IN-PERSON EVENT - The Japan Society Book Club: The Kobe Hotel - Memoirs by Sanki Saito
Date
Monday 13 April 2026
Time
7.00pm
Booking Details
The Japan Society
13 / 14 Cornwall Terrace (Outer Circle)
London NW1 4QP
Free for members of The Japan Society
Book available from Waterstones, and Amazon (translated by Masaya Saito)
Japanese version available here
Please help us to keep this event free and open to all!The Japan Society is a charity and its activities are made possible thanks to the support of its members. If you are planning to attend this event and are not a member (as an individual or through your employer), please consider becoming a member or making a donation if you can - the recommended donation is £5. Thank you!   |
The Kobe Hotel: Memoirs recounts poet Sanki Saitō’s wartime exile in Kobe after he was censored by Japan’s Special Higher Police. Living in a run-down hotel alongside bar hostesses, drifters, and foreign residents, Saitō observes a community clinging to personal freedom amid surveillance, poverty, and air raids, offering a rare anti-war portrait of everyday life and a testament to artistic resistance and survival during Japan’s wartime years.
Sanki Saitō (1900–1962) was a Japanese poet and a leading figure of the New Rising Haiku (Shinkō Haiku) movement. Trained as a dentist, he turned to haiku in his thirties and became known for his radical, anti-war stance. In 1940 he was arrested and censored by Japan’s Special Higher Police for violating the Peace Preservation Law. His work is regarded as a major contribution to Shōwa-era literature.
If you have any questions, please call The Japan Society office on 020 3075 1996 or email events@japansociety.org.uk.
Booking Info
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- If you don't receive any confirmation emails or links, please check your spam folder or email events@japansociety.org.uk.
- If you are not a member of The Japan Society (as an individual or through your employer), please consider becoming a member or making a donation if you can - the recommended donation is £5.