Past Events

In this special talk, author and photographer John Lander will take us on a journey along the Shikoku Pilgrimage guiding us through the evocative images and stories he has been documenting for his latest publication The Shikoku Pilgrimage: Japan’s Sacred Trail. He will share fascinating details on the origin of the trail and what the pilgrimage means to the thousands who undertake it every year.

Keiichiro Hirano’s A Man has all the trappings of a gripping detective story: a bereaved wife, a dead man whose name belongs to someone else, mysterious coded letters, a lawyer intent on uncovering the truth.

For our Film Club in September, we invite you to watch one of the most stunning adaptations of Shakespeare's King Lear, the monumental period drama Ran directed by Akira Kurosawa in 1985.

Published in 2017, Pachinko, the second novel by Korean-American author Min Jin Lee, is an epic historical novel following a Korean family who eventually immigrates to Japan.

Join us on 4 August for a Film Club dedicated to a masterpiece of Japanese animation and anti-war cinema, Graves of the Fireflies directed by Isao Takahata in 1988.

Boro (more accurately ‘Boro boro’), meaning ‘rags or tatters’ is the art of repairing fabric using scraps and stitching. In this online workshop participants will learn how to repair a garment using scraps, both modern and vintage and how to use sashiko stitching to enhance your work.

Witty, inventive, and profound, Where the Wild Ladies Are is a contemporary feminist retelling of traditional ghost stories by one of Japan’s most exciting writers.

For the Film Club in July we invite you to watch one of the finest examples of J-horror, the emotional and atmospheric Dark Water directed by Hideo Nakata in 2002.

We are delighted to announce that with the easing of restrictions on Golf and other outdoor sports, The Japan Society’s Annual Golf Tournament, for the Asprey and Garrard Plate, will go ahead as planned this year. The Tournament will be held at Essendon Country Club.

Japanese Tales of Lafcadio Hearn is a collection of 28 stories inspired by Japanese folk tales. The stories span a wide range of genres, from fantastical ghost stories to love stories with a twist.