Geisha: A Life by Mineko Iwasaki Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Geisha: A Life
Book Review: Engaging and fascinating
Summary: 5 Stars
I loved Memoirs of a Geisha, both the movie and the book. So when I found out that the Geisha on whom the book was based on or rather inspired from has written an autobiography, I was thrilled. Apparently, Ms Mineko Iwasaki was very upset over the way Geisha's were portrayed by Arthur Golden and that he breached an understanding that her name was not to be mentioned anywhere, but he did, in the book as well as in interviews. She also got death threats from people who thought she had defaced Japanese culture. So she decided to write a book of her own.
Iwasaki's parents were distraught when she decided to become a Geisha when she was just 5 years old. How a girl so young could make such a decision and how could the parents agree to it is something beyond me, even though she has tried to explain it. She goes to stay in an Okiya (a geisha house) and she is initiated into the trainings and numerous classes when she turns six.
A woman who is training to become a Geisha has a very disciplined life. There is traditional dancing, singing, playing instruments and also studying. Would-be Geisha's are allowed to study until Junior High, in fact it's kind of a rule.
Iwasaki excels in dancing and she is introduced as a maiko when she is 15 years old. After a few years of working as a maiko she becomes a geiko at age 21, which are the same names for a Geisha, just different hierarchies. She soon becomes one of the top geisha's in Gion. In fact, today she almost has a legendary status.
What surprised me most was how systematic and well organized the world of a Geisha is. There is a list of all the girls that are going to come out as maiko's. There is a Kimono Dealers association. There is a very strict hierarchy which if broken can result in serious consequences. The earnings of all the geisha's are reported to the Geisha Committee (I think that's whats it is), so everyone knows who the highest earning geisha for a particular year is.
The Geisha world itself is so complicated or may be I felt that way because I had not heard a lot about it. There is a rule of what kind of and what design a Kimono can have depending on seasons. Same goes for hairstyles and ornaments. It was exhausting just reading about it.
It is very clear that Ms Iwasaki loved and respected what she did and she has tried to dispel all the myth's regarding geisha's. She often sounds a bit egoistic and someone that could do no wrong. But we also need to understand the world she lived in, a world when no one, including one's sister cannot be trusted. She lived by the motto: The Samurai betrays no weakness, even when starving. Pride above all. I can understand how easily pride can be mistaken for ego in the geisha world.
There are lots of minute details on a lot of things like the music school, the dance school, the different kinds of geisha's, the customs and traditions. There are also descriptions on Kimono designs, hair ornaments and the kind. For e.g take this:
My Kimono was made out of figured satin in variegated turquoise. The heavy hem of the train was dyed in shades of burnt orange, against which floated a drift of pine needles, maple leaves, cherry blossoms and chrysanthemum petals. My obi was made of black damask decorated with swallowtail butterflies. I wore a matching obi clasp of a swallowtail butterfly fashioned out of silver.
There are many passages like these which some people may find dry and boring. But I loved them, it helped me immerse myself in the book more. In fact 2 days after finishing this book I struggled with picking up another that was as engrossing as this one.
If I have to compare this book with Memoirs of a Geisha, I would say both are very different from each other. In Memoirs of a Geisha, we get a young, naive and endearing Sayuri, where as here we get a strong willed, dedicated Mineko. Arthur Golden seems to have picked the main storyline from one of the minor characters and mixed it with Iwasaki's story to make it more dramatic. If you are looking for a "Memoirs of a Geisha" kind of book, you will be disappointed. But both are brilliant in their own way, one as page turning fiction and one as a real look into the Japanese culture. The simple fact that Geisha, A Life is a true story gives it a different feel altogether.
Book Review: Fascinating glimse into the life of a Geiko
Summary: 5 Stars
I found this a fascinating book, filled with glimses into the culture and customs of Japan. I knew little of Japan before I read it, but Mineko filled in many gaps and clarified many misconceptions.She was the most successful geisha (actually "geiko") of her time--beautiful, graceful and determined. And yet, she grew tired of the life, and retired at the very early age of twenty-nine, ending the ancient Iwasaki line.
She begins her book with her early childhood and her reasons for becoming a geiko. She takes the reader through training and all it's rigours through to her enormous success. She alludes to her disillusionment with the geiko life, and to her attempts to reform the educational traditions, but does not specify any of these. I was disappointed in that, for, having watched her mature in this book, I would like to have known more about her reform attempts, to have seen her in that role.
Geisha, A Life is not the most well-written of books, which could be due to either author or translator. But then, that doesn't really matter. Let's face it. . . no one reads an autobiography for literary merit. Autobiographies are read in an attempt to KNOW the writer, and in that aspect, Mineko succeeded--I felt like I was ending a conversation with a good friend when I closed this book.
Book Review: Find another book to read
Summary: 1 Stars
Memoirs of a Geisha was one of my favorite books of all time; So when I learned that Mineko Iwasaki wrote an autobiography of her life as a geiko I went out immediately and bought the book. I was thoroughly disappointed.
Not only is the book hard to read with all the Japanese terminology but Mineko drones on and on about the most unimportant details. For example, she spends half a page describing the proper way to open a door and enter a room including which hand to use and where to put it on the door. She focuses on the mundane while skipping over her personal relationships, funny anecdotes, and nightly experiences. Very little is mentioned about her starting her own nightclub or what went on each night as she worked without a day off for 5 years.
Mineko's main focus as a geiko was dancing. She did everything in her power to become the best dancer in Gion. She eventually succeeded in doing so but ostracized her peers, her friends, and even her biological family.
Her arrogance and ignorance can also be quite appalling and annoying to read about. Mineko openly gave away envelopes of money as tips without ever checking to see how much money they contained. She was oblivious to the world and people around her. Her sole concern was herself and becoming the best geiko and didn't care how many toes she stepped on along the way. Mineko is not particularly beautiful, can be quite rude and vindictive at times, and openly admits in the book that she was not very good at entertaining customers. Consequently, I have yet to figure out why this woman was such a legend. I personally would not have paid thousands of dollars to spend a few precious minutes in her presence.
If you are interested in learning about Japanese culture or about the lives that geisha lead, I highly recommend finding another book to read. This book was a waste of time, money, and was overall incredibly boring.
Book Review: Geiko of Gion
Summary: 4 Stars
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.
Book Review: Geisha, A Life
Summary: 3 Stars
I picked up this book after rereading "Memoirs of a Geisha" and wondering how realistic it was. This book, "Geisha, A Life" is written by Mineko Iwasaki, a world-renowned Japanese Geisha during the 60's and 70's. Born into a privileged family, she chooses to train in Kyoto's Gion Kobu district. Favored from the beginning, she was groomed to be the heir of her Geisha house. She worked obsessively to perfect her dancing skills and maintain her status as the foremost Geisha of Kyoto.
The book is written with a certain detachment that prevents the reader from becoming fully engaged in Mineko's story. Perhaps because of Japanese culture and the taboo about Geisha revealing their secrets, the book comes off as dry and less than genuine.