Geisha. The Secret History of a Vanishing World

by Lesley Downer | Nonfiction |
ISBN: 0747264260 Global Overview for this book
Registered by wingem64wing of Tampere, Pirkanmaa / Birkaland Finland on 8/19/2021
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1 journaler for this copy...
Journal Entry 1 by wingem64wing from Tampere, Pirkanmaa / Birkaland Finland on Thursday, August 19, 2021
From the back cover:

"Ever since Westerners arrived in Japan, they have been intrigued by Japanese womanhood and, above all, geisha. This fascination has spawned a wealth of extraordinary fictional creations, from Puccini's Madame Butterfly to Arthur Golden's Memoirs of a Geisha. The reality of the geisha's existence, though - whether today or in history - has very rarely been addressed. The real, hidden history of the geisha - and the contemporary reality of this intensely private and disappearing world - is here fully and brilliantly explored by an award-winning writer."

This was an interesting read of a subject that is both known and unknown. Being a woman in a Japanese society has been difficult; either you were the wife and mother or you were the concubine or prostitute. Marriage was a matter of convenience and arranged, the husband and wife had very little in common and they lived separate lives. The wife's domain was home, the husband spent his spare time in the tea houses being entertained by geisha and maiko. If you were from a poor family and a girl, the parents often sold you to a tea house where you were first a servant, then a maiko and finally perhaps a geisha. The only way to get out of that life was to find a rich danna who bought you out of your contract. The wife usually was knew about the other women, sometimes they even became friends. The book left mixed feelings. On one side, geisha are valued artists but on the other hand, they really do not have a lot of possibilities to decide what happens to them.

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