Rodin’s Japanese Muse

Some of the most intriguing of August Rodin’s works are the fifty three heads, masks and busts of the Japanese dancer Hanako he made late in life, several of which are currently on display at the Tate Modern exhibition The Making of Rodin. Some are calm and placid, but many are contorted in anguish or … Read more

Watch Lesley in conversation with Pico Iyer

Born in England and based in western Japan for 33 years, Pico Iyer talks about the changes, the changelessness and the paradoxes of his adopted home, as reflected in his recent works Autumn Light and A Beginner’s Guide to Japan at this British Library digital event on 6 May, 2021. […]

Hideyoshi with some of his wives and concubines during his cherry blossom viewing party of 1598 at Daigo-ji Temple, Kyoto. By Kitagawa Utamaro (1753-1806)

More Tales of Japan’s Warlords – and their Women

II – Hideyoshi, His Wife Nene and His Hundred Concubines

‘Your beauty grows day by day. Tokichiro complains about you constantly and it is outrageous. While that bald rat flusters around trying to find another good woman, you remain lofty and elegant. Do not be jealous. Show Hideyoshi this letter.’

So speaks the unexpectedly kindly … Read more

Oda Nobunaga, depicted by the Jesuit missionary Giovanni Nicolao. This is undoubtedly a nineteenth century fake but I like it anyway

Tales of Japan’s Warlords – and their Women

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

Age of Samurai on Netflix

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. […]

Summer 2020 Update

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

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