Japan’s link to Waterford celebrated in new exhibition

An art exhibition featuring the works of 40 artists based in Ireland and Japan is running at The Coastguard Cultural Centre, Tramore until July 7.

The exhibition is due to be officially opened by His Excellency Norio Maruyama, Ambassador of Japan in Ireland.

The works displayed celebrate an important link between Irish and Japanese culture and art, that of writer Lafcadio Hearn.

The works were constructed by artists who were inspired by Hearn’s 1904 work ‘Kwaidan’, and the strange, ghostly tales within. Their interpretations are presented through a diverse collection of contemporary fine art printmaking and photography.

The exhibition is organised by Irish artists Stephen Lawlor, Kate MacDonagh and Ed Miliano, who formed the working group Blue Moon Projects in 2019 and began to develop an exhibition inspired by the writings of Hearn.

In addition to honouring Hearn’s literature, the artworks deepen the cultural bonds created by Hearn, between Japan and Ireland, through this exciting cultural exchange.

Patrick Lafcadio Hearn was born on the Greek island of Lefkada in 1850, to an Irish father, Charles Bush Hearn, and a Greek mother, Rosa Cassimati. At the age of two, Patrick and his mother came to Dublin.

Two years later, Rosa returned home in poor health and Patrick was taken into the care of his father’s aunt, Sarah Brenane.

From the mid-1850s, Patrick spent much of his childhood summers in Tramore with his guardian Sarah, who retired to Tramore in 1867 and was buried there in 1871.

The last time Patrick saw his father was in 1857, on the beach in Tramore, when he was seven years old. The young Patrick learned to swim in Tramore and passed many happy hours listening to fishermen’s stories of storms and shipwrecks.

His biographer, Nina Kennard, attributed Hearn’s lifelong love of the sea to his days in Tramore. She described Tramore Bay as ‘presenting scenes striking and grand enough to stamp themselves forever on a mind such as Lafcadio Hearn’s’.

In 2015 The Lafcadio Hearn Japanese Gardens in Pond Road, Tramore, opened up as a memorial garden to him, achieving major international recognition as a tourism and cultural attraction. 

Growing up in Ireland Lafcadio Hearn absorbed the tradition of storytelling, honed his skills as a young writer in the United States, and wrote his most renowned works in Japan.

Of his writings, 'Kwaidan' is widely considered to be Hearn’s masterpiece and the culmination of his literary output. Some of these tales are ancient, some just local folklore, but Hearn has woven them into a language that can joyously be translated into visual form.

The exhibition is open from May 31 to July 7