The Japan Society

Upcoming Events

ARCHIVED Japan Society Book Club: Tokyo Ueno Station by Miri Yu

Monday 9 March 2020 / 7:00pm
Japan Society Book Club: Tokyo Ueno Station by Miri Yu

Date
Monday 9 March 2020
Time
7.00pm

Venue
The Japan Society

13 / 14 Cornwall Terrace
London NW1 4QP

Booking Details
Free for Japan Society Members

Book available from AbeBooksBook Depository and Amazon
Japanese version available here

Book online here


Tokyo Ueno Station follows Kazu – the main protagonist as he reflects on his tough, hardscrabble life involving numerous tragic incidents. Consequently Kazu is driven into poverty and homelessness, specifically residing in a tent within Ueno Park as a ghostly, haunting figure. Yu Miri attempts to break the common picturesque perception of the Ueno district (park in particular) as she reveals and gives voice to the rife poverty.

Miri Yu, born in 1968, is an award winning Zainichi novelist and playwright. Originally involved in the theatre industry, she eventually moved onto prose writing and debuted with her controversial semiautobiographical novel Ishi ni Oyogu Sakana or ‘Fish Swimming in the Stone’ in 1974. However due to issues of rights over privacy, the original novel’s publication was blocked and forcefully revised to be released again in 2002. Despite fighting against the legal affairs and backlash, she continued to create – hosting a weekly radio show after moving to Fukushima (following the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami) as well as publishing Tokyo Ueno Station in 2014.

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