Dates for your Diary

Talk: Court ladies, Women Warriors and Courtesans: Powerful Women in Japanese History

Date: Friday, 13 February, 2026
Time: 5:00 pm – 6:00 pm
Location: Cambridge University Japan Forum
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Details to follow …!

Talk: The Shortest History of Japan

Date: Thursday, 12 March, 2026
Time: 7:15 pm
Location: Highgate Library Hall, in The Children’s Corner, Croftdown Road, London NW5 1HB
The Shortest History of Japan UK edition cover

In The Shortest History of Japan, Lesley Downer brings an expert storyteller’s eye to the sweep of Japanese history. Here are the emperors and warlords, the samurai and women warriors, the merchants and geisha who shaped this extraordinary modern society. From the devastation of Hiroshima to today’s economic and cultural powerhouse, this is an indispensable, riveting history of the land of the rising sun.

Talk: The Shortest History of Japan

Date: Wednesday, 8 July, 2026
Time: 12:00 am – 12:00 am
Location: The Athenaeum Club, Pall Mall, London
The Shortest History of Japan UK edition cover

Details to follow …

Latest Event

Talk: Court ladies, Women Warriors and Courtesans: Powerful Women in Japanese History

Date: Tuesday, 9 December, 2025
Time: 8:00 pm – 9:00 pm
Location: Highgate Scientific and Literary Institution, 11 South Grove, Highgate, London N6 6BS – Victoria Hall/Online
Court ladies

Japanese women are far from ‘submissive geishas’. Women in Japanese history encompass shaman queens, empresses, the court lady who wrote the world’s first novel, women warriors, courtesans who presided over Japan’s salon culture, flappers and militant feminists. Lesley Downer will tell the stories of some of these powerful Japanese women, putting paid once and for all to the egregious stereotype of the ‘submissive geisha’. 

  • Members free
  • Non-members £10