The scene that always manages to bring me to tearsSimply wonderful. The following quote from the book Memoirs of a Geisha is a direct example of a real Geisha explaining her own definition of what she thinks they are. “Remember Chiyo, geisha’s are not courtesans and we are not wives. We sell our skills not our bodies. We create another secret world, a place only of beauty.

Memoirs of geisha, Elven*Nicky

No, it is not based on a true story. However, a real geisha, named Mineko Iwasaki, sued the author of the book because of defamation. Surprisingly, not the plot, but some characters in the book resembled some of the real characters in Mineko Iwasaki’s life that she shared with the author in a private conversation. Also, Mineko Iwasaki was uncomfortable with the way Arthur Golden (the author) portrayed geisha as if they are Japanese courtesans.

Please read below:
In the early 1990s, Arthur Golden set out to write a novel about a topic that he had no previous background knowledge or study in. Upon trying to do the research he stumbled upon a person who could introduce him to the most famous geisha of the 20th century: Mineko Iwasaki. Mr. Golden had spoken with her on the assurance that his book would be an accurate representation of the geisha profession, and upon its release in 1997, it became an international bestseller. However, in order to sell more copies and to make it more sensational Mr. Golden bent the truth and added in parts about geisha selling sex like prostitutes. As such, the book sold poorly in Japan and was mostly ignored until Mineko Iwasaki sued Mr. Golden for defamation as she claimed that many of the events in his story were taken from her own life and then twisted into a prostitution narrative.

Some of the items from the novel that are said to have happened to Ms. Iwasaki and her family are:

–An abusive older sister: While Hatsumomo in the book is simply a senior geisha in Sayuri’s okiya, she is based on Mineko’s real-life sister Yaeko. Mineko’s sister had a hatred for her due to being sent away to an okiya to become a maiko at such a young age whereas Mineko willingly made the choice to leave her family and become a maiko.

–Adoption: In the novel, Sayuri is adopted by the Nitta Okiya after selling her virginity for the highest sum ever. Mineko was scouted as an heir to the Iwasaki Okiya at a very young age and was legally adopted by them when she was just a teenager.

–Pumpkin: The character Pumpkin (whose name is actually Hatsumiyo), is called this because of her rounded face that looked like a pumpkin. In real life, this was actually a nickname that Mineko’s sister Kumiko had due to her roundness.

–Relationship with an older man: Sayuri constantly seeks to gain the attention of The Chairman in the novel, who is said to be 20 years older than she is. In real life, Mineko dated a man who was almost two decades older than her for a few years.

–A baron: In the novel, Mameha has a danna (patron) who is a baron. In real life, it was Mineko’s sister Yaeko who had a baron as a danna.

–Needles in hems: Once Sayuri becomes popular she notes one day that the hem of one of her favorite kimono had needles stuck into by other jealous geisha. Mineko Iwasaki has stated that this actually happened to her in real life!

–The highest mizuage: To Sayuri, the mizuage is a ritual in which she is deflowered by a high paying customer. In reality, this type of mizuage did exist, but it was only used by prostitutes such as yūjo and oiran. In the world of geisha, mizuage refers to how much money a person makes from working at ochaya in a single year. In this case, Mineko did have the highest mizuage for six years straight, which was a record at the time, and this made her the most famous geisha of the century.

Mr. Golden eventually settled out of court with Ms. Iwasaki for an undisclosed amount of money.

In 2005 when a movie adaptation of the book was released it gained wide criticism across Japan for its depiction of Japanese women by Chinese actresses and for its wholly inaccurate storyline. Geisha across the country were furious at their portrayal by an American man who did not understand what their profession actually entails. The majority of the outrage came from portraying geisha as prostitutes and making the district of Gion Kobu, which is mentioned by name, seems as though it’s a place for promiscuity instead of the high arts.

Did you know?

Most Japanese people don’t know about this movie as it is called the story of Sayuri in Japanese.

Most of the movie was filmed in an artificially built village in the US as the city of Kyoto did not allow the film crew to temporarily remove the electricity poles on the street. there are two scenes that were shot in Gion one of which was shot on the Gion Tatsumi Bridge right here:

FAQs

A danna is usually a wealthy man who acts as a patron who provides financial support for a geisha’s
training and other expenses.

In both the book and the movie, Hatsumomo is kicked out of the Nitta Okiya and onto the
streets, never getting involved in the plot onwards. Some speculators believe that after World War II,
Hatsumomo made a living as a prostitute in the Pleasure District of Miyagawa-Cho. Others believe that
the novel hints that Hatsumomo turned to alcoholism and is suffering from the consequences of the vice,
as Sayuri guessed.

The chairman met Sayuri when he was 45 years old and she was 9. The age gap is 36 years.

Although intended to be fiction, Mineko Iwasaki was interviewed to help with the accuracy of
the details in the book. There are resemblances with Ms. Iwasaki’s personal life and relationships that are
depicted without consent, resulting in her suing the author for defamation.

In the book, the fortunetellers talk about how her eyes indicate that she has a lot of water in
their personalities, indicating that she has a fluid and flexible personality that helps her adapt to various
circumstances. It’s also a reference to the quote, “the eyes are the windows to the soul.”

According to an interview with CNN, Arthur Golden was fascinated when he met someone whose
mother was a geisha during his time living in Japan.

Contact us : info@mai-ko.com

My Rating - (5 stars)

Geisha, A Life is the last of four books about Geisha that I added to my reading list several years ago. Each of these books was a different sort of book, from a different perspective, and told a somewhat different story. But they all contribute to a unified understanding of the lives and traditions of the geisha.

The first of the books I read, Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden is a work of fiction, telling the story of a little girl who was sold to a Geisha house in the years before World War II. Although it is very much the story of one person, it covers many of the aspects of geisha life, from training to kimono in exhaustive detail.

The second book, Geisha by Liza Dalby is in many ways more of a reference book, giving even more details of things like kimono and hairstyles and the ceremonies such as the one between a geisha and a maiko when the geisha adopts the maiko as her sister. Liza Dalby also briefly became a geisha herself, and she recounts some of her experiences as a geisha.

Women of the Pleasure Quartersby Leslie Downer is chronologically the last of these four books. It was written in the late 1990s and early 2000s and is primarily historical. Ms. Downer interviewed many geisha, former geisha, and bar girls. Her book is the only one that studies geisha outside of Kyoto in any detail. At the time she was investigating the geisha, the world seemed to be moving into a post-geisha phase, as there were very few real Kyoto geisha left.

But I feel it is time to speak out. I want you to know what it is really like to live the life of a geisha, a life filled with extraordinary professional demands and richly glorious rewards. Many say I was the best geisha of my generation; I was certainly the most successful. And yet, it was a life that I found too constricting to continue. And one that I ultimately had to leave.

Iwasaki, Mineko. Geisha: A Life . Atria Books. Kindle Edition.

This brings us to the present book, Geisha, A Life by Mineko Iwasaki. Mineko Iwasaki was a real geisha (she and the people she worked with preferred the term ‘geiko,’ which means ‘woman of art’ as opposed to the more generic ‘geisha’ which means ‘artist’). This book is her autobiography. She worked in the Gion Kobu district of Kyoto, the most famous and high-class district of Kyoto in the 1960s and 1970s. (Sayuri, the geisha in Memoirs of a Geisha also worked in Gion, but primarily before and immediately after World War II). Liza Dalby worked in Pontocho, the next most exclusive geisha area of Kyoto.

Mineko Iwasaki moved into the Iwasaki okiya (geisha house) when she was five years old. Due to a complicated tangle of circumstances, she became the atotori, or person next in line to succeed the owner of the okiya. She began training as a dancer at the age of six, became a maiko, or apprentice geisha, at fifteen, and ‘turned her collar’ (a rite of passage that signals the transformation from maiko to adult geiko) at twenty. She was a highly successful geiko but decided to retire at twenty-nine, after becoming disillusioned at her failure to reform the archaic geisha system.

Maiko and geiko are not allowed to eat at a private banquet, no matter how sumptuous the delicacies displayed before them. They are there to entertain the guests, to give not to take. An exception to this rule is when a geiko is invited to join a customer for a meal in a restaurant.

Iwasaki, Mineko. Geisha: A Life . Atria Books. Kindle Edition.

She details many of her meetings with famous people during her career as a geiko and tells of some of her conflicts with other geiko, especially her geisha sister, who in this case was her actual sister as well, but who had a bad attitude toward the entire profession because she felt like her parents had sold her for personal gain when she was a child.

Like all the geisha stories, Mineko’s is fascinating, but also a little sad as she struggled with a career that challenged her personal deficiencies.

Cover image from Goodreads.

Title: Geisha, A Life

Author: Mineko Iwasaki with Rande Brown

Publisher: Atria Books

Copyright: 2002

Format: Kindle Edition

Genre: Biography and Memoir

ISBN: 978-0-7434-5304-2

Memoir Of Geisha Book

ASIN: B000FC0P1M