Japanese women are far from ‘submissive geisha’. Women in Japanese history encompass 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’.
Talk: Japan’s Powerful Women
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’.
Theme: The Things that Make for Peace
Tentative title: Victory in Japan 1945 – what did it mean? A conversation with Lesley Downer, Historian of Japan and its Culture.
An event to commemorate the 80th anniversary of VJ Day, with readings from veterans and others who remember the war. I will speak on the Japanese experience of the war, before, during and after.
Details to follow.
Japanese history is not all shoguns and samurai. Women played a prominent role. In the early centuries Chinese envoys called the part of Japan they knew Queen Country because there were so many female rulers. Today there is much debate about whether a woman can ascend the Chrysanthemum Throne. But in fact in the past there were several empresses including a couple in the fairly recent past.
In her talk Lesley Downer will tell the story of Himiko, the shaman queen, and of some of the early empresses. Even after women ceased to be rulers, brilliant and powerful figures such as Nene-dono, Hideyoshi’s wife, continued to wield power from behind the throne. There were also women writers and artists who helped shape Japanese history, such as the witty and irreverent court ladies of the Heian period, along with women warriors who were as doughty as men, courtesans who were the queens of pleasure quarter culture and the indomitable feminists of Taisho.
By discussing the many roles women have played throughout Japanese history, Lesley will hopefully provide a new and refreshing perspective on that history, while putting paid once and for all to the egregious stereotype of the ‘submissive geisha’.
Event includes a drinks reception.
Latest Event
Friday March 28th
11.30 am
Festival Book Club: The Shortest History of Japan
Saturday March 29th
10.00 am
Talk: Writing Unfamiliar History: the History of Japan
How to interest people in the history of a distant country of which they may know very little or nothing?
In my books I’ve looked at Japanese history in different periods and different ways – as the background to travel or biography, brought alive as fiction and as more straightforward written history. I’ll talk briefly about the issues and challenges of dealing with history in these different ways, focussing on my newest book, The Shortest History of Japan, which pulls it all together. Along the way I’ll introduce some of the qualities that make Japanese history different, such as the romance of failure, with stories of the heroes and heroines (and noble failures) who make Japanese history so seductive. My talk will be illustrated with lots of lovely PowerPoint pictures – woodblock prints, etc.