Past Events

The Japan Society is pleased to invite members to an exclusive private view of Samurai, introduced by Project Curator Joe Nickols. This special event offers an opportunity to delve into the world of the samurai through remarkable artworks and artefacts spanning centuries of Japanese history.

In this lecture, Rosina Buckland, Head of the Japanese Section at the British Museum, will explain the thinking behind the British Museum exhibition on the iconic global figure of the samurai.

Spring Castle is the epic story of Japan's bloody Shimabara Rebellion, told through the eyes of the peasants and former samurai who rose up their oppressors with extraordinary bravery.

This new anthology offers the most comprehensive collection of Ryunosuke Akutagawa's work ever published in English. It features fresh translations of his most celebrated stories alongside many lesser-known and never-before-translated pieces.

Suitable even for complete beginners, in this workshop you will learn how Japanese characters were developed, discover different styles of writing, and be guided in the techniques for writing Japanese with a brush.

In this lecture Oleg Benesch will explore how Britain and Japan became close allies in the early twentieth century, celebrating one another’s Middle Ages and leading to the globalisation of the idealised samurai image that has such an iconic status today.