Forthcoming lectures: Saturday September 29th 2.00pm Japan Society North West, The Quaker Meeting House, 22 School Lane, Liverpool L1 3BT www.JSNW.org.uk Illustrated talk: The New Japan and the Last Samurai *** Monday October 8th 6.30pm Gateshead Japan Festival Gateshead Central Library tickets £5 from gateshead.gov.uk Illustrated talk: Japan: Geishas and Courtesans *** Thursday October 11th … Read more
Lesley Downer on Across a Bridge of Dreams August 1, 2012 I’ve always wanted to do a Japanese Romeo and Juliet and the story behind the film The Last Samurai (starring Tom Cruise) fitted perfectly. In my last two novels, The Last Concubine and The Courtesan and the Samurai, I wrote about the civil war … Read more
Forthcoming lectures: Saturday September 29th 2.00pm Japan Society North West, The Quaker Meeting House, 22 School Lane, Liverpool L1 3BT www.JSNW.org.uk Illustrated talk: The New Japan and the Last Samurai *** Monday October 8th 6.30pm Gateshead Japan Festival Gateshead Central Library tickets £5 from gateshead.gov.uk Illustrated talk: Japan: Geishas and Courtesans *** Thursday October 11th … Read more
Author Lesley Downer’s romance with Japan is no fleeting affair British writer, historian and journalist Lesley Downer has been visiting Japan and writing about it for nearly 35 years — beginning in 1978, when she was part of the first-ever intake of the English Teaching Recruitment Program, which evolved into the famous JET (Japan Exchange … Read more
Celebrated the launch of Across a Bridge of Dreams at Daunt’s wonderful book shop on Marylebone High Street in London. Lots of friends and colleagues came and a good time was had by all. Hoping my book will do well! Please click on thumbnails below to scroll through the gallery: [wpcol_1fifth id=”” class=”” style=””] [/wpcol_1fifth] … Read more
Celebrating publication day (June 7th) and launch day (June 19th) – and have already had a lovely review of Across a Bridge of Dreams in the Independent! Japan’s headlong rush towards modernity frames this tale of star-crossed love. by Victoria James Nearly a thousand years before Romeo met Juliet, Japan boasted its own pair of … Read more
Forthcoming lectures: Monday June 18th 6.45 pm Japan Society Oriental Club, Stratford House, 11 Stratford Place, London WC1 1 ES www.JapanSociety.org.uk Illustrated talk: The New Japan and the Last Samurai free but booking essential *** Monday October 8th 6.30 pm Gateshead Japan Festival Gateshead Central Library, Prince Consort Road, Gateshead NE8 4LN Illustrated talk: Japan: … Read more
Geisha call their world the karyukai, the world of flowers and willows. In the old days the ‘flowers’ were the flamboyant colourful oiran courtesans in their lavish kimonos; in woodblock prints they’re the ones with their hair bristling with combs and hairpins and ornaments. The geisha were the modest low key ‘willows’. But in the … Read more
KanikakuniGion wa koishi Neru toki mo makura no shita no mizu no nagaruru No matter what they sayI love GionEven in my sleepThe sound of waterFlows beneath my pillow This beautiful poem was written by Isamu Yoshii. I was happy to be in Kyoto to see the plum blossom. On my last night there I … Read more
Thrilled to have a chance to visit Aizu, which features large in Across a Bridge of Dreams. I’d wanted to come when I was in Japan last year but Aizu is in Fukushima Prefecture and not that far from the Fukushima Dai chi Reactor and – more to the point – the Aizu friends I … Read more