I – Oda Nobunaga and Nohime
Every Japanese schoolchild knows the story about the warlords and the nightingale. Three men are in a garden when a nightingale lands on a branch. They wait expectantly, hoping to hear its beautiful song. But the nightingale stubbornly refuses to sing. What should they do about it? ‘Kill it,’ … Read more
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. […]
Writing the four novels of the Shogun Quartet and later lecturing on the Meiji Restoration I spent a great deal of time imagining myself back to Kagoshima. It was Princess Atsu’s home town, from where she set out on her fateful journey to Edo, the story I told in The Shogun’s Queen. It was also … Read more
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
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
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.
Gustave Tuck Lecture Theatre, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT 3.00 – 8.00 pm Celebrating the 150th Anniversary of the Meiji Restoration 5.00 pm ‘WHEN EAST AND WEST COLLIDED: FLASHPOINTS ON THE ROAD TO THE MEIJI RESTORATION’: illustrated talk The Meiji Restoration was actually a revolution, transforming Japan from a feudal to a … Read more
On July 8th 1853 four warships appear at the mouth of Edo Bay, threatening Edo, the shogun’s capital, today known as Tokyo. Their leader is the American Commodore Matthew Perry, on a mission to open Japan, which has been closed to foreigners for 250 years. Their arrival sparks civil war between north and south … … Read more
Ibusuki was a beautiful place, a land of gold and sunshine where the sky and ocean were perpetually blue. Cranes swooped, birds twittered, monkeys roamed the flower-clad hills, palm trees swayed and the purple cone of Mount Kaimon, more perfect than Mount Fuji, rose misty on the horizon … The Shogun’s Queen For me researching … Read more
When Atsu was a child her father had many geisha concubines and there were always geisha around the house. She called them all indiscriminately ‘Auntie.’ Her favourite was Wife Number Two, an earthy woman with a loud laugh and big personality, competent and unshakeable, very different from Atsu’s refined mother, Wife Number One. Wife Number … Read more