Kwaidan, by Patrick Lafcadio Hearn (1850-1904), was published in 1904. This exhibition features the works of 40 artists based in Ireland and Japan who have been inspired by Kwaidan. Their interpretations are presented in print and photographic form. The exhibition is organised by the working group Blue Moon Projects, which was formed by Irish artists, including Stephen Lawlor, Kate MacDonagh, and Ed Miliano. The Lafcadio Hearn Memorial Museum was invited by the organisers to host the exhibition.

Hearn moved to Ireland, his father’s homeland, at the age of two. He experienced the tradition of oral storytelling throughout his childhood in Ireland. He honed his skills as a writer while working as a journalist in the USA, and later produced many works in Japan. Of these, Kwaidan is considered to be a masterpiece and the culmination of Hearn’s literary output.

Through prints and photographs, the 40 artists have attempted to express the beauty of death, fear, inevitability and the other elements which make up the stories in Kwaidan. As a result, they have produced highly individual works using astonishing techniques and interpretations of these strange and profound tales.

Kwaidan—Encounters with Lafcadio Hearn is an exhibition of prints by 20 Japanese and 20 Irish based artists consisting of a sumptuous array of visual interpretations of Kwaidan, the well-known book of ghost stories published in 1904 by Patrick Lafcadio Hearn (1850-1904), also known as Koizumi Yakumo.

In 2017 Irish artist Stephen Lawlor brought an exhibition of works to Tokyo based on the poetry of W.B. Yeats. It was here that he first heard of the writer, translator and teacher Lafcadio Hearn. Together with fellow artists Kate MacDonagh and Ed Miliano, who formed a working group and began to develop an exhibition inspired by the writings of Hearn.

Ireland is traditionally famous for storytelling, which is deeply reflected in the country’s folklore and culture. Through his early life in Ireland, Lafcadio Hearn absorbed the tradition of storytelling, honed his skills as a young writer in the United States and subsequently wrote his best works in Japan.

Through the mediums of contemporary printmaking and photography each of the 40 artists has engaged with a story from Hearn’s masterpiece Kwaidan. The result is a striking variety of skill and haunting interpretation that reflects upon these strange and ghostly tales.

There are several images of Mujina, with her sad, featureless face awaiting the unwary passers-by on a lonely slope by the Akasaka Road. Alice Maher’s portrayal of Rokuro-kubi confronts both the terror and humour of the five floating Goblin heads, their intertwined hair representing the forest in which they dwell, creating “a great knot of evil intent”.

After travelling more than halfway around the world on a one-way ticket, Patrick Lafcadio Hearn (1850–1904) arrived in Japan at the age of 39. He first settled in Matsue, a castle town in western Japan, where he observed the sincere and devout practises of the local people, such as clapping their hands in prayer to the sun and moon and reverentially worshipping their ancestral spirits during the Bon Festival. The area’s plethora of supernatural stories also fascinated Hearn, igniting his interest in and appreciation of Japan’s culture of ‘the invisible’.

During his 14-year stay in Japan, Hearn collected many ghost stories and transformed them into literary masterpieces, imbuing them with his own artistic flair. Just before his passing in 1904, he finally published his seminal work, Kwaidan, which includes 17 retold stories and essays on supernatural themes. At the heart of his book lies the conviction that ghost stories surpass the realm of horror, serving as a helpful shorthand for comprehending Japanese folk culture and the concepts of grief, love, life, death, and the soul that define it.

Hearn’s fascination with supernatural stories can be traced back to his Irish roots. As a child, he found solace in the ghost stories and fairy tales told to him by his Connaught nanny, Catherine Costello. Therefore, it is no surprise that the animistic culture of ‘Ghostly Japan’ attracted Hearn, who grew up in a cultural environment that could be described as ‘Ghostly Ireland’.

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