Lesley Downer’s personal blog
‘The tayu knelt next to me, adjusting her skirts. Underneath it all she had a cheeky, elfin face with a tiny nose and pointed chin. How long had she been a tayu, I asked, then gasped when she opened her small mouth to answer. In the chalky-white face with the blood-red lips, her teeth were … Read more
On a hot steamy summer’s day like the last few here in England, 163 years and 14 days ago, on July 8th 1853, something happened that would entirely change the course of Japanese – and world – history. Read my short story … Sharp-eyed Hambei the Fisherman and the Invading Aliens Sharp-Eyed Hambei is the … Read more
Here is a wonderful article with great photographs about walking in the Kumano region. The Kumano Shrines are among the most revered in Japan and for many years women were not allowed in these sacred mountains. Many many years ago I spent time in nearby Shingu and took the waters in the hotspring at Kii-Katsura … Read more
Nagoya has many memories for me. I used to live near here, in a little city called Gifu, half an hour away on the local train. In those days Nagoya seemed like a huge industrial city. Many years later, when I was researching my book on Sadayakko (the turn of the last century geisha who … Read more
So I watched from my balcony as the great ship glided away from her berth in Tokyo Bay with the Kodo Drummers there on the quay to drum us out … To reposition a little farther up the bay in Yokohama. I’d never realised Yokohama was beautiful! I used to always come here by train … Read more
The poet Basho wrote: Summer grasses – All that remains Of mighty warrior’s dreams Was reminded of this poem when I went back to the women’s palace, the women’s vast palatial residence which formed a huge proportion of Edo Castle, the shogun’s headquarters. (Akin to a harem, the women’s palace housed 3000 women and the … Read more
Had never realised sea travel was so wonderful! Just spent 2 ½ weeks on an enormous ship with twelve decks, like a floating twelve storey luxury hotel, sailing along the coast of Japan. I’d been asked to give lectures while the ship was visiting Japan. Arrived in the port of Otaru in Hokkaido and stood … Read more
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
My new e book short story, A Geisha for the American Consul, is out today! Loved writing the story of Okichi, the very first of the Japanese women forced to sleep with a western man. To Japanese of those days, the 1850s, westerners were as weird and outlandish and appalling as space aliens. Imagine … … Read more
At the end of a busy week of lectures, including a trip to Gateshead, nearly as far north as Hadrian’s Wall. Took a train ride to Birmingham and thought I’d flipped through a worm hole and ended up in Tokyo! Birmingham New Street station is as huge and chaotic and confusing as Shinjuku, like a … Read more