This is a picture I took in Gion, Kyoto, when I was there with my family summer of 2007
Yesterday I watched the movie Hana Ikusa (“Flower Battle”) with a friend. It’s based on the life of Mineko Iwasaki, the foremost geisha of Gion, Kyoto, during the seventies.
It was a very strange coincidence that we decided to watch this movie just yesterday, having no idea what it was about, because earlier that day I had seen Iwasaki’s autobiography Geisha of Gion (called Geisha, a Life in the US) in a bookstore for the very first time. I had never actually heard of this book before, but seemed interesting (I did not buy it, however), and I had no idea that there existed a film based on it.
Iwasaki wrote this book and started to work for the awareness of the life of geisha in Japan and worldwide as a contrast to Arthur Golden’s Memoirs of a Geisha, which is loosely based on Iwasaki’s life. Golden interviewed Iwasaki before writing his book, and she was one of his greatest resources. However, he portrayed a lot of her experiences in a negative light, as well as added stories about selling a geisha’s virginity to the highest bidder, a custom Iwasaki claims do not exist in Gion. All and all Iwasaki was not happy about Golden’s book, nor that he mentioned her as a sources even though he had promised to keep it a secret.
I have not read Memoirs of a Geisha, but I have seen the movie from 2005. I enjoyed it, but would have liked to see it in Japanese with Japanese actors. I also knew about the issue of weather or not geisha did/do sell their bodies as well as their arts, and coupled with some other facts in the movie (like the full panted lips, as far as i know, geisha only colour the middle part of their lips), I took it as entertainment and not cultural facts.
The Hana Ikusa movie was also nice, and the special dialect is so much fun! I think this movie was made as a TV movie in Japan, and therefore it is not some kind of great movie or anything, but it was both fun and interesting to watch. Because of the formal language, many of the lines sounded stiff to my non-Japanese-speaking friends, but I think the actors did pretty well. I don’t think any of them are originally from Kyoto, though, but I’m not sure. The part of Mineko is played by Mao Inoue, who’s biggest part so far is Tsukushi, star of Hana Yori Dango (“Boys over Flowers”), in the two seasons of the TV Drama, as well as in the following movie Hana Yori Dango Final, all of which everyone should watch, since it is one of the best Japanese drama series ever made.
Back to geishas. If you want to read a non-fiction and non-biography book on geishas, I think Leslie Downer’s Geisha: The Remarkable Truth Behind the Fiction is one of the better ones. I have only read about a third of this book, and that was several years ago, but I remember it as well-written and seemingly accurate, so I think it is safe to recommend it.
If you do want to read fiction or a biography I recommend Yasunari Kawabata’s Snow Country, which also happens to be one of the greatest modern Japanese novels there is. Anything written by Kawabata is worth reading. He was also the first Japanese to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature back in 1968. Snow Country is about a man from Tokyo falling in love with a geisha in a small town in the mountainous regions of northern Japan. The life of a geisha there is very different from that of one living in Kyoto or Tokyo.
And if you want to read more about this kind of geisha, from one who actually were one, I recommend Sayo Masuda’s Autobiography of a Geisha, the actual first autobiography written by a geisha. Mineko Iwasaki, however, describes her Geisha of Gion, as being the first, and only, story told by a real geisha, and it is also often quoted as such. Even though it is not true. Masuda’s story is very straightforward and tells about the harsh life of a hot-spring resort geisha, so very far glamour and luxury. It’s a very good read.
While writing about this, I found that my copy of Masuda’s book has strangely disappeared, which makes me very sad. I do wonder if it is lost somewhere in this house, or if I lost it while still in Japan (that’s where I bought it), and if so, if I will ever get it back. Now I’m a bit sad. (TT) ((<-- this smiley really doesn't work with Times New Roman, does it?? ;P )) Well, there are lots more to be said about geishas, and lots more books and movies about them, but this is what I recommend you to start with if you want to know some things, while having a good time. I am no expert on them myself, which is why I have refrained to actually talk about geishas, and concentrated on media regarding them, on which, however, I also have a very limited knowledge, I’m afraid. Hope you enjoyed anyways!
It was a very strange coincidence that we decided to watch this movie just yesterday, having no idea what it was about, because earlier that day I had seen Iwasaki’s autobiography Geisha of Gion (called Geisha, a Life in the US) in a bookstore for the very first time. I had never actually heard of this book before, but seemed interesting (I did not buy it, however), and I had no idea that there existed a film based on it.
Iwasaki wrote this book and started to work for the awareness of the life of geisha in Japan and worldwide as a contrast to Arthur Golden’s Memoirs of a Geisha, which is loosely based on Iwasaki’s life. Golden interviewed Iwasaki before writing his book, and she was one of his greatest resources. However, he portrayed a lot of her experiences in a negative light, as well as added stories about selling a geisha’s virginity to the highest bidder, a custom Iwasaki claims do not exist in Gion. All and all Iwasaki was not happy about Golden’s book, nor that he mentioned her as a sources even though he had promised to keep it a secret.
I have not read Memoirs of a Geisha, but I have seen the movie from 2005. I enjoyed it, but would have liked to see it in Japanese with Japanese actors. I also knew about the issue of weather or not geisha did/do sell their bodies as well as their arts, and coupled with some other facts in the movie (like the full panted lips, as far as i know, geisha only colour the middle part of their lips), I took it as entertainment and not cultural facts.
The Hana Ikusa movie was also nice, and the special dialect is so much fun! I think this movie was made as a TV movie in Japan, and therefore it is not some kind of great movie or anything, but it was both fun and interesting to watch. Because of the formal language, many of the lines sounded stiff to my non-Japanese-speaking friends, but I think the actors did pretty well. I don’t think any of them are originally from Kyoto, though, but I’m not sure. The part of Mineko is played by Mao Inoue, who’s biggest part so far is Tsukushi, star of Hana Yori Dango (“Boys over Flowers”), in the two seasons of the TV Drama, as well as in the following movie Hana Yori Dango Final, all of which everyone should watch, since it is one of the best Japanese drama series ever made.
Back to geishas. If you want to read a non-fiction and non-biography book on geishas, I think Leslie Downer’s Geisha: The Remarkable Truth Behind the Fiction is one of the better ones. I have only read about a third of this book, and that was several years ago, but I remember it as well-written and seemingly accurate, so I think it is safe to recommend it.
If you do want to read fiction or a biography I recommend Yasunari Kawabata’s Snow Country, which also happens to be one of the greatest modern Japanese novels there is. Anything written by Kawabata is worth reading. He was also the first Japanese to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature back in 1968. Snow Country is about a man from Tokyo falling in love with a geisha in a small town in the mountainous regions of northern Japan. The life of a geisha there is very different from that of one living in Kyoto or Tokyo.
And if you want to read more about this kind of geisha, from one who actually were one, I recommend Sayo Masuda’s Autobiography of a Geisha, the actual first autobiography written by a geisha. Mineko Iwasaki, however, describes her Geisha of Gion, as being the first, and only, story told by a real geisha, and it is also often quoted as such. Even though it is not true. Masuda’s story is very straightforward and tells about the harsh life of a hot-spring resort geisha, so very far glamour and luxury. It’s a very good read.
While writing about this, I found that my copy of Masuda’s book has strangely disappeared, which makes me very sad. I do wonder if it is lost somewhere in this house, or if I lost it while still in Japan (that’s where I bought it), and if so, if I will ever get it back. Now I’m a bit sad. (TT) ((<-- this smiley really doesn't work with Times New Roman, does it?? ;P )) Well, there are lots more to be said about geishas, and lots more books and movies about them, but this is what I recommend you to start with if you want to know some things, while having a good time. I am no expert on them myself, which is why I have refrained to actually talk about geishas, and concentrated on media regarding them, on which, however, I also have a very limited knowledge, I’m afraid. Hope you enjoyed anyways!
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