The photos from Iwasaki’s past are poignant. My childhood memories are vague at best, but a profession that focuses on detail in a culture that tends to focus on detail, would create a better memory. The sections of her childhood have so many details that I wonder if she took some artistic license. Iwasaki writes extensively about how the strict rules and regulations frustrated her, and how those rules strangle the profession. Geisha, a Life takes you into a closed world few people see.

Iwasaki makes it clear that she wasn’t sold. Her family was fairly high class, if lacking in affluence. It was the best way for Iwasaki and her sisters to receive more education. Iwasaki’s book is an interesting (but dry) read about her day to day life as a young girl who is given the choice to become a geisha. We are precious goods and the livelihood of the ‘okiya’ (geisha houses) depends on us.” There is a very strict rule that ‘maiko’ (apprentice geisha) and geisha should never be beaten. “In the book, a geisha was beaten with a hanger and crippled. Golden’s book struck a nerve with Iwasaki when its Japanese translation released (Tegler, 2001): My own research also found that geisha did not experience this after they became separate from their origins as high class courtesans. Her book, Geisha, a Life, also denies this. Iwasaki said this was blatantly false (Tegler, 2002). He stated Iwasaki was sold to a geisha house and had her virginity auctioned off. However, Golden dedicates the book to her, and Golden mentions her in interviews. Iwasaki spoke with Golden with the stipulation that he didn’t reveal her identity (Tegler, 2001). Golden and Iwasaki’s conflict dealt with his violation of her privacy. In the Right Corner, we have Sayuri! In the left Corner we have Mineko!

Memoirs of a Geisha has some flat characters, particularly the villains, but it is an enjoyable novel nonetheless. I enjoyed both books and the Memoirs movie. However, some of the author’s changes created misconceptions that Iwasaki specifically addresses in her autobiography. Yes, Memoirs of a Geisha is fiction, so the author can have license to change things. In her book, Geisha, a Life, Iwasaki paints a very different picture from what Golden write in his fiction. I recently read the autobiography of the woman Memoirs was based upon, Mineko Iwasaki.

Arthur Golden’s Memoirs of a Geisha came out in 1997, with a movie of the same name back in 2005. I am a bit behind the times with this article.

Mineko iwasaki book