderful photographs. . . . [Watanabe's] black and white photographs add a layer of understanding and environmental context for the accompanying stories. His photographs are at times as dark as Hearn’s stories. The Kwaidan are a collection of mysterious stories that are well suited for a vivid imagination."
IGNANT magazine
"The photo book is a new edition of the critically acclaimed book of the same name . . . [featuring] a collection of horror stories, Japanese legends, and ghost stories presented in English for Western audiences. The tales are some of the first examples of modern fantasy literature: including man-eating goblins, insects who parrot human behavior, and a musician who performs to a dead audience. Hearn died soon after the book’s publication, only finding posthumous success. Over a century later, Watanabe has used the eerie stories as the conceptual basis for his imagery in Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things, presenting this new edition of the classic text in print."
Photo-eye, 2019 Favorite Photobooks - Elizabeth Avedon
"Out of this year’s vast ocean of photography books, Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things, stands out for me. Written by Lafcadio Hearn over a century ago, and now brilliantly illustrated with accompanying photographs by award-winning photographer Hiroshi Watanabe, these folk stories are revitalized in this new edition."
2019 Favorite Photobooks Photo-eye
"Written by Lafcadio Hearn over a century ago, and now brilliantly illustrated with accompanying photographs by award-winning photographer Hiroshi Watanabe, these folk stories are revitalized in this new edition."