Sayo Masuda’s Autobiography of a Geisha Autobiography of a Geisha was originally written for a memoir competition run by the Japanese magazine Housewife’s Companion. Sayo Masuda wrote and submitted her manuscript in hopes of winning the monetary prize offered. She won second place in the competition and came to the attention of an editor who helped her expand her story and publish it as a book. Riding on the wave of interest stirred by Arthur Golden’s Memoirs of a Geisha, G. G. Rowley translated
Geisha, shrouded in mystery, is an understandably fascinating subject. However, it is precisely the elusiveness of geisha that makes their image vulnerable to misconstruction. Geisha have been romanticised in much of Western literature to become for “male entertainment and pleasure” (Foreman, 2008, 2). I argue that the popular portrayals of geisha as being the Oriental feminine ideal, which has been “fetishized as the embodiment of perfect womenhood and genuine exotic femininity” (Le Espiritu 1997
Asia and Asian peoples have typically been portrayed by western culture to fit certain perceptions. Stereotypes and pre-ordained ideas about Geisha have been created due to many reasons. These reasons are misrepresentation in Hollywood and film, a culturally western gender-based male language as the dominator of language, a lack of esthetic-cultural appreciation and understanding from foreign males who encountered geisha, and finally the confusion between the geisha and prostitute districts and what
Mineko Iwasaki once said, “Stab the body and it heals, but injure the heart and the wound lasts a lifetime.” When the topic of betrayal is discussed, it is usually described in terms of marriage vows, friendships, or work relationships. These types of betrayals are undeniably heart wrenching and can have a direct effect on a person’s life. Betrayal can make you feel as though you were slapped in the face, punched in the gut, or kicked in the groin all at the same time. The funny thing about it is
Reader Response to Memoirs of a Geisha Memoirs of a Geisha is Arthur Golden's debut novel, written exquisitely with great detail. It was initially written as a novel that would depict the son borne of a geisha and a Japanese businessman, but once he had learned the true nature of a geisha, he changed his topic. Golden discovered the intrigue of the geisha - the attributes that draw in the geisha's customers, that make them an irreplaceable part of Japanese history, that make them human
In an experiment done at the University of Texas, babies pay more attention to attractive faces than unattractive faces (Newman 3). Even six-month-old babies, who have no understanding of ethical and social values, can judge appearances. Within society, beauty is a powerful force that can be used to oppress and discriminate against different groups. The “flower and willow world” of the geishas is a community that depends upon the recognition of beauty and artistic skill (Wieder 1). Geishas are