Join Jean Gordon Kocienda for a Celebration of Japanese Women’s Arts at Books Inc. in Campbell, CA
Join us for a special afternoon spotlighting author Jean Gordon Kocienda’s new historical novel Girl in a Box, based on the life of Japanese poet Yosano Akiko (1878-1942). The event will kick off with an exhibit of onna–de traditional Japanese women’s style calligraphy depicting Akiko’s tanka poems and featuring a live demonstration by 8th-Dan Calligraphy Expert Goyo Morimoto. Shamisen instructor Junko Nakauchi (stage name: Kineya Sahoshō) will perform a short nagauta piece on shamisen entitled “Sagi Musume”, before Jean takes the stage for a short reading and book signing.
About Girl in a Box:
In early twentieth-century Japan, women have few rights. Yet one precocious poet—a brooding daughter, locked in her room at night by protective parents—runs away to live a life of her choosing. She journeys across Siberia to Paris, where she witnesses the last golden days of the Belle Époque. She perseveres through poverty, pregnancy, infidelity, earthquake, and fire, to become a name every Japanese schoolchild knows today as the first person to translate the classical Tale of Genji into modern Japanese. Based on the life of Yosano Akiko (1878-1942) and filled with original translations of her 31-syllable tanka poetry, Girl in Box will ignite discussion about the female artist’s challenge to be creative while juggling career, family, and personal freedom.
About Jean Gordon Kocienda:
Jean Gordon Kocienda is a former Silicon Valley geopolitical risk analyst and intelligence officer. She has done extensive archival research for historical television documentaries in Japan. She holds a B.A. from Colgate University in English Literature and an M.A. from George Washington University in International Affairs. She lived in Kyoto, Japan in the late 1980s and early 1990s, studying Chinese Philosophy at Kyoto University for one year. She is President of the California Writers Club (Marin Branch), and a longtime volunteer with the Bay Area non-profit Refugee and Immigrant Transitions.
