'I can identify the exact moment when things began to change. It was a cold winter afternoon. I had just turned three.' Emerging shyly from her hiding place, Mineko encounters Madam Oima, the formidable proprietress of a prolific geisha house in Gion.

Geisha of Gion: The Memoir of Mineko Iwasaki

IWASAKI, MINEKO

Biographies & Memoirs

Simon&Schuster

Geisha, A Life

No woman in the three-hundred-year history of the karyukai has ever come forward in public to tell her story - until now. "Many say I was the best geisha of my generation", writes Mineko Iwasaki. "And yet, it was a life that I found too constricting to continue. And one that I ultimately had to leave". Trained to become a geisha from the age of five, Iwasaki would live among the other "women of art" in Kyoto's Gion Kobu district and practice the ancient customs of Japanese entertainment. She was loved by kings, princes, military heroes, and wealthy statesmen alike. But even though she became one of the most prized geishas in Japan's history, Iwasaki wanted more: her own life. And by the time she retired at age twenty-nine, Iwasaki was finally on her way toward a new beginning. Geisha, a Life is her story - at times heartbreaking, always awe-inspiring, and totally true.

Humor & Entertainment

Atria Books

GEISHA, A LIFE 
 "No woman in the three-hundred-year history of the karyukai has ever come forward in public to tell her story. We have been constrained by unwritten rules not to do so, by the robes of tradition and by the sanctity of our exclusive calling...But I feel it is time to speak out." 
 Celebrated as the most successful geisha of her generation, Mineko Iwasaki was only five years old when she left her parents' home for the world of the geisha. For the next twenty-five years, she would live a life filled with extraordinary professional demands and rich rewards. She would learn the formal customs and language of the geisha, and study the ancient arts of Japanese dance and music. She would enchant kings and princes, captains of industry, and titans of the entertainment world, some of whom would become her dearest friends. Through great pride and determination, she would be hailed as one of the most prized geishas in Japan's history, and one of the last great practitioners of this now fading art form. 
 In Geisha, a Life, Mineko Iwasaki tells her story, from her warm early childhood, to her intense yet privileged upbringing in the Iwasaki okiya (household), to her years as a renowned geisha, and finally, to her decision at the age of twenty-nine to retire and marry, a move that would mirror the demise of geisha culture. Mineko brings to life the beauty and wonder of Gion Kobu, a place that "existed in a world apart, a special realm whose mission and identity depended on preserving the time-honored traditions of the past." She illustrates how it coexisted within post-World War II Japan at a time when the country was undergoing its radical transformation from a post-feudal society to a modern one. 
 "There is much mystery and misunderstanding about what it means to be a geisha. I hope this story will help explain what it is really like and also serve as a record of this unique component of Japan's cultural history," writes Mineko Iwasaki. Geisha, a Life is the first of its kind, as it delicately unfolds the fabric of a geisha's development. Told with great wisdom and sensitivity, it is a true story of beauty and heroism, and of a time and culture rarely revealed to the Western world.

Geisha: A Life

Community & Culture

Atria

Brown, Rande

Arts & Literature

Diane Pub Co.

A Kyoto geisha describes her initiation into an okiya at the age of five, the intricate training that made up most of her education, her successful career, and the traditions surrounding the geisha culture.

Geisha, a Life

Ouchi, Rande Brown

Thorndike Pr

Geisha a Life

Die wahre Geschichte der Geisha

Ullstein Taschenbuchvlg

Vida De UNA Geisha. LA Verdadera Historia (Spanish Edition)

Suma de Letras]

VIDA DE UNA GEISHA (Spanish Edition)

Literature & Fiction

ADULTOS ANTIGUO

Presentación Bolsillo:Mineko Iwasaki, la geisha más famosa del mundo, reveló a Arthur Golden todos los secretos de su vida y la de estas elegantes damas dedicadas al arte de la música, la danza y la conversación.

VIDA DE UNA GEISHA: LA VERDADERA HISTORIA

BOLSILLO BYBLOS

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