OPW welcomes ‘Kwaidan - Encounters With Lafcadio Hearn’ exhibition at Farmleigh

The Office of Public Works is delighted to announce the launch of the Kwaidan - Encounters With Lafcadio Hearn exhibition in Farmleigh Gallery, Dublin. This touring exhibition features the fine art print works of twenty Irish and twenty Japanese artists. The exhibition will be officially opened by H.E. Mr. Shimada Junji, the newly-arrived Ambassador of Japan to Ireland.

The works featured in the exhibition are a response to the Japanese ghost stories, collected by Irish writer Lafcadio Hearn in his 1904 book Kwaidan. Through Hearn’s words and the works of the forty printmaking artists, the exhibition aims to bring Ireland and Japan closer together culturally and to restore Lafcadio Heran’s profile within the Pantheon of Irish Writers.

Born on the Greek Island of Lefkada, Hearn was raised in Dublin and Waterford before emigrating to the USA in his youth. He eventually settled in Japan where his writings on that country gained him wide recognition for his sympathetic understanding of Japanese culture.

In collaboration with Hearn's great-grandson Bon Koizumi and his wife Shoko, the Kwaidan exhibition has already been shown in various cities in Japan and Ireland, including at the Lafcadio Hearn Memorial Museum in the Japanese city of Matsue, where it was officially opened by H.E. Ambassador Damien Cole, Ireland’s Ambassador to Japan. In Ireland, the exhibition has been shown at the Ballinglen Arts Foundation in Co. Mayo, the Coastguard Cultural Centre on behalf of the Lafcadio Hearn Japanese Gardens in Tramore, Co. Waterford, the Hyde Bridge Gallery in Sligo town, and the Hunt Museum in Limerick city.

The exhibition dates coincide with Farmleigh's annual Experience Japan festival, which takes place on Sunday 27 April and will also commemorate the 175th anniversary of Hearn's birth on 27 June 1850. In addition to the exhibition, a support programme of talks will focus on various aspects of the Western perception of traditional and modern Japanese culture and Hearn's influence on both.

This year, the Kwaidan exhibition will be presented as an integral cultural element in the Irish Pavilion at the Osaka World Fair, which runs from April to October, after which it will have a permanent home in Ireland House, the new Irish embassy complex that is currently being built in Tokyo.

Don’t miss this unique opportunity to experience the fusion of Irish and Japanese artistry in the Kwaidan - Encounters with Lafcadio Hearn exhibition at Farmleigh Gallery, Dublin. For more information please check the Heritage Ireland website.

OPW spokespersons are available for interview upon request.

Please contact pressoffice@opw.ie for more information and to arrange an interview.

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Listing information

• exhibition title: Kwaidan - Encounters With Lafcadio Hearn
• location: Farmleigh Gallery, Dublin
• dates: 7 March – 24 August 2025
• opening times: Monday to Sunday 10am-5pm (closed for lunch from 1.15-1.45pm)
• admission: Free; Tickets, at €10, for the support events, can be booked on the Eventbrite website

Full list of participating artists in the Farmleigh Gallery exhibition

Artists from Ireland

Yoko Akino / Ailbhe Barrett / Nuala Clarke / Niamh Flanagan / Richard Gorman / Richard Lawlor / Stephen Lawlor / Sharon Lee / Kate MacDonagh / Alice Maher / Eimearjean McCormack / James McCreary / Ed Miliano / Niall Naessens / Kelvin Mann / David Quinn / Barbara Rae / Robert Russell / Amelia Stein / Dominic Turner

Artists from Japan

Kanami Hano / Yoko Hara / Jin Hirosawa / Aya Ito / O JUN / Mayumi Kimura / Chie Matsui / Seiichiro Miida / Yuuka Miyajima / Shoji Miyamoto / Junko Ogawa / Shoko Osugi / Yuki Saito / Michael Schneider / Sudi / Azusa Takahashi / Yo Takahashi / Kanako Watanabe / Toshiya Watanabe / Katsutoshi Yuasa

Inspired by the ghost stories of Lafcadio Hearn, an electroacoustic sound installation entitled Yōkai, by composer and performer Neil O Connor, will accompany the presentation of the artworks.

Support Programme of talks and events at Farmleigh

• Saturday 8 March: Paul Murray / 'Ghosts and Ghouls - The Undead Imagination of Lafcadio Hearn'
• Saturday 12 April: Bill Emmott / 'The Foreign Correspondent as Double Agent'
• Saturday 17 May: Seán Golden / 'Lafcadio Hearn & W.B. Yeats - The Writers Who Brought Japan to Ireland
• Saturday 7 June: Agnes Aylward / 'A Biographical Garden - Ireland’s Living Tribute to Lafcadio Hearn'
• Saturday 12 July: Rebecca Salter / 'Japanese Woodblock Printing - The People Behind the Craft'
• Saturday 23 August: Kate MacDonagh hosts Japanese printmaking workshops

A full-day workshop entitled Lafcadio Hearn’s Japan: from Enchantment to Intercultural Understanding will be presented by the Trinity Centre for Asian Studies at the Long Room Hub in Trinity College Dublin from 9am to 7pm on Friday 7 March. Speakers will include:

Inaugural Speaker: His Excellency Mr. SHIMADA Junji (Ambassador of Japan to Ireland)

Speakers and Discussants (in alphabetical order):

• Professor Stefano Evangelista (Trinity College, Oxford)
• Dr. James Hadley (Trinity Centre for Literary and Cultural Translation, TCD)
• Professor Bon Koizumi (Honorary professor at University of Shimane Junior College, Descendant of Lafcadio Hearn) and Ms. Shoko Koizumi
• Mr. Paul Murray (Former Irish Diplomat and biographer of Lafcadio Hearn)
• Professor John Neary (Former Ambassador of Ireland to Japan/the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Adjunct Professor at UCD School of Social Policy, Social Work and Social Justice)
• Dr. Fraser Riddell (Durham University)
• Dr. Kathryn Webb-Destefano (University of Virginia)

Admission to the workshop is free. Get full details.

As part of the TCD workshop, a musical performance, entitled Celebrating Lafcadio Hearn - Bridging Japan and Ireland will take place at St. Ann’s Church, on Dawson Street on between 1pm and 1.45pm on Friday 7 March. The concert twins the Irish harp, played by Tríona Marshall, and the Japanese satsumabiwa, played by Thomas Charles Marshall. Admission is free.