Japan 2025 Tour

From October 18th to November 3rd, I will be touring Japan with my sister, harpist Tríona Marshall, performing The Lafcadio Suite — a programme that brings together Irish harp and Japanese Satsumabiwa. Our journey begins in Kagoshima and continues through Kumamoto, Kyoto, Osaka, Kawagoe, and Chiba.

Tour Dates

• October 18, 5 pm – Chiran Peace Museum, Minami Kyushu City, Kagoshima

• October 19, 2 pm – Reimeikan, Kagoshima City

• October 24, 7 pm – Baroque Saal, Kyoto

• October 25, 5 pm – Minase Shrine, Osaka

• October 26, 2 pm – Myorenji Temple, Kyoto

• October 30, 2 pm – Kawagoe Anglican Church

• November 2, 2 pm – Ryusenji Temple, Ohara, Isumi City, Chiba

The seed for this project was planted late last year when Kieran Owens of Farmleigh House approached me with an idea: to create a musical collaboration between harp and biwa for the opening of the Kwaidan exhibition — a series of artworks inspired by Lafcadio Hearn’s ghost stories. When I read those stories, I always feel I can hear the voice of Hearn’s Japanese wife, Setsuko, who first told them to him.

The exhibition opened on March 7th with a performance in St Ann’s Church, Dublin. This felt like fate: Lafcadio’s great-great-grandfather had once been rector of the church, and it was on the steps of St Ann’s that Kieran and I had our first conversation about the project. He had been researching Hearn’s ancestry next door at the Royal Irish Academy, and dropped by the church in search of more. Our conversation quickly uncovered a web of coincidences. Kieran and Tríona were already good friends; she had performed at Farmleigh before. Even more uncanny was discovering that Hearn’s Irish family had roots in Correagh, near Kilbeggan, only a short distance from where I now live — my own family’s ancestral place.

From there, things moved quickly. Kieran suggested we make something for the exhibition, and almost at once, my friend Dr. Lijing Peng invited Tríona and me to perform at a colloquium on Hearn at Trinity College Dublin, held to coincide with the exhibition’s opening.

And so, through these chance meetings, coincidences, and connections across Ireland and Japan, The Lafcadio Suite was born. This October we carry it to Japan, where Hearn’s spirit lingers most strongly, and we are honoured to share it in historic places of memory and tradition.

With gratitude to Culture Ireland and the Embassy of Ireland in Japan for their support.