Yeats Day in Japan, A Celebration of Ireland's Famous Poet

Yeats Day is an annual festival held in Ireland to commemorate Ireland’s most famous poet William Butler Yeats. It is held in his hometown of Sligo around his birthday 13 June, Given the special connection between Yeats and Japan, the Sligo Yeats Society and the Embassy of Ireland have organised a special event in Japan to showcase this festival, Irish culture and the beautiful region of Sligo which was an important source of inspiration for the great poet.

Talks will be given by authorities on Yeats’ life and works of Yeats (consecutive interpretation provided in Japanese). There will also be readings and music inspired by the artist.

Yeats Day in Japan 2013

Programme

13:00 Welcome remarks by Prof. Norimasa Morita, Dean, School of International Liberal Studies (SILS), Waseda University
13:05 Introduction by Ambassador John Neary
13:15 Yeats High and Low, Prof. Margaret Harper, University of Limerick
14:10 Yeats and Japan, Prof. Yoko Sato, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology (President, IASIL Japan)
14:45 Break 
15:00 Yeats in the Community, Senator Susan O’Keeffe
15:45 Yeats and the Visual Arts, Ms Martin Hamilton, artist
16:30 Concluding remarks by Prof. Kunie Ebisawa, Edogawa University (Secretary General, Yeats Society of Japan)
17:00 Readings and music based on Yeats’s work by Ms Margaret Harper and Mr. Paul Hayes, Contemporary ballet adaptation of The Circus Animals’ Desertion, performed by Ms Motoko Ikeda.

 Yeats Day in Japan

 Ambassador John Neary

Prof. Margaret Harper, University of Limerick

Senator Susan O’Keeffe

Ms Martin Hamilton, artist

THE cat went here and there

And the moon spun round like a top,
And the nearest kin of the moon,
The creeping cat, looked up.
Black Minnaloushe stared at the moon,
For, wander and wail as he would,
The pure cold light in the sky
Troubled his animal blood.
Minnaloushe runs in the grass
Lifting his delicate feet.
Do you dance, Minnaloushe, do you dance?
When two close kindred meet,
What better than call a dance?
Maybe the moon may learn,
Tired of that courtly fashion,
A new dance turn.
Minnaloushe creeps through the grass
From moonlit place to place,
The sacred moon overhead
Has taken a new phase.
Does Minnaloushe know that his pupils
Will pass from change to change,
And that from round to crescent,
From crescent to round they range?
Minnaloushe creeps through the grass
Alone, important and wise,
And lifts to the changing moon
His changing eyes.

 Readings and music based on Yeats’s work by Ms Margaret Harper and Mr. Paul Hayes, Contemporary ballet adaptation of The Circus Animals’ Desertion, performed by Ms Motoko Ikeda.

                                  “The Gathering Ireland - Be Part Of It”