Lesley Downer, the author of The Shortest History of Japan, looks at different roles taken by women during that country’s long history: court ladies, warrior women and courtesans. She shows how, through the ages, they have found ways to use their skills to make their voices heard.[…]
Historian and journalist Lesley Downer’s new book, The Shortest History of Japan, has allowed the South End Green-based writer to bring together a lifetime of study. […]
Hugely enjoyed delving deep into Kyoto life in the glittering Momoyama period … Hideyoshi’s tea parties and cherry blossom parties and much else. Please have a listen! […]
The exciting, engrossing and thrilling story of the whole of Japanese history – 16,500 years in a few pages, from 14,500 BC (world’s first pottery) to yesterday, to make you think, ‘Wow, Japanese history is really exciting!’ […]
Hugely enjoyed talking about all things geisha with Kate Lister on the Betwixt the Sheets podcast … find out all about my life among the geisha and what geisha really do! […]
Happy to be included in Johny Pitts’ series The Failure of the Future on BBC Radio 4 – including my memories of the Tsutsumi Seibu empire, which I wrote about in my book The Brothers. […]
Cultural echoes spring up tentacle-like in the most unexpected of places. Japan and Stonehenge, Japan and Knossos – who would have thought it? … Read more
Out June 2024 in Australia and July 31st 2024 in the US and Canada.
The story of a small Asian country with an extraordinary aesthetic tradition that avoided colonization and overcame the devastation of World War II to become a highly prosperous modern force, while preserving its unique spirit and culture.
Watch Lesley Downer in conversation with Hamish Todd (Head of East Asian Collections) at the British Library.
For me, for the fashion industry, for everyone, this is huge news and a great loss of a warm and wonderfulman who created glorious fabrics and clothes. In the 90s I went to the 21st anniversary celebrations of theIssey Miyake brand where Larry Adler (remember him?) unforgettably played Rhapsody in Blue accompanied by Gershwin himself … Read more