Eagles and Eggplants

Episode 92-Eagles and Eggplants
Going for the gold year round
This Irish Music Stories episode aired Monday May 4, 2026
https://shannonheatonmusic.com/Episode-92-Eagles-and-Eggplants

Speakers, in order of appearance
>> Shannon Heaton: flute player, singer, composer, teacher, and host of Irish Music Stories 
>> Kozo Toyota: Irish flute player from Tokyo

I’m Shannon Heaton. And this is Irish Music Stories, the show about traditional music and the bigger stories behind it.

[ Music: “The Tap Room,” from Rehearsal
Artist: Dan Gurney (accordion), Shannon Heaton (flute), Matt Heaton (guitar) ]

Like how things change over the years. But a lot of the same stories just seem to keep coming up. Like a bad penny.

Or a Golden Eagle.

Those are really rare to come across these days. But those golden coins were in circulation in 1883, when Boston fiddle player William Bradbury Ryan was working at a Boston print shop on Court Street. Right near Scollay Square, which is not there anymore—now it’s the pedestrian plaza in front of City Hall)

William’s boss at the print shop, Elias Howe, had been collecting fiddle tunes since his childhood in the 1820s. Elias published his own Musician’s Companion tune collection in 1840. Back then people were still dealing with the aftermath of the Panic of 1837, when President Andrew Jackson sent out a personal announcement. Government land, he said, can now only be bought with gold or silver.

[ Music: “Mutey Big Build,” from Production Music Made for Irish Music Stories
Artist/Composer: Matt Heaton

Almost immediately, banks ran out of gold and silver. It pinched the rich white developers. Businesses closed. There was mass unemployment. Farmers and homeowners lost their property. There were food shortages. And throughout it all there was very little government assistance.

So Jackson made his independent executive order when Congress had already adjourned for the summer. As soon as they were back in session they tried to pass a bill to rescind it. But Jackson used a “pocket veto” to prevent it from becoming law.

When people look back on his unadvised personal attack of the U.S. banking industry—and the six year depression that ensued—is usually seen as a massive, ignorant misuse of executive power.

But the tune collectors hung in there: through the Panic of 1837; through the Mexican-American War; through the gold rush; through the American Civil War. By the 1860s, Elias Howe had become a prolific music publisher. William Bradbury Ryan started working for him, and embarked on his own enormous tune collection of reels, jigs, and other English, Irish, and Scottish dances. When Elias opened his Court St publishing house in 1880, the two men had worked together for nearly twenty years.

One of their first big projects in the Boston Court Street shop was to publish Ryan’s 1883 Mammoth Collection.

[ Music: Collage of Golden Eagle performances – Joe Derrane, Kieran Hanrahan, MacDara Ó Raghallaigh, Shannon Heaton ]

The Golden Eagle hornpipe is tune #697 out of 1050 melodies. Its first time in print. And it’s been flying in the hands of traditional players ever since, including the late great Joe Derrane on the box there, Kieran Hanrahan on the banjo, MacDara O’Reilly on fiddle, and me on the flute, just this moment.

The hornpipe was probably named for the Golden Eagle coin.

[ Music: “After Hours Theme,” from Production Music Made for Irish Music Stories
Artist/Composer: Matt Heaton

Maybe Elias and William received Golden Eagles for some of their bigger sales. But they—and most ordinary citizens—were more dealing with silver coins, paper money, or barter.

Confederate Captain Raphael Semmes certainly used Golden Eagle coins when he was in charge of the CSS Alabama.

[ Music: “Pick and Drive,” from Production Music Made for Irish Music Stories
Artist/Composer: Matt Heaton

It takes a lot of resources to pay a military crew and secure supplies and ammunition, especially when you’re blowing up nearly 70 ships (including the Golden Eagle clippership, which was made in my town of Medford, Massachusetts. So maybe the tune was called after the ship.

But no matter its namesake, the Golden Eagle hornpipe is a flashy, fiery little tune. Some say British fiddler James Hill wrote it. James died thirty years before William published his book, and hiis tunes were all pretty virtuosic like this one.

But no matter who made it up, it’s a tune many of us play because we’ve learned it from other players. We Irish musicians tend to pick up most of the common tunes, and many unusual tunes, from people, not books. But knowing when a tune showed up in a book indicates how old it is, where it might have come from, and what it might be named for. And that makes the whole thing even richer. You have even more to share with your flute player neighbor. Or with your friend who lives 6700 miles away.

Kozo Toyota plays Irish flute around his home of Tokyo. When he was visiting Boston last month we played the Golden Eagle together.

[ Music: “Golden Eagle Hornpipe,” from Live in the Living Room
Artists: Kozo Toyota & Shannon Heaton ]

>> Shannon: Okay, Kozo Toyota. Where did you learn this tune, the Golden Eagle?
>> Kozo: From a recording.
>> Shannon: Do you remember the recording?
>> Kozo:I have no idea, but…
>> Shannon: I’m not sure where I learned this tune. I remember hearing the second part and thinking, hmm, that’s interesting. A little bit unique. So why did you learn this tune?
>> Kozo:I used to play classical music before. So, the choice of a chord is close to classical music.
>> Shannon: Yeah, very chromatic.
>> Kozo: Yeah…

[ Music: “Barter’s Hill,” from Jolie
Artists: Nightingale ]

>> Shannon: Yeah, very chromatic. It’s got some half steps, so the melody is laced with a few accidentals (like, sharp notes). And those are easier to play on a keyed flute.

In 1847 — 36 years before William published his tune book with the Golden Eagle—Munich flute player Theobold Boehm patented a new flute design with more keys. This made it a lot easier to play ALL the notes (fully chromatic), and it fixed some tuning and volume unevenness.
The flutes that Kozo and I play are an earlier design—some keys, but not all the gadgets and adjustments of the Boehm design. Maybe it’s slightly more sporting on our flutes

>> Shannon: So this tune, The Golden Eagle, compared to other hornpipes, is a bit complicated. Like, it’s like it’s one of these 19th century party pieces
>> Kozo: Huh, to show off..
>> Shannon: Yeah, it’s kind of a tune that I think a lot of flute players like to play
>> Kozo: I like this tune to exercise key work
>> Shannon: Yes, and it goes up high.
[They sing the tune]
>> Shannon: Nice, it goes down, chromatically. Yes. Do you play a D sharp?
>> Kozo: Yes.
>> Shannon: Me too. I love it. So I learned a little bit about the history of the tune, to know how old it is, and also to learn why it’s called the Golden Eagle. And it turns out that there was a coin in the United States called the Golden Eagle. And there was also a ship in my town, in Medford, Massachusetts, close to where we went running this morning. The ship was called the Golden Eagle. Do you have any eagle stories in Japan? Are there eagles in Japan?
>> Kozo: At the beginning of the year, they say that if we dream about Mount Fuji, or eagle, and eggplant it’s a symbol of happiness of this year. We have no idea… why eggplant?!

[ Music: “John’s theme,” from Production Music Made for Irish Music Stories
Artist/Composer: Matt Heaton

>> Shannon: Unexpected! I’d not known about the eggplant. But I had learned that there are mountain hawk-eagles in Japan, which samurais began training 1,200 years ago. And on Japan’s northernmost main island, there’s an indigenous eagle that people believe is magical.

>> Shannon: There is a sea eagle that is native to Hokkaido, which is where Hiro is from. Our friend Hiro. I guess the native people there see it as a guardian against famine. So if you see a sea eagle in Hokkaido, it means you will not be hungry. So if we dream of that, we will be happy, and our bellies will be full.

[ Music: “Meaning of Life,” from Production Music Made for Irish Music Stories
Artist/Composer: Matt Heaton

>> Shannon: Japan’s got golden eagles, too—mythical ones. There are Shinto tales about a heavenly eagle kami guarding Buddhist temples. There’s Karura, a fiery red-gold eagle-human demigod with thunderous power. And Washi, the wise golden eagle/hawk that shows up all over folklore and art, usually battling snakes.

Playing the Golden Eagle Hornpipe is less of a battle when playing it on a keyed flute. Still, it’s got a few stages of engagement that noble players need to coordinate for the most honorable performance possible.

>> Shannon: So this tune is very like arpeggios.
>> Kozo: And besides, it’s out of the range of the flute.

>> Shannon: there’s a low B in the very first phrase, which doesn’t work on Irish flutes. In a recent Tune of the Month video I made with Matt Heaton, we walked through that first phrase

[ Video excerpt: Shannon & Matt Heaton walk through the notes of the first phrase ]

>> Shannon: Okay, so this flashy, arpeggiated composition (with notes too low for the flute) shows up in print in 1883. This means it had been played for who knows how long.

[ Music: “Pound the Floor,” from Production Music Made for Irish Music Stories
Artist/Composer: Matt Heaton

But we do know that showing off was really in vogue in the later 1800s—playing chromatic melodies that went up high… this was great for laughs and entertainment. Some Wow factor for the Vaudeville musicians. And a test of the new flute design that Boehm had patented.

[ Music: “McFadden’s Handsome Daughter,” from dearga
Artists: Matt & Shannon Heaton and George Keith ]

In 1883 in Boston, when Ryan’s Mammoth Collection came out, a Boehm system flute (especially the ones with silver keys, or the ones made of metal) cost about $100 on up. So, like ten Golden Eagle coins or more. That was a lot of money back then. Basic simple system flutes, like the ones Kozo and I play, were more like $5. For this kind of purchase most people just used paper currency or smaller coins.

[ Music: “Little Bird Lullaby,” from Production Music Made for Irish Music Stories
Artist/Composer: Matt Heaton

Through the 1800s, there were all sorts of coins made of silver, copper, brass, nickel. There were eagles on the back of many of the silver coins. By the time the Golden Eagle hornpipe showed up in the book, $10 Golden Eagle coins had been in circulation for 45 years.

31 years before that, the Golden Eagle clipper ship was built in Medford, Massachusetts, right around the corner from where my kid went to middle school. The 1852 Golden Eagle ship was designed for speed. And it first launched (quickly) from the Mystic River, right near where we now get our tacos and deli sandwiches.

The Golden Eagle raced from Boston to San Francisco around Cape Horn, carrying gold rush prospectors panning for fortune, along with mail and other high-value goods like silks, liquors, and mining tools.

[ Music: Pick and Drive reprise ]

In 1863, after traveling to a remote coral island for seabird droppings (valuable fertilizer at the time), the Golden Eagle was heading to dock in County Cork. But on its way, an Alabama cruiser ship captured it and set fire to the ship in the middle of the Atlantic.

In fact, another Alabama vessel destroyed something made in Medford, Mass, not too long ago. In 2021, a truck driver (with a record of prior safety violations) was hauling a massive water tank from Lincoln, Alabama. He ran his 14’9″ truck into our local 14’ max overpass bridge— he split one beam, bowed another, and it took almost a year and a million bucks to fix it. A lot of traffic, a lot of local hassle, and Massachusetts is still trying to recover the money, five years later. Poor everybody. And poor Curtis Henry. I’m sure he felt terrible…

… Unlike Confederate Captain Raphael Semmes who blew up Medford’s Golden Eagle ship 163 years earlier. He was really proud of his war antics and the 65 Union vessels he destroyed.

[ Music: “Awyr,” from from Soundtrack
Artist: Rhodri McDonagh

He detailed all of those projects in his Memoirs of Service Afloat.

Raphael did NOT write about all of his pre-war investments in his law practice, and in real estate and enslaved people. Nor did he write about how he lost legal privileges after the Civil War because of his pirate-style raiding reputation. In his memoirs he insisted that his conquests on The CSS Alabama—and all Southern views and culture—were noble and chivalrous. He called the barbarians up north materialistic. He mocked them for being fanatical abolitionists. And he droned on and on about southern hospitality and prosperity (at least for the people owners).

Raphael died on August 30, 1877, in Mobile, Alabama after eating contaminated shellfish.

And the Golden Eagle coins stayed in circulation for another 56 years, through the Gold Rush, Civil War trade, and the Gilded Age until one man’s executive order put an end to the Golden Eagle.

All right. It’s 1933. Great Depression era. On March 4 President Franklin D. Roosevelt was sworn in, On the 6th he declared a national bank holiday, on the 9th Congress passed the Emergency Banking Relief Act. This gave the President more control over the banking system. And less than a month later Roosevelt used an executive order—just like Andrew Jackson had done when he issued his gold and silver only decree. But this time it was an executive order telling citizens they’d have to go back to paper money.

Unlike Andrew Jackson, Congress had given FDR authority over banking. And two months later they passed a resolution to uphold this new executive order. But still he issued this on his own at first.

He gave people just about a month to turn in all gold over $100 to the Federal Reserve or face huge fines or up to 10 years in jail. So citizens carried in their Gold Eagles and got paper dollars in exchange, backed and regulated by the government.

After that, it was all bills and silver and base-metal coins for all goods and services, including flutes. At this point, Boehm system flutes were close to $200 or more. Trumpets were also pretty dear—$150 for a good one. That was a lot of paper dollars that most people didn’t have on hand.

But simple-system wooden flutes—they were considered obsolete. You could get one of those used, and really, really cheap.

So that’s what the Irish folk musicians played. We still prefer those old instruments–they’ve got that REEDY, almost trumpet-like? tone. The simple system wood flutes, though, are now less available than the metal ones. And they can be pricey. But getting the right tone is golden.

>> Shannon: So why did you choose the flute?
>> Kozo: I used to play the trumpet. I belonged to the Wind Orchestra and symphony orchestra when I was a junior high school student and a high school student. And so
compared with the fiddle and the banjo, wind instrument is familiar for me. And besides, one more thing: I’m not good at playing the trumpet, to tell the truth. Not a good trumpeter.

And I love the sound of the trumpet played by Maurice Andre. French guy. Best trumpet player last century. I love his tone. Very soft and rich. And probably with the trumpet, it is crazily difficult to make that kind of sound. But my best favorite flute player is Mike McGoldrick from Manchester. He’s always amazing. And his tone with E-flat flute sounds like Maurice Andre’s’ trumpet sound for me.
Shannon: And he has recorded with trumpet as well.
>> Kozo: Yeah, just even! Yeah, yes, yes, that’s right.
>> Shannon: It blends beautifully.
>> Kozo: I love it, yeah.

[ Music: Excerpt from Mike McGoldrick with trumpet ]

Trumpet player Louis Armstrong is also really big in Japan. When he arrived in Osaka as part of a 1953 tour, he broke attendance records and actually cancelled the rest of his Asia tour, so he could stay in Japan. He sold-out every show. And for those gigs he played a gold-plated French Selmer (Model 19).

[ Music: “Triumph Theme,” from Production Music Made for Irish Music Stories
Artist/Composer: Matt Heaton

Around the time FDR told everybody to bring their Golden Eagles to the nearest member bank of the Federal Reserve System, those Gold-plated Selmers would have been among the most expensive instruments on the market.

Okay, so by May 1, 1933, the Reserve had gathered around 500,000 ounces of these coins.. They melted the coins into gold bars, which they stored in an enormous vault in Fort Knox, Tennessee. The Fort Knox gold bars made everything easier to store and count. The US treasury could now regulate money and control the value of gold. And from here, FDR worked with congress to pass the Gold Reserve Act of 1934. They revalued gold to $35 per ounce. This gave the Treasury an instant massive profit, which bankrolled the New Deal projects and relief programs without raising taxes.

[ Music: “Mountain Grooves.” From Production Music Made for Irish Music Stories
Artist/Composer: Matt Heaton

The Executive order, the Congress-backed acts, and building Fort Knox ultimately boosted wins for Uncle Sam. There was no personal profit. It built the nation’s money supply, chipped away at the national debt. Unemployment dropped, GDP jumped, the system stabilized.

Before FDR melted all the Golden Eagle coins, his 5th cousin Theodore Roosevelt had also interfered with money when he was president.

Until this point, the smaller coins had been made with images of ‘Liberty’ — a goddess with flowing locks. A personification of patriotism. A feminine symbol of …revolution? … unity?
The different denominations had different combinations of Liberty. Some bald eagles, a shield, and a wreath. (The wreath replaced an earlier design of a chain with 15 links. Many hated it and thought it represented slavery. So the Mint changed it to a wreath. Actually, 90 years later after that, when the French sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi first imagined the Statue of Liberty, he designed her with broken chains in her left hand to represent breaking free from slavery. But the American funders did not feel comfortable with that. So they got him to replace the chains with a tablet and a torch instead. Frederic moved the broken shackles to her feet, basically hiding them under her robe.)

Well, In 1909 President Theodore started complaining that these U.S. coins with the wreaths, shields, eagles, and Lady Liberty looked boring. He liked the European artsy coins better. He asked the artist Victor David Brenner to design a coin with his famous Abraham Lincoln bust.

[ Music: Meaning of Life reprise ]

And for what would have been Lincoln’s 100th birthday, the wheat penny came out. Abe on one side, wheat stalks on the other. Abraham Lincoln, and agricultural America.

From then on, coin art shifted from allegorical Flowing Hair Liberty to presidents. The face of all the coins were eventually replaced with mini sculptures of rich powerful men, and two add-ons for diversity: the Lincoln penny, the Jefferson nickel, the FDR dime, the Washington quarter, the Kennedy half dollar. (And there was an Eisenhower dollar coin, which was short-lived and replaced by suffragist Susan B. Anthony and Lewis & Clark guide Sacagawea. But those coins are minimally minted because most people just use paper money, not dollar coins.)

We moved away from unity-focused symbols and abstract ideas of virtue and democracy with new designs that focused on celebrities. On personal legacies vs shared history, triumphs, and endurance.

As for paper money, the transition to people started even earlier. By 1928 we had the familiar lineup: Washington ($1), Lincoln ($5), Hamilton ($10), Jackson ($20), Grant ($50), and Benjamin Franklin ($100). The McKinley $500 bills were discontinued in 1969. But if you can find one now, they’re worth 1,000 or more.

Lincoln is still on the front of the US $5 bill. That’s not going anywhere for now. But his penny is no longer being printed. Because it costs 3 cents to make each one cent coin. The U.S. Treasury Department says that phasing it out will save taxpayers $56 million yearly.

The critics of penny retirement say this won’t save money for people and businesses who rely on cash (small vendors, laundromats, low-income people. They’ll be stuck with the “rounding tax.” Something that cost 1.03 will now be 1.05. Technically, something that costs 1.02 will go down to $1. But enforcement is lax, so if some places just round up, and if you spread that over a total grocery bill, it’s gonna add up fast. Especially if nickels also follow suit.

To make sure everybody’s doing the rounding properly, to make it all legit, businesses would have to upgrade to official. penny-rounding gear

[ Music: “Celtic Grooves,” from Production Music Made for Irish Music Stories
Artist/Composer: Matt Heaton

As of now the basic terminal or reader is like $500-1500, plus $30–70/month software. Probably no biggie for large stores and chains and banks, In fact, they might end up saving money because they can pocket fractions of cents per sale and they can cut the coin sorting work. But it could really affect little shops with old cash registers and calculators, and just small time consumers who count their pennies (and pay with them).

[ Music: “Pianto Per Nonna,” from Living Room
Composer/Artist: Laura Cortese ]

The penny has been threatened for a while. In 1989 President Bush Sr.. President Obama pushed again in 2012. He said cash was fading. But back then there were lots of vulnerable people using cash, and plenty of small, independent businesses with simple low tech set ups. And there still are.

On his Inauguration Day, the newest US president bypassed Congress with an executive order which allowed his biggest backer to hastily create an unofficial organization in order to “trim federal waste,” that was the claim. And they began terminating thousands of federal programs like USAID, Education Department research, scholarships. Even scholarships that had already been awarded.
And they initiated steps to end the penny.
To push that one over the finish line, the new president didn’t even bother with an executive order. He just made a brief social media post telling the Treasury Secretary to halt production of the penny. And like that, the Philly Mint pressed the last ceremonial batch on November 12, 2025.
There are a lot of pennies still in circulation. And for now, stores can still accept them. But a lot of places are just proactively rounding. They’re supposed to go down if it’s 1-2 cents. But only Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Maine, Connecticut, New York, and New Jersey have enacted strict no-rounding statutes

Seems like a problem. And seems the only possible consistent solution would have to come from the Fed. That’s the entity that deals with physical cash. So the Fed that’s stuck holding the bag (of copper pennies).

[ Music: “Dark Low Jig,” from Production Music Made for Irish Music Stories
Artist/Composer: Matt Heaton

But the Fed is not involved with cryptocurrencies or digital tokens. Thanks to more executive orders cutting anti-crypto rules, it’s an open field for cryptocurency. And it’s a ‘legitimatized’ field thanks to the creation of “DIGITAL FORT KNOX.”

So it used to be that the DOJ/FBI would bust criminals, seize their cryptocurrency, and then auction it. The profits went to the treasury or to victims.

But thanks to another executive order from the current president, we now have Digital Fort Executive Order, the DOJ can no longer sell Reserve Bitcoin. Now, the US holds it and waits for it to appreciate (or to tank). By then it probably won’t be this president’s problem. And at the moment it’s not generating any cash for the country.

The thing it has done is positioned Bitcoin as an official U.S. asset. And this has helped hype the whole crypto space, including the private memecoins and NFTs that the current president peddles.

[ Music: Mountain Grooves reprise ]

When President Roosevelt created Fort Knox, and melted the Golden Eagle coins, and put monetary gold in Treasury hands, this was a good bet. That’s why Congress overwhelmingly supported it. Physical gold is a stable commodity. And all that collected gold gave $3B straight to the U.S. Treasury to fund the New Deal.

The modern executive orders that led to building Digital Fort Knox? Pure speculation. It did initially boost sales of the president’s own private crypto currency, But it’s no cash for the country now—and because Bitcoin routinely tanks, it may or may not benefit the U.S. in the future.

And even if it all works out, that’s no guarantee of happiness. For that you need to calibrate your dreams — of eagles… and Mt. Fuji?

>> Kozo: Yeah, first Mt Fuji. Second eagle. Third, eggplant.
>> Shannon: And then… happiness?
>> Kozo: Yes, happiness.
>> Shannon: Do you have to dream of all three?
>> Kozo: Actually I’ve never dreamed of them.
>> Shannon: None of them?
>> Kozo: No. I’m wondering if I can be happy or not!
>> Shannon: Well, maybe next year we’ll have a conversation on December 31st. And we’ll try to help each other think of golden eagle, golden eagle,
>> Kozo: Golden eagle, golden eagle, golden eagle, … eggplant?

[ Music: John’s Theme reprise ]

>> Shannon: In Irish music, no man is an island. We usually cheer one other on. Even those with the biggest ego, well they’re part of a living, social practice. And it’s from one another that we learn tunes, and we learn about tone and rhythm. And stories about golden eagles.

This music wouldn’t keep going if people didn’t keep it going together.

And even though everything is online, and you can find notation and recordings of the Golden Eagle hornpipe on your phone, a good tune (and playing it with a friend) is still worth its weight in gold. Just like it was for those Boston music collectors William Bradbury Ryan and Elias Howe. It’s about finding, and enjoying, and passing it on … from Tokyo to Tipperary to Tufts Park, where Kozo and I went running and first started chatting about the Golden Eagle hornpipe. About where we learned it. And where we learn other tunes.

>> Shannon: Playing Irish music as an American, I spent a lot of time listening to recordings, going to Irish music sessions and learning tunes, and then taking trips to Ireland. That’s how I’ve learned this music. What about you, for Irish flute?
>> Kozo: Exactly the same thing. Compared with people in this country of course there are less sessions, and less sessions from great teachers from Ireland or this country. But recording or video YouTube…
>> Shannon: Everything. Everything is online, isn’t it? Yeah. And can you learn everything online or do you need to go and visit Irish music towns and Ireland?
>> Kozo: Definitely we need to visit.
>> Shannon: Live performance is a lot different than a recording. It feels different.
>> Kozo: Yes, that’s right. I feel communication and taking part in the community is sometimes much more important than music itself, I feel. Yeah. Very communicative music, so we cannot avoid joining it.
>> Shannon: You can’t help but join.

>> Shannon: Irish music relies on joining in. It’s a collective, which helps write and circulate an ever evolving body of music that commemorates people, events, beauties of nature, fairy tales, human struggles and triumphs. And coins. And ships. It’s a practice of sharing that spans milennia.

The Golden Eagle might have a shiny title. But it’s no more a celebrity tune than many others hornpipes. It has the same value as the Boys of Bluehill, or the Stack of Wheat. It’s all the tunes and songs. It’s all the steps and stories—and it’s sharing them: That’s the currency of Irish music.

Since 1886, the U.S. has required a person be deceased for at least two years before appearing on a coin (to avoid the appearance of a monarchy). If a living president wanted to be on a coin, it would take an Act of Congress to waive the rule. Or maybe it would just take another executive order from a president who loves gold… and who loves tributes…

[ Music: Meaning of Life reprise ]

There are Irish myths that pay tribute to heroes. But even the most famous hero legends are drenched in magic—it’s less about the individual tributes and more about the powerful unseen forces who they meet who grant them good luck or deep misfortune. There are lucky pots of gold. But even those are associated with the leprauchauns, and about taking care—being able to outwit and dodge danger, not just install a gold toilet. In fact, the gold holders usually meet tragic ends in these stories. The real winners are rewarded with things like untold happiness, or safety from all ills, or spectacular storytelling abilities.

The gold coins are metaphors, emblems of luck (born of respect). So are shamrocks

Japanese people also revere the shamrock as a good luck charm — in Japanese history it’s also known as an auspicious plant, granting power and prosperity for the family and all the descendants. It flowers, it spreads, and Japanese people see this as a symbol of an enduring family line

>> Kozo: We Japanese have family symbol/marks. And my family’s one has shamrock. And besides, in the garden of my house, there are a lot of natural shamrock. In Japanese shamrock is ‘Katabami.’

[ Music: Celtic Grooves reprise ]

>> Shannon: A garden of shamrocks sounds pretty good. That’d guarantee bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds—which might, in turn, attract a golden bird of prey. And just maybe it’d summon some happiness and health for me and my friends and family. Seems a lot more useful than a Shannon Heaton gold coin (or toilet).

So here’s to golden HORNPIPES … and to good luck dreams next January.

>> Shannon: Number one,
>> Kozo: Mount Fuji.
>> Shannon: Number two.
>> Kozo: Eagle.
>> Shannon: Number three.
>> Kozo: Eggplant.
>> Shannon: Number four…
>> Kozo: Katabami!!

Irish Music Stories was written and produced by me, Shannon Heaton. Thanks to Kozo Toyota for the music and conversation. Thanks to Matt Heaton for the production music. And thank you to the generous supporters who continue to kick in to help me make this show, so that I can keep it free and available for everybody.

[ Music: “Golden Eagle Hornpipe,” from In front of the computer
Artist: Shannon Heaton ]

There are plenty of other IrishMusicStories episodes. Hope you’ll give some of them a listen or a re-listen, and share them with friends and family. For more information about this podcast project, for playlists, or to kick in to help build the show, just head to IrishMusicStories.org. Thanks for listening.