Geisha, A Life by Mineko Iwasaki
Simon & Schuster $135
DO THEY, DON'T THEY? Whether geisha sell sex has long intrigued Westerners and is one reason why Mineko Iwasaki penned this book. In her attempt to dispel the notion they are prostitutes - as she claims Arthur Golden's Memoirs Of A Geisha suggests - she writes about her years in the entertainment district of Gion Kobu in Kyoto, explaining how she became the most successful geisha of her generation.
Geisha, A Life, however, is not as simple as that. It comes with the baggage of a high-profile lawsuit against Golden and hence invites comparison to his best-selling novel. Unfortunately, it pales for several reasons. Notwithstanding the difficulties of translation, this autobiography comes across as a disingenuous attempt to tell it like it is. It is also plagued by poor storytelling and a lack of style - which might be overlooked were geisha not famed for these very social skills.
The book opens thus: 'In the country of Japan, an island nation in East Asia, there are special districts, known as karyukai, that are dedicated to the enjoyment of aesthetic pleasure.' The clumsy introduction includes Iwasaki declaring that, constrained by 'the sanctity of our exclusive calling', no woman in the 300-year history of the karyukai has told her story.
The statement rings false: Lesley Downer's Geisha: The Secret History Of A Vanishing World, published in 2000, and Geisha, the 1985 book by anthropologist Liza Dalby, are just two works on the subject that rely on revelations of women from 'the flower and willow world'.
