3 schools launch online database on Lafcadio Hearn.

MATSUE, Japan, July 1 Kyodo

(EDS: THE WEB SITE CAN BE ACCESSED AT http://lisa.shimane-u.ac.jp)

Three state-run universities have launched a joint online database featuring the collected works and materials of British writer Lafcadio Hearn who introduced Japan to the Western world through his literature, university officials said Monday.

The database, accessible by the public, is the first to compile the works of Hearn (1850-1904), who is known in Japan as Koizumi Yakumo and is credited with introducing Japan to foreign readers, said officials with Shimane University, which helped create the database.

To date, data on Hearn's life and writing had been scattered in various locations, mostly libraries, according to officials.

The project was launched in 1999 with funding from the country's education ministry and involves Shimane University in western Japan, Toyama University on the Sea of Japan coast, and Kumamoto University  in southwestern Japan.

The database features about 30,000 Hearn pieces -- including magazine articles about him, his manuscripts and his written works owned by mostly public and private universities nationwide, according to the officials.

In the future, officials said, they plan to include materials owned by private scholars on the database.

Hearn's great grandchild, Bon Koizumi, an assistant professor at the Shimane Women's College, hopes the Web site will provide an opportunity to broaden readership of Hearn's works.

A key historical figure in Japan, the Greece-born Hearn is particularly well-known in Shimane's city of Matsue, where a memorial museum is named after him and his residence, where he lived with his Japanese wife, a high-ranking samurai's daughter, is preserved.

His books include ''Glimpses of an Unfamiliar Japan'' (1894) which captures much of life in Matsue, and ''In Ghostly Japan'' (1899).