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Original Title:	Autobiography Of A Geisha
ISBN:	0099462044 (ISBN13: 9780099462040)
Edition Language:	English

Autobiography of a Geisha

Sayo Masuda

Paperback | Pages: 186 pages

Rating: 3.94 | 2909 Users | 190 Reviews

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Title	:	Autobiography of a Geisha
Author	:	Sayo Masuda
Book Format	:	Paperback
Book Edition	:	Deluxe Edition
Pages	:	Pages: 186 pages
Published	:	February 5th 2004 by Vintage (first published 2003)
Categories	:	Nonfiction. Cultural. Japan. Biography. Autobiography. Memoir. History

Commentary As Books Autobiography of a Geisha

Sayo Masuda's story is an extraordinary portrait of rural life in japan and an illuminating contrast to the fictionalised lives of glamorous geishas.

At the age of sis Masuda's poverty-stricken family sent her to work as a nursemaid. At the age of twelve, she was indentured to a geisha house. In Autobiography of a Geisha, Masuda chronicles a harsh world in which young women faced the realities of sex for sale and were deprived of their freedom and identity. She also tells of her life after leaving the geisha house, painting a vivid panorama of the grinding poverty of rural life in wartime Japan.

Many years later Masuda decides to tell her story. Although she could barely read or write she was determine to tell the truth about life as a geisha and explode the myths surrounding their secret world. Remarkably frank and incredibly moving, this is the record of one woman's survival on the margins of Japanese society.

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Ratings: 3.94 From 2909 Users | 190 Reviews

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Masuda Sayo was a geisha in a rural part of Japan. Her story starts when she was six years old. Rejected by her mother as she was an illegitimate child, Masuda was sent to be a nursemaid at an age where she should still have been in the nursery herself. When she was twelve she was sold to a geisha house. Masuda relates her training years then describes how she was sold to an elderly man when she was only sixteen. He had a wife and a mistress already. This is a terrible story to read in that

There are two kinds of Geisha. There of the Geisha of Gion and Tokyo, who pride themselves as being not only social entertainers but also artists. Sex is almost always implied, never overt. Then there are the Hot Springs Geisha. For these geisha, shamisen and dance are not an art unto themselves, they are a means to an end. Sex is the ultimate goal, and the line between artist and prostitute is so blurred it is almost non-existent.Sayo Masuda wrote about her experiences as a pre-WWII hot springs

When I read Arthur Golden's Memoirs of a Geisha I found there was a certain falseness to the narrative. Of course it was a fictional account (albeit based on interviews with a former geisha), and therefore removed to a certain extent from reality.I also read Mineko Iwasaki's autobiography Geisha of Gion which gave a more realistic view of the secluded life of the geisha. Even though they have a busy social life, and may develop close/longstanding relationships with their clients, these young

This book strips away the delicate talk about the artistry of geisha life. She confirms that there was an element of slavery involved. Geishas were sold into indenture and the money went to their families. If their contracts were extended, their families were paid again for their services. The life of a hot springs geisha was rather cheap, and only worth buying for a few years. Disease and suicide were not uncommon.Masuda makes her painful story readable with a distinctive voice. The translation

What a bleak, bleak life. Surprisingly, her strength and liveliness come through -- I say surprisingly, because it is translated, and since she didn't have a lot of education, Masuda's story comes across as nearly terse at times (the note says it was given as an oral account).Hard to imagine that, comparatively speaking, this wasn't that long ago at all.



If you want to learn more about the life of geisha, this isn't quite the book for you. Much of this memoir doesn't concentrate on the details of geisha life, which I was sad about. After having read the fictional 'Memoirs of a Geisha' and Mineko Iwasaki's autobiography 'Geisha of Gion', I was hoping to see more into the life of a lower-ranked geisha, because the other books fictional or not were about geisha that were more lucky.Personally I wouldn't have forgiven my mother for what she did if I