This is Anúna’s 8th visit to Japan since 2005. This year is the large tour of Anúna in Japan. They are going to play in north city, Sapporo, Hokkaido, and other new locations such as Shizuoka, Aichi, and Kanagawa this time.
Anuna release the new album "Other World" this June in Japan. They are the choral group representing Ireland, and revive the music of medieval Ireland to the present day and sing Celtic mysteries. Many of the songs are about spirits that dwell in nature or people's passions, and the theme is the same ethereal world as in Japanese Noh.

Anúna has a diverse repertoire ranging from medieval Irish chants to popular traditional songs and original songs with lyrics in Gaelic, English, Latin and Iceland. Their unique musicality and the mysterious, transparent beauty of the chorus will captivate Japanese audiences as well as in Europe.
In 2017, they performed Celtic Noh Takahime in Tokyo. Recently they are also active for Japanese game music participating in the game "Xenogears Soundtrack" "Chrono Cross" and "Xenoblade Chronicles 2 & 3", In 2023 the singer of Anuna sang the theme song of the game "Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Devil". The view of the game world is fantasy connected with Irish imagination.
We hope the tour will get new audience of game fantasy world.

Specially this time Anúna will have a collaboration with Noh (Japanese old tradition) and Sho (Japanese old traditional instrument) in Tokyo. The theme is Yuki-onna (Snow Woman) written by Yakumo Koizumi, Irish writer who naturalized in Japan about 100 years ago.
Yakumo Koizumi (Lafcadio Hearn), a very well-known writer of ghost stories in Japan, lived in Japan from 1890, fascinated by Japanese culture and tradition, wrote Japanese ghost stories and published many works to connect this world with the other world.
"Yuki-onna" is a story full of mystical beauty where reality and otherworldly souls intertwine, which is the same spirit of Irish fairy story.
The stage is ceremonial, and unlike a normal chorus group, Anuna wear medieval Celtic costumes and performs with ritualistic movements. A large number of candles are lined up on the stage, creating a different world. This is the same idea as firewood Noh and candlelight Noh. In both Japan and Ireland, fire is thought to connect this world and the next. Noh performer Reijiro Tsumura, an authority on Noh dance, will perform a "Yuki-Onna" with an ethereal beauty, which embodies the spirit of Celtic mysticism.
The fusion of these authentic international arts: Celtic vocal music, Japanese Noh and Gagaku, will make a special collaboration.

Irish fairies are a fantasy born of human imagination. In the world of Japanese Noh, the souls, passions, and grudges of the dead from another world are depicted, and the residents of the other world (oni, kami, tengu, ghosts, etc.) appear.
These two different imaginations are actually the fundamental human sensibilities of seeing and feeling the invisible world.
The collaboration express the "Yugen" (mistery) on stage with the theme of "Yuki-onna".
Japan and Ireland are located at the western and eastern ends of Eurasia. We both have deep-rooted beliefs in nature and animism, and share a worldview of "mystery" and "ethereal". Irish/Celtic thought and ancient Japanese thought have a common and precious perspective of respecting the gods in nature. Celtic spiral patterns (Gyre) are just similar to those of the Jomon period (from tens of thousands years ago to the 3rd century BC) in Japan.

The fusion of the two arts, Anúna and Japanese Noh & Gagaku, will express deep similarity on philosophy of two cultures, Ireland and Japan. This occasion of Anuna tour will make culture exchange and make more understanding between two countries.