A Date for your Diary: British Library – Virtual Private View on 29th March 2022
Finding out all about the wonderful world of Japanese kimono pattern books with curator Hamish Todd at the British Library.
News
Tour dates, public lectures and other news
A Date for your Diary: Ashmolean Museum Oxford – Online Talk on 9th December 2021
Edo Castle: The Glittering World of the Shogun’s Courtality
A Date for your Diary: JSNW – Online Talk on 17th September 2021
The Meiji Restoration and the part the British played in making sure it went ahead.
A Date for your Diary: Ashmolean Museum Oxford – Online Talk on 9th September 2021
The Decadent World of the Yoshiwara: Dream and Reality
Watch Lesley in conversation with Pico Iyer
Born in England and based in western Japan for 33 years, Pico Iyer talks about the changes, the changelessness and the paradoxes of his adopted home, as reflected in his recent works Autumn Light and A Beginner’s Guide to Japan at this British Library digital event on 6 May, 2021. […]
A Date for your Diary: British Library online on 6 May 2021
Author and journalist Pico Iyer in conversation with Lesley Downer
Pico Iyer talks about the changes, the changelessness and the paradoxes of his adopted home, as reflected in his recent works […]
Age of Samurai on Netflix
Thrilled to be involved in this brilliant Netflix series on Japan’s Age of Samurai. … I was lucky enough to be asked to tell the women’s side of the story. […]
Summer 2020 Update
Thrilled to be contributing to Inaka, an anthology of writing on rural Japan. In my piece have revisited my very first book, On the Narrow Road, and written about what became of the people I met when I made that journey. …. Read more
Kimonos, Madam Butterfly and Geisha
Before the great 2020 Coronavirus Lockdown began … I had lots of fun activities! I wrote an essay for the catalogue of the V & A’s splendid exhibition Kimono: Kyoto to Catwalk on Geisha: Perpetuating the Kimono Mystique. It’s a beautiful book and a good fat read for quiet days! I was also lucky enough … Read more
A Date for Your Diary: Japan Society on 6th September
Panel to mark the 150th anniversary of the Meiji Restoration: with Ian Buxton (editor of Ernest Satow’s diaries) and David Warren (ex-ambassador to Japan). This will be the first event at the brand new Japan House.
For its second event marking the sesquicentennial of the Meiji Restoration, the Japan Society is delighted to welcome three scholars and researchers who will focus in this session on contemporary British connections with Japan.