Geisha, A Life by Mineko Iwasaki

Geisha, A Life by Mineko Iwasaki with Rande Brown


Masako Tanaka was born in Kyoto, Japan in 1949, the last of eleven children. She lived with her parents and seven of her siblings for the first five years of her life. Unbeknownst to her she had three older sisters that were leaving in Gion Kobu, working in okiyas, what we know as geisha houses. At a young age Masako was actively being pursued by the proprietress of the Iwasaki Okiya, Madame Oima. She was in desperate need of an atatori, a successor, to run the okiya when she was no longer able. It was at the age of five that Masako decided to leave her family and move to the okiya. She would eventually take on the name of the family and forever be known as Mineko Iwasaki. Within the pages of the autobiography Mineko divulges what it was like for her to leave her family, her passion for dance, how she strived and became the most successful geiko (the word commonly used for geisha in Kyoto) of her time.
Geisha, A Life is an interesting story. Mineko had a very vivid memory of being a young child and relayed her motions wonderfully. She expressed the overwhelming fear and anxiety that was ever present in her youth. Part of becoming a geiko for her included overcoming her fear of people and being in social situations. She talked about the effect that being a geiko had on her older sister Yaeko, who fostered resentment and anger against her parents from the moment she was sent to the okiya. Mineko described in detail the exhaustion she felt and how success ultimately forced her to make due with an average of three hours of sleep a night. She revealed the life of a geiko and what that truly meant to the people of Japan.

I’m torn with this book. On one hand I really enjoyed reading about this different and highly mysterious aspect of Japanese culture. My interest had been sparked after reading Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden years ago, so I was very interested in reading this true account by the geisha that inspired what I considered to be a great novel. Reading Mineko’s account of the life of a geiko was extremely intriguing. She provided so much detail about her schedule, traditions, clothing and the culture that I could visualize and appreciate the true beauty and the art of being a geiko. On the other hand, this autobiography became repetitive and somewhat boastful. The tone would change in parts of the book from informative to, in my opinion, cocky and irritating. I got tired of reading about how successful she was and how she knew she was successful but had no true concept of how much money she was making or how much money was being spent. She just knew that she was the best geiko because she was the busiest. Mineko knew she was making money but only partially aware of the scope. I don’t know, I just got bored whenever Mineko would talk about her success. I found myself much more intrigued when hearing her speak about her relationships with other people and the dynamics between geikos. I give this book 3.5 out of 5 stars. It was enjoyable but it had its faults. 

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