Madam, – Mary Morrissy’s article on the Irish-Japanese writer, Lafcadio Hearn (An Irishwoman’s Diary, November 2nd) should help to revive interest in his works interpreting Japan through foreign eyes at the end of the 19th- and in early 20th-century.
Earlier efforts to stimulate interest in Hearn include the visit to Matsue by then president Mary Robinson during her state visit to Japan in February 1995. While in Matsue she met the curator of the Hearn memorial museum, Bon Koizumi (mentioned by Ms Morrissy), and planted a tree in front of the bronze bust of the writer unveiled in 1990. Also worthy of mention are the efforts made by a former Irish ambassador to Japan, the late Sean Ronan, to arouse interest in Hearn’s Irish roots, culminating in a a book on his life, work and Irish background, published by the Irish-Japan Association in 1991. It has no fewer than 53 photographs from all areas of Hearn’s varied life in Ireland, France, the US, Martinique and Japan. It also listed 11 relatives of Hearn then living in Ireland. Mr Ronan’s collaborator in the book was Toki Koizumi, father of Bon, mentioned above.
Before its closure several years ago, the Sundai Ireland International School, in the Curragh, Co Kildare, housed a Lafcadio Hearn Museum and Library. Some books from the school were passed to the embassy of Japan in Dublin, but not the contents of the Hearn Museum and Library. One wonders did they go back to Japan or are they somewhere in Ireland? – Yours, etc,