Autobiography of a Geisha Book + PRICE WATCH * Amazon pricing is not included in price watch

Autobiography of a Geisha Book

Sayo Masuda?s Autobiography of a Geisha offers a story of unremitting hardship faced by a hot-springs geisha, a virtual indentured sex-slave in pre-World War II Japan. Born in 1925, Masuda began work as a nursemaid at age 5 and suffered a childhood of emotional and material poverty. She was then sold to the Takenoya geisha house in Upper Suwa at age 12. While her food and clothing were provided for by Takenoya, she was subject to constant verbal abuse as an apprentice. At one point, she was heaved down the stairs by her "Mother" (the name she uses for the proprietor of the geisha house) and nearly lost a leg. During her recovery, she attempted suicide and further injured herself. Eventually, Masuda mastered the art of seduction as a geisha. The middle portion of the narrative is taken up with stories of her successful campaign for a danna (patron), of her brother?s tragic suicide, and of her star-crossed love affair with a Japanese politician. Autobiography of a Geisha, translated for the first time into English by G. G. Rowley, was published in Japan in 1957 and has been in print in Japan steadily ever since. The tale is rendered in a simple English prose to reflect Masuda?s own, untrained style (she did not have schooling and she only learned to write hiragana script later in life). For Western readers, Masuda?s autobiography is a gift: a glimpse into the dark reality behind one of the most shrouded institutions in Japanese culture. --Patrick O?KelleyRead More

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  • Product Description

    The glamorous world of Kyoto's geisha is familiar to many readers. This book presents a different view, one that bears little resemblance to the elegant geisha quarter frequented by illustrious patrons. Masudo Sayo was a geisha at a hot springs resort, where the realities of sex for sale are unadorned by the trappings of.wealth and power. Masuda was sent to work as a nursemaid at the age of six and was sold to a geisha house at the age of twelve. In accordance with tradition, she first worked as a servant while training in the arts of dance, song, shamisen, and drum. In 1940, when she was sixteen, she made her debut as a geisha. Very few geisha have written their memoirs, preferring to fade into obscurity. Although she had never gone to school and could barely write, Masuda undertook to set down her story. Motivated by the desire to tell the truth about life as a geisha, she responded to a national magazine contest - and won. The article later grew into this book. Remarkable for its wit and frankness, the book is a moving record of a woman´s survival on the margins of Japanese society -in the words of the translator, "the superbly told tale of a woman whom fortune never favored yet never defeated."

  • 0231129505
  • 9780231129503
  • S Masuda
  • 16 May 2003
  • Columbia University Press
  • Hardcover (Book)
  • 216
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