Geisha, A Life Paperback – September 1, 2003

The media could not be loaded.  This Beautiful Book is about the Geisha who inspired WHATSHISFACE who wrote the boring misinformed trash Memoirs of a Geisha.This is the Real Geisha Mineko Iwasaki and her words who risked Everything and told her story to the Public. She risked her Safety and received nothing except hate in Japan.The Geisha World is actually a Secretive and Rarely known to outsiders. Because of Economic changes Tours can provide Happy Tourists an Opportunity to go to a Teahouse and see the Maiko Apprentice Geisha and the Geiko Full Fledged Geisha.This helps the Geisha from fading away as someone Grandpa went to after a busy work week. Younger Generations lost interest or did not choose to pay money for such antiquated services.However people all over the World are Fascinated from those who love History, Fashion, Makeup, Dance, Art, the Geisha is All of these things!This makes them even more popular and some places will let you dress up as one.Mineko Iwasaki tells of the times when as young as 8 girls could work in Teahouses as Maids. This is before 1958. When she came of age the Rule against Prostitution passed and she was not bid on to sell her virginity.Her Mizuage was more a Party with cute but naughty cakes that represent a woman’s breast. (I’ve had these at Dynasty a Chinese Restaurant). Little plumb cakes they re-created all sorts of food there.Get this Book learn how it was to be a Geisha in the past. Before Tours, before Kerioke machines, before the Economic Collapse that changed it all.

Okay, so I'm going to be very blunt and honest in this review and probably in the rest of my future reviews. I'm always honest, but sometimes I hold my opinions back a little bit for fear of offending someone. I just can't do it anymore. And when it comes to this review, I have some very strong opinions.First of all, I would venture to say that anyone that reads/read this book has already read Memoirs of a Geisha. This memoir is supposedly the real story of the geisha that Memoirs was based upon. It was written by Mineko Iwasaki herself with the help of an English translator. Now I can say that I have read both books, and Memoirs of a Geisha beats the pants off of this very informative, but slightly dry attempt at the same.Listen. I know parts of Memoirs of a Geisha are fictional. But some of the things that Mineko said about the book I find slightly offensive. She has said that Memoirs of a Geisha made the Geisha appear to be a high-classed prostitute. I never had that opinion after reading it. At all. In fact, quite often the author made the distinction between traditional courtesan and Geisha.Also, I want to talk about the Mizuage tradition. Mineko has stated that it was never a ceremony where a maiko's virginity was auctioned off to the highest bidder. As gross as this is, Mineko is being very misleading and she is/was not speaking the truth. During the time that Mineko was a Geiko, the practice had been outlawed, but before the 60's, it was commonplace. It was officially outlawed in 1959, but carried on for awhile after that.Now notice for a second the setting for Memoirs of a Geisha. Most of the book was set before World War 2. The whole virginity aspect was still very much a part of Geiko culture then. So like I said, Mineko was being very misleading in her book. I could go on and on about the disagreements I have with the things Mineko has said, but I think by now you get the point.I didn't dislike reading it, I found it to be very informative. But I also found it kind of dry and written with an air of condescension. Mineko thinks very highly of herself.I'm not saying that she shouldn't be, but I felt I was being talked down to for a good portion of the story.I gave it four stars, because it was a well-written piece of non-fiction, and I happen to be very interested in Asian culture, especially the Gaiko/Maiko culture. There is not a lot of information out there, and I will read whatever I can get my hands on. That being said though, I will probably never re-read this, but I will re-read Memoirs of a Geisha. There's actually a story there and quite a few facts. I would recommend reading this if you are interested in Japan or Geisha culture. Otherwise, it could go either way.

Geisha, A Life is the last of four books about Geisha that I added to my reading list several years ago (including Memoirs of a Geisha). 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.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).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.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.

This book is excelent because it brings the culture of geisha world. Everything in it depends of the women who are trained since they are little children until they become adult persons.

Es un libro muy bonito y sorprendentemente emotivo, la manera en que Mineko narra su vida es muy envolvente. La lectura fue fácil. La ventana hacia la verdadera vida en Gion, que este libro ofrece, es de una vista espectacular.

the actual account of the world-famous geisha, a rich autobiography with pictures and interesting anecdotes.

I gifted this to my grandmother.

This book enchanted me. It showed the way a young Japanese girl left her family to be adopted and trained in the ways of a geisha. The book reveals the viewpoint of a Japanese woman of certain members of the British and American aristocracy, and also, hierarchical power games and support within her own professional, and indeed, private world.I could not put this down. It is intriguing to be invited into the Japanese world of courtesy and it has left a lasting impression on me. For example, a member of the Royal Family was asked to come to a meal and did not eat anything. Seen from a Japanese geisha's point of view in this book, this behaviour is very rude, as indeed I think it would be if the same behaviour was displayed in the Queen's own kingdom.Seriously, if the Queen came to eat at a banquet, and did not touch the food, isn't it saying something at least?This was insightful.I particularly loved the description of her costumes and the way she learned to dance. Fabulous.