ONLINE EVENT - The Japan Society Book Club: Spring Castle by Michiko Ishimure

Date
Monday 9 March 2026
Time
7.00pm (GMT)
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Booking Details
Online meeting on Zoom
Please register for the meeting in advance from the link below. After registering, you will receive a automated confirmation email with meeting access details (please check your spam folder if you don't receive any emails).

Free for members of The Japan Society

Book available from Bookshop.org, Amazon and Waterstones (translated by Bruce Allen)
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!

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. Facing religious persecution and famine, 37,000 ordinary men, women and children led by a charismatic teenage boy occupied an abandoned castle, only to be ruthlessly slaughtered by the shogun's army on the uprising's final day.

Michiko Ishimure (1927-2018) is regarded as one of Japan's most important modern writers. She published over 50 works ranging from novels, non-fiction, Noh drama and poetry to essays, memoirs and children's stories. She received numerous international and Japanese literary awards including the Ramon Magsaysay Award from the Philippines (1973) and the Asahi Prize for literature in Japan (2001). Her best-known work, Paradise in the Sea of Sorrow; Our Minamata Disease (1969), was reprinted over 30 times in Japan and has been translated into English and several other languages. This work, along with several other books focusing on the Minamata Disease incident, led to her being known as the "mother of the Japanese environmental movement" and the "Rachel Carson of Japan."

If you have any questions, please call The Japan Society office on 020 3075 1996 or email events@japansociety.org.uk.