Episode 3 – ‘A Gilded Cage’

A Gilded Cage Episode 3A secret visit

Ejima knelt, feet tucked under her, on the veranda of the small house behind the forked willow tree, watching boats glide to and fro along the canal in front of her. Birds sang, cocks crowed and smells of wood smoke and of cooking rice and grilling fish drifted in the air.

Shingoro was sitting on the edge of the porch, swinging his legs. He took a puff on his long-stemmed pipe, blew out a cloud of smoke, tapped out the embers and refilled the tiny bowl.

Ejima heaved a contented sigh. She’d come to love this house with its threadbare matting, faded walls, torn paper screens and sun-bleached wooden veranda. When she was back at the palace, surrounded by luxury, she yearned to be here. She had no idea who the house belonged to or how she and Shingoro came to be here. No one disturbed them, no one saw her. Shingoro had been as good as his word.

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Episode 2 – ‘A Gilded Cage’

Under the wishing treeUnder the wishing tree

‘Ejima, help me! Put me on my horse!’

Ejima laughed as she set the child on his rocking horse, a wonderfully realistic beast with its white mane, embroidered bridle and purple reins. The little boy rocked to and fro, pleated skirts flying, shouting as if he was imagining himself on the battlefield.

Around her ladies knelt in embroidered kimonos, spinning tops and tossing brocade balls for the little boy, huge red parasols shading them all from the sun. Across the landscaped gardens, hidden among trees and groves of bamboo, were the quarters of her friend Gekkoin, the young shogun’s mother and beloved concubine of his father, the sixth shogun.

Everything was here that a woman could ever want. Yet Ejima wasn’t happy.

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Episode 1 – ‘A Gilded Cage’

The Court Lady and the Kabuki Actor

Edo (much later to become Tokyo), Japan, 1714

Episode 1 - A Gilded Cage‘Hurry, or we’ll be late!’

Ejima stood, arms outstretched, as her ladies milled around her, touching up her makeup and tugging her over-kimono into place. It was a beautiful garment of red silk with a golden phoenix embroidered across the back and a thick quilted hem that swirled at her feet. They tucked in a last strand of her glossy black hair which was swept up into an elegant loop at the back of her head.

She gazed around the room with its coffered inlaid ceiling, its gold leaf screens painted with birds and flowers and its pale straw matting edged with gold. A wind wafted through, setting the reed blinds swaying, and she strained her ears, imagining she heard the roar of crowds and smelt grilling octopus and incense smoke rising from the temples. But it couldn’t be. The grounds were too huge, the city and its noise and bustle too far away outside the palace walls.

The bush warbler in its cage in a corner of the room chirruped. ‘I’m no more free than you,’ she thought wistfully. She knew she should have been the happiest person on earth. She led a life of splendour, ease and luxury, and even the humblest of her attendants wore kimonos more lavish than people outside the palace could dream of. Yet, for all her wealth and privilege, she too couldn’t spread her wings and fly away. A lifetime of ritual and protocol stretched before her, laid out hour by hour, day by day, month by month, season by season.

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A Gilded Cage

A Gilded Cage, episode 1 – coming soon …

In the eighteenth century, Edo, much later to become Tokyo, was the largest and most glamorous city in the world. Right in the centre was Edo Castle, home to the shogun and his government. Deep inside that was the ‘inner palace’ or harem, where three thousand women lived and only one man could enter – … Read more

Shunga: more sex please, we’re Japanese

Erotic woodcuts may have once shocked the West, but they were seen as life-affirming in Japan The Japanese erotic art called shunga is so explicit that the British Museum, where the pictures are on show from October 3, has imposed an age limit of 16 on viewers. Shunga means “spring pictures”, “spring” being a Japanese … Read more

Delving into Ethiopia’s ancient past and present

Lesley Downer travels alone and at ease in the land where one of our earliest ancestors was born — and where the Queen of Sheba lives on I’m edging my way through a long tunnel in pitch darkness, feeling for the roof so I don’t hit my head, waving my trusty flashlight around to scan … Read more

A world of flowers and willows in Kyoto’s geisha districts

I arrive at the inn where I am to stay in Kyoto and lug my bag up the steep stairs to my room. The inn was once a geisha house and the room is barely furnished, though it does have a tiny lacquered dressing table with a long narrow mirror. A balcony offers a view … Read more

The Butterfly Effect: Radio 4 programme on the story behind Madame Butterfly

The Butterfly Effect – BBC Radio 4 Soprano Amanda Roocroft explores the impact of Madame Butterfly in performance and popular culture. […] Author and Japanese expert Lesley Downer and opera enthusiast Rod Wood provide details of the origins of her tragic story and present fascinating insights into the life and work of Puccini. […] First … Read more

Winter Journey to Aizu

My journey to Aizu Wakamatsu, the tragic city at the heart of Across a Bridge of Dreams. It starts to snow soon after the train leaves Koriyama, and further inland at Aizu Wakamatsu the snow is knee deep. My hosts, Nobuyuki and Mikiko, are waiting at the station. I’m relieved to see they’ve brought boots … Read more

National Geographic Traveller – Author Series: Lesley Downer

Japan specialist Lesley Downer on falling for the cultural enclave of Kyoto with its sashaying geishas and hidden temples I arrive at the inn where I always stay in Miyagawa-cho, one of Kyoto’s five geisha districts, around midday. My hosts, Mr and Mrs Sawai, both in their nineties, are here to greet me. I take … Read more