Memoirs of a Geisha
Was it really fiction? Maybe I was misled by the introduction where the writer speaks about how the Geisha did not want the memoirs to be published until she and the numerous luminaries she has mentioned from her past were dead.
Once again I am fascinated by Japanese culture, so much that I am tempted to learn their language and be among them. Generally I am bad at remembering unfamiliar names used in foreign books, but somehow all the names in this book seem so familiar and easy to remember. Maybe I was in Japan in one of my earlier lives.
Chiyo was a girl with a lot of water in her personality. How fascinating to describe people in terms of such esoteric natural attributes (later found out its got more to do with chinese astrology). Her grey eyes set her apart. To some extent her eyes perhaps wrote her destiny.
Snatched from a poor fisherman's family, she was delivered into Gion, the Geisha district of Japan, along with her elder not-so-pretty sister Satsu. She could never forgive her own 9-year-old intelligence for imagining that the person who actually sold her was going to give her a better life. The initial inexplicable torment of the two sisters is almost unbearable.
The tale of Chiyo turning into Sayuri is narrated by Chiyo herself, which makes the reader feel quite fortunate. First person accounts always seem more gripping, don’t they? And that is what every Geisha is good at anyway, entertaining wealthy Japanese men with personal stories, the verity of which only the narrators know. Pour sake, make traditional tea, play the Shamisen, perform the very emotive artistic dance, flirt, seduce, embarrass, be naughty - all arts that a Geisha had to be good at. In fact the word ‘geisha’ itself means ‘artisan’. If you think a geisha is a prostitute, please read the book to ward off any such misunderstandings. A true well known Geisha is a very respected woman, who could be called to attend parties hosted by the Prime Minister or the top-most businessman.
A lot of revelations come as a shock, especially the bidding over a Geisha’s mizuage, which is nothing but her virginity. The perverse bordering on childish mentality of grown men is worth a laugh or two. Discovering the reasoning behind the white painted faces of Geisha, their grand Kimonos, their hair-dos could be of as much interest to a man as a woman reading the book.
Every relationship of Chiyo is depicted with a certain feminine sensitivity. And to think that a man, Arthur Golden, has written the book! The contrast of a woman’s emotional vulnerability and a man’s steadfastness is best represented between Sayuri and Nobo, the scarred one-armed man, who takes a liking to Sayuri for all the right reasons.
World War2 ravaged Japan’s impact on a Geisha and on her many rich patrons comes as a surprise towards the second half of the book.
Compared to all the ups and downs in Sayuri’s life though, the book has a fairly happy ending.
Once again I am fascinated by Japanese culture, so much that I am tempted to learn their language and be among them. Generally I am bad at remembering unfamiliar names used in foreign books, but somehow all the names in this book seem so familiar and easy to remember. Maybe I was in Japan in one of my earlier lives.
Chiyo was a girl with a lot of water in her personality. How fascinating to describe people in terms of such esoteric natural attributes (later found out its got more to do with chinese astrology). Her grey eyes set her apart. To some extent her eyes perhaps wrote her destiny.
Snatched from a poor fisherman's family, she was delivered into Gion, the Geisha district of Japan, along with her elder not-so-pretty sister Satsu. She could never forgive her own 9-year-old intelligence for imagining that the person who actually sold her was going to give her a better life. The initial inexplicable torment of the two sisters is almost unbearable.
The tale of Chiyo turning into Sayuri is narrated by Chiyo herself, which makes the reader feel quite fortunate. First person accounts always seem more gripping, don’t they? And that is what every Geisha is good at anyway, entertaining wealthy Japanese men with personal stories, the verity of which only the narrators know. Pour sake, make traditional tea, play the Shamisen, perform the very emotive artistic dance, flirt, seduce, embarrass, be naughty - all arts that a Geisha had to be good at. In fact the word ‘geisha’ itself means ‘artisan’. If you think a geisha is a prostitute, please read the book to ward off any such misunderstandings. A true well known Geisha is a very respected woman, who could be called to attend parties hosted by the Prime Minister or the top-most businessman.
A lot of revelations come as a shock, especially the bidding over a Geisha’s mizuage, which is nothing but her virginity. The perverse bordering on childish mentality of grown men is worth a laugh or two. Discovering the reasoning behind the white painted faces of Geisha, their grand Kimonos, their hair-dos could be of as much interest to a man as a woman reading the book.
Every relationship of Chiyo is depicted with a certain feminine sensitivity. And to think that a man, Arthur Golden, has written the book! The contrast of a woman’s emotional vulnerability and a man’s steadfastness is best represented between Sayuri and Nobo, the scarred one-armed man, who takes a liking to Sayuri for all the right reasons.
World War2 ravaged Japan’s impact on a Geisha and on her many rich patrons comes as a surprise towards the second half of the book.
Compared to all the ups and downs in Sayuri’s life though, the book has a fairly happy ending.
posted by Zingy at 3:49 AM
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