Wednesday 8th February, 2017 at 6.45 – 8.00 pm
Asia House
63 New Cavendish Street,
London W1G 7LP
Illustrated talk: Love at the Crossroads in Old Japan
Shakespeare famously wrote that the course of true love never did run smooth. But what if the course of true love did not run at all? Welcome to Old Japan, where romance all too often led to disaster. There was no word for ‘love’ in the Japanese language, with the feeling being considered akin to madness, to be avoided at all costs.
While marriage was the social norm, this was always arranged, especially if you were from the higher classes. Love and marriage certainly didn’t go together like a horse and carriage. In fact women often didn’t see their husband’s face until their wedding day. Would they then kiss? Probably not – kissing was an esoteric erotic technique practised by geisha, who had the monopoly on romance.
But in the last half of the nineteenth century, this was all about to change. Would love triumph?
Join critically acclaimed author Lesley Downer for a special pre-Valentine’s Day talk on love in Old Japan. […]