'IN THE COURSE of my extensive research I am indebted to one individual above all others ? Mineko Iwasaki.' So wrote Arthur Golden in the acknowledgements for Memoirs Of A Geisha, the 1997 fictional autobiography that hovered on the New York Times best-seller list for 58 weeks. Golden added that Iwasaki corrected his every misconception about the life of a geisha. Famous last words.
Iwasaki, 52, a retired Kyoto geisha, resents how she feels Golden portrayed her. It bothers her so much that she is suing him - she wants a cut of the novel's US$10 million (HK$78 million) earnings.
Iwasaki's case centres on sex. She says that, unlike her fictional counterpart, she did not have her virginity auctioned to the highest bidder for US$850,000. Nor, again in conflict with Golden's portrayal, did she indulge in prostitution. 'I never sold my body,' she is quoted as saying. 'Men never touched me.'
In response, Golden's publisher Random House has branded her claims 'utterly baseless and totally without merit'. Golden is on record as saying his book simply was not modelled on Iwasaki, even though he spent more than a week in her home with a tape recorder in 1992, as she explained the geisha way. Face to face at a central London hotel, Iwasaki, who describes herself as 'very, very proud' and 'contrary' - quite the reverse of the traditional pliant geisha - has an announcement to make. She says she is about to settle out of court with Golden. How much Golden is paying she will not disclose - she shakes her head, looking icily towards the window. Nor, as instructed by her lawyers, will she comment further about the case, she says, politely poker-faced, one hand pressed flat against the sofa. Her husband, Jinichiro Sato, a traditional Japanese painter, sits on a chair behind her, one finger propping his temple, his eyes drooping shut.
Swooping to the window, Iwasaki disapprovingly pulls the curtains tighter. She is dressed in a clay-coloured kimono with a white obi: a far cry from some of the outfits she wore in her heyday. Her autobiography, Geisha, A Life (also titled Geisha Of Gion), features a kimono she wore that was made from variegated turquoise satin, the hem of which was dyed in shades of burned orange and embellished by a drift of pine needles, maple leaves, cherry blossoms and chrys-anthemum petals. The accompanying obi was made of black damask decorated with swallowtail butterflies.
Despite today's sober image and shadows under her eyes, she looks trim and attractive, not to say alluring. She also, in a discreet way, exudes vigour that she must need to survive her film star-like schedule of interviews and signings - she intends to promote her book in as many London bookshops as possible. As a result, her press officer has been frantic, making phone call after phone call, assuring all-comers: 'She's utterly charming.' And she is. At times, though, Iwasaki's conversation feels a touch Miss World. For instance, on her favourite place to visit on holidays, she says 'hotels'. But her eyes shine with irony and her hands, apparently not interested in world peace, chop the air into slices as she tries to define order in her full, complex life.