Benefit for Japanese fund

Two Japenese women living in East Clare will be holding a concert this week to raise funds to help with the disaster relief in the aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami that struck their homeland’s north-east coast.
Erika Mochizuki, her husband Pat O’Connor. along with their friend Tomimi Kawashima, who all live in Feakle, arranged the concert upon learning of the destruction that the recent natural disaster has caused in Japan.
Both Erika and Tomomi are from an area just outside of Tokyo but were here when the earthquake struck last month. They decided they had to do something to help and to that end they will hold a concert this Friday at 8pm in Feakle Community Hall.
The event will feature Pat O’Connor, Eoghan O’Sullivan, Helen Hayes, Andrew McNamara, Brendan Hearty, Erika Mochizuki, Luca Maruta, Vincent Griffin and Seamus Bugler and all funds raised go towards The Nippon Foundation, which works with a lot of non-government organisations in north-east Japan.
Traditional music presenter Paula Carroll will MC the concert.
Fiddler Pat O’Connor explained that he has visited Japan on a number of occasions, touring and playing music there with Japanese people who share an interest in Irish traditional music.
It is due to this interest that the trio decided that a concert featuring Irish traditional music and traditional Japanese songs would be fitting to raise funds to help the relief effort.
“There is quite a big interest in Irish music over there and the people are very seriously into it. This interest doesn’t surprise me; it’s a peculiar type of music in that when people get into it they just get completely carried away with it. It’s got that quality in it. Japanese people have a vast culture behind them and that’s what makes it so nice for us here, the fact that people from a country like that with such a culture in every sphere from art, music and everything, that they would be so interested in our music, which is basically a simple music. There are a lot of Japanese people living in Clare who came for the music and learn the language,” Pat said.
Erika explained that her first interest in Irish music began when she was around 16, when her father bought a couple of Irish music CDs.
“One of the CDs was The Chieftains and the other one was Enya; he listens to all types of music so when I heard the sounds of the pipes, tin whistle and harp and I thought that it was lovely music. Then, when I would go to Tower Records in Tokyo, I would look for albums of Irish music. I didn’t really know much about the local music scene and sessions weren’t  available anywhere in Tokyo.
“I met Paddy and Brigit [nicknames] who were the only two Japanese people who were teaching Irish music in Tokyo at the time. There was a Bewley’s cafe in Tokyo and this couple used to do a gig there every week and my friend Luca went there and got some information about their classes and we were both excited,” Erika explained.
These classes fostered her love for the music but in the year that followed, a trip to Ireland would bolster her passion for not only the music but for the country.
“During the tour to Ireland, they organised for local musicians to come to a place where we stayed to do a performance for us every day. There might have been about 20 people on the tour, who had all been in Paddy and Brigit’s music classes.
The tour was short enough, about five or six days, but Luca and I extended our holiday so we were travelling around for nearly a month. We eventually came back to Clare to Ennis and we stayed there. 
“We got to know a few musicians such as John O’Connor in Custy’s and then went back to Japan because the holiday was over,” Erika explained.
Erika returned to the country again when she was older and headed to the Feakle Festival. While she was there she met her husband, Pat. “I knew Pat O’Connor through his first CD and I really liked it and I was looking forward to meeting my favourite fiddle player,” she said.
Now in the country six years, Erika was shocked to learn of the destruction and devastation last month’s natural disaster has had on her home country and hopes that the local community will support Friday’s concert.