Written while Hearn was a professor of English literature at the Imperial University of Tokyo, Shadowings (1900) consists of three sections on various subjects. The first, "Stories from Strange Books," contains six stories of horror folklore. The second section, "Japanese Studies," has musings on cicadas, female Japanese names, and old Japanese songs. "Fantasies," the last section, consists of seven additional essays, including one on the "horror" and glory of Gothic architecture.