“Geisha, A Life”
by Mineko Iwasaki
Published: October 2002
ISBN: 0743444329

(Updated: June 21, 2004.)

I have always had a particular fascination with Japan, it’s history, it’s culture and certainly it’s textures and colours, as I imagine them. (I was given a book once called Almost Japanese written by Sarah Sheard and I will admit to feeling some twinges of recognition of myself in the main character. :o) And I certainly have a great curiosity for women’s roles in society. Any society. So… the title of this book, Geisha, A Life alone made me pick it up.

Where Memoirs of a Geisha spoke of Geisha from the outside in, this book speaks from the inside out. And from that vantage point, my overall reaction is that it must be a very boring life.

The most interesting part of the book for me were the last two chapters or so. There the author wrote of the changing context in Japan, the stagnated Geisha structure and the gap that was developing between the two "worlds". Although Mineko Iwasaki mentions having struggled to change Geisha society since age 15 (she was just under 30 on the writing of this book), none of this was apparent in the rest of the text despite the fact that the book describes her life from as early as she can remember onwards. This is too bad. I would have liked to understand more of this. And for the things that were written about, I would have liked more information (or pictures) to better help me to understand the importance of the details mentioned. I am not a Geisha. I am not Japanese. Learning the Japanese word for “some thing” is not enough for me to understand it.

So… although the reading was easy and interesting "enough", I still don’t feel that I know about modern day Geisha in Japan. Nor do I really feel as though I "know" Mineko Iwasaki. And my “couldn’t wait to get back to it” factor was 2 out of 5.