Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden

This artful, veiled look into the hidden life of the geisha is incredibly captivating. The realism grips the reader instantly, as we read of a young girl’s coming of age in a world where she must compete with her beauty, skill, art, and conversation in order to be a worthwhile companion to men. Our geisha correctly reminds us that her art is really no different from what many women practice, this careful battle to be a man’s companion and mistress is just applied to the rigid rules and careful beauty of the society of which she is a member.

Realistically, Sayuri guides us through her training, shows us her fears and hopes. Her hopes are the simple hopes of the poor – she hopes to have enough food, money, and shelter to be comfortable. She does not dare to hope to buy her freedom, nor does she know what she would accomplish with this freedom. After a chance meeting with the only man who ever treated her kindly without hoping for something in return, her hopes expand to include being a geisha for this man – the only interaction she can imagine with him. Her fears are more complex – she fears the tyranny of the people who own her and live with her, she fears that she will be a failure as a geisha and will be forced to become a prostitute, she fears that she has no worth or value.

How much of this is real and how much is fiction? It is difficult to say. Certainly, the glimpses inside Sayuri’s world ring true. It is hardly a stretch of the imagination that upper-class mistresses would be frequented by rich gentleman – certainly, this phenomenon has been a normal part of many societies and there is no reason to assume that the practice could not be generalized into a rigid business. I think that it misses the point, however, to belabor the “truth” of the story, though, for such a question posits that there is only one truth to be had. I think that this story is true for Sayuri, and that there are other stories, just as true to their tellers, which would show a different image to us.

The Naked Truth: A Working Woman’s Manifesto on Business and What Really Matters by Margaret A. Heffernan

Author and executive Margaret Heffernan fearlessly declares that decades of advice telling business women to act like men, follow traditional rules and cleave to heartless stereotypes are wrong. Breathe a sigh of relief. It’s not you; “It’s the system, stupid!” In her eyes, the business world inherently does not welcome, respect or value women. Refreshingly, instead of blaming women, the author conveys the advice of hundreds of female survey respondents who say men hold the aces in the business world and don’t want to share. Honest, funny and sometimes disconcerting, she offers advice, inspiring examples and helpful stories. She explains how to find or create a humane, cooperative, supportive workplace that fits your principles – and how to make a realistic appraisal if you are at the change-it-or-quit stage. The one shortcoming is the author’s absolute unstated assumption that women are innately, inevitably more cooperative, honest and caring than men. This stereotype is a two-edged sword, wounding those men who do have sound values, and reinforcing the typecasting that women ought to be sweet and nurturing because it’s in their genes. That aside, we recommend Heffernan’s clear view of the hurdles that block a woman’s path to business success and work-life balance. She confronts painful realities and adapts them, or adapts to them, even if in nontraditional ways. If you have to be one person at work and someone different at home, her dynamic vision can help you pull it all together.

“… GEISHAS, BITCHES, GUYSÂ-AND THE INVISIBLE WOMAN 31 as long as we …”

Sex Secrets of an American Geisha: How to Attract, Satisfy, and Keep Your Man (Positively Sexual) by Py Kim Conant

I had heard about Py Kim Conant’s, “Sex Secrets of an American Geisha,” and bought it as a gift for my wife. Well, I took a peek inside the book and could not put it down. I finished it in just a few days! I was struck by the sincerity and fearlessness of Kim Conant’s words and her ideas on femininity and sexuality. Guys should also read this book if they would like to honor their ‘Good Woman’. Py Kim Conant speaks with frankness and clarity on subjects that can be awkward for couples. With Conant’s insight these subjects suddenly seem much more approachable. Thank you Py Kim Conant for writing with such integrity and daring!

“… And they love our feminine beauty so much. The Asian Geisha works, first, on the beauty of her total body, literally from head to foot. The naked skin of the ankle above her tiny white socks in …”

Geisha : A Life by Mineko Iwasaki and Rande Brown

Most people outside of Japan do not realize just how exclusive and secret the world of the Geishas is. Connections and wealth buy a seat in an Ochaya, and on the streets of Gion in Kyoto catching a glimpse of a Geiko (Geisha in the Kyoto dialect) is as rare as Bigfoot or the Loch Ness Monster. Geiko move fast down the streets and alleyways, and a sighting is something to tell your friends about.

With “Geisha : A Life,” Mineko Iwasaki lifts some of the veils of this fantasy world and shows that, underneath the make-up and fancy hairstyles, Geiko are just women, with the same thoughts and feelings and pride and emotion as everyone else. In some ways, this destroys the fantasy, being able to see “behind-the-scenes.” The life of a Geiko is very difficult and somewhat…boring. Like a dedicated ballet dancer, the bulk of their life is training and practice, trying to achieve a near-impossible idea of body and movement.

“Geisha: A Life” is not compellingly written, nor as fascinating as the sexualized and fictional account “Memoirs of a Geisha.” It is not as academically insightful and full of details as Liza Dalby’s “Geisha.” But it is honest and real. Mineko’s account of her life is straightforward, without much decoration. After reading it, you will know what it is like to be a Geiko.

Woven into this account, perhaps unintentionally, is the loss of Japan’s disappearing past. Mineko doesn’t bat an eye when telling the story of how she leveled their 100-year old Geisha residence, in order to build a modern night club and hair salon because she thought it would make more money. She talks with hope of her artist husband someday becoming one of Japan’s legendary Living Treasures, but doesn’t see how she should belong in the same category. She feels loss for the fading world of the traditional Japanese arts, but keeps destroying them along with everyone else.

Rivalry: A Geisha’s Tale (Japanese Studies Series) by Nagai Kafu and Stephen Snyder

In a typically well-written Japanese novel from the early half of the last century we find out – between the lines rather than between the sheets – just what it meant to be a geisha and to live in the geisha world. And if anybody knew about this world, it was Kafu.

Autobiography of a Geisha by Sayo Masuda and G. G. Rowley

While Minebo Iwasaki’s remarkable autobiography ‘Geisha, a Life’ portraits the education and brilliant career of a top geisha, Sayo Masuda’s recorded biography (she is illiterate) shows us a more than grim picture of the ‘working’ conditions of the vast majority of geisha, who were not educated to reach the top.
In fact, as a top geisha, Minebo Iwasaki could resist all her clients’ sexual advances with the saying ‘we sell art, not bodies’. But for the other ones the maxim was ‘we sell bodies, not art’. As G.G. Rowley states clearly in his excellent introduction, the bottom line was ‘sex for money’.
A geisha was a high class prostitute, who was owned by those who bought her and financed her education and kimonos. As a counterpart, they collected her fees until the total investment was paid back.
One of the most influential words in this biography is ‘sold’, beginning with the poor parents who were forced to sell their female children for sheer survival, over the geisha’s virginity (here remarkably sold 4 times) to the milking of her protector.
This unvarnished book gives an appalling picture of the condition of the poor (the greatest part of the population) and more grimly the female poor in Japan up to the nineteen fifties of the past century. Life was a bitter struggle for survival on a diet of white rice, which many could not afford to buy every day.
This heartrending life story of a still more or less top class sex worker (there were lower ones) portraits us dreadfully that ‘geisha were not considered to be human beings’ (p. 76).
Nonetheless, Sayo Masuda told us a very ‘human’ story.
Not to be missed.

Not A Geisha: Being Young and Female in Japan by Kimberly Palmer

‘Not a Geisha’ was a fascinating read that kept me turning pages late into the night. The author weaves an interesting tale about being a young, western, female reporter in Tokyo, which makes for an incredible lesson in Japanese culture. I recently saw the movie Lost in Translation and really liked it, but also felt like I was only getting a superficial picture of what life is actually like in Tokyo. ‘Not a Geisha’ fills in the holes in a genuinely entertaining fashion.

I recommend this book for anyone who plans to visit or work in Japan or just wants to learn more about the country.

Butterflies of the Night: Mama-sans, Geisha, Strippers, and the Japanese Men They Serve by Lisa Louis

This book is the result of a limited sociological research of nightlife (mizu shobai) in Japan by an American woman who knows the business well because she worked in it.
As she states ‘… supply the material for a man’s dreams and desires. Being able to keep a man believing that he has a chance, a possibility of making love, and yet always tactfully turning him down in such a way that he enjoys his time, is a hostess’s true talent’. (p.50)
It is a lively and very interesting inside look into this more or less hidden part of the Japanese society.
This book covers all the strata of the Japanese sex/entertainment business: from ‘top of the bill’ geishas to heroin hookers. As Lisa Louis states ‘the mizu shobai stage reflects a bizarre mixture of humanity, including top company executives, power-wielding gangsters, ranking politicians, Buddhist monks, preservers of ancient tradition, curious Westerners, third-world economic refugees, desperate women, and lonely men.’ (p.206)
But it also gives indirectly a good picture of the Japanese society in general: lonely men, lonely wives, women who work at night for their parent’s old days, the subordination of women.
Not to be missed by those interested in the Japanese society.
For a more general vieuw of the erotic aspect of the Japanese society I recommend ‘Pink Samurai’ by Nicholas Bornoff and the books of Ian Buruma.

“… Young geisha wear pure white makeup and wigs in imitation of their …”

Women of the Pleasure Quarters: The Secret History of the Geisha by Lesley Downer

To those who are not familiar with Japan’s traditional “flower and willow world”, the geishas are inhabitants of a secluded and mysterious realm, one which provides a link to Japan’s past way of life. Yet, these ornately garbed women also seem to be stuck in a time warp and are apparently becoming increasingly out of touch with modern Japanese society. Author Lesley Downer has succeeded in prying into the world of geishas (quite a feat by itself, as described in the Introduction) and given us a intimate and highly readable account of this vanishing species.

The book is divided into 3 parts. The first, and the longest, traces the checkered but colourful history of geishas against the backdrop of the Shogunate, the Meiji Reformation , the Pacific War and its aftermath up to the late 90s. This amusing historical account is further spiced up from time to time by romantic tales of legendary courtesans and geishas of the past. In tracing the development of the geishas, Downer also touches upon the shirabyoshi dancing girls, the tayu courtesans and the taikomochi (male geishas), which were early models of the breed. The interesting narrative also charts the waxing and waning of the fortunes of the various licensed pleasure quarters and geisha districts in Kyoto and Tokyo, each having its own distinctive atmosphere. This part should have now become a classic account of the history of geishas.

The second part deals with the everyday life of the maikos (apprentice geishas) and geishas of the present day and those of the more recent past. Besides descriptions of their distinctive way of make-up, their awesome kimonos, wigs and other accoutrements, as well as way they conduct themselves in tea-house parties, the author has also persuaded many geishas and maikos to talk about their past experiences, including the delicate subject of mizuage (ritual deflowerment) and their relationships with customers and dannas (principal patrons). Many of these women have spoken with unwonted frankness through which the reader can obtain deep, and sometimes startling, insights into their world.

The final part of the book examines the relationship of geishas with men, their lovers (if any) and the wives of their clients. In fact, throughout the book, one can obtain much insight about the Japanese attitude to love and sex, which, as the author noted, was untouched until recently by either the European notion of romantic love or Christian sexual morality and the role of women in Japanese society and putting the geisha into its proper social context.

It is evident that the author is fascinated by the subject matter of her research, entranced by the arts and aesthetics of geishas and intrigued by their rites and training. Throughout this very well written book, she discusses her subject matter with a sense of admiration, understanding, compassion and, above all, respect. There are also quite a number of amusing episodes concerning the author (such as her discovery that using the right form of speech and buying the right kind of cakes can make a world of a difference) which makes the book a lively read.

Comparisons with Liza Dalby’s “Geisha” (which this reviewer has also read) is now inevitable. While Downer may lack some first-hand insight on the everyday life of geishas which Dalby can provide by virtue of her stint as a geisha in Kyoto, and that Dalby’s book can offer more detailed information regarding the various arts of geishas and the atmosphere in Kyoto’s Pontocho geisha district, Downer’s book scores in its excellent account of the history and development of geishas as well as its in-depth discussion of mizuage as well as the relationship between geishas and their patrons. On the whole, Downer’s book is also structurally more organised and up-to-date. As such, this new publication is highly recommended to those who are interested in this exotic subject.

“… and prematurely wrinkled from having it applied every day. Sometimes young geisha died from the poisoning. …”