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Autobiography of a Geisha by Masuda Sayo
Aug. 16th, 2013 09:58 pmWhile Iwasaki Mineko claims to be the first Geisha to come forward with her life's story, Masuda Sayo actually wrote and published hers several decades earlier, and actually stopped being a geisha before Iwasaki was born. That said, it should be noted that, while both women were practicing geisha in the 20th century, they effectively belonged to different eras and were in completely different classes. Their personsl experiences would be aliem enough to the other that I'm not sure they would recognize each other's life as being that of a geisha.
Masuda was illegitimate and turned over to her mother's brother, who didn't want the burden of a bastard. As such, she was sent into servitude as a nurse for younger children when very young, and later sold to a "hotsprings" geisha house when her mother and her mother's new family needed money, and didn't even know her own name, having always responded to the contemptuous nickname of "Crane," until she was hospitalized at the age of twelve, and her virginity was sold five times. Throughout her life she suffered from abuse, alcoholism, depression, an unwanted pregnancy and poverty, attempted suicide, and was forced to teach herself to read well after most would learn.
Masuda did not set out to write her autobiography, but rather, entered a writing competition because she needed the prize money, and was later approached about expanding it into a book, only to later be faced with threats and disdain that eventually forced her to move to another town. Masuda is not a particularly eloquent writer, nor is her book full of amusing anecdotes or recognizable names, but it's a very interesting and worthwhile read, if not always (or even often) a pleasant one.
Masuda was illegitimate and turned over to her mother's brother, who didn't want the burden of a bastard. As such, she was sent into servitude as a nurse for younger children when very young, and later sold to a "hotsprings" geisha house when her mother and her mother's new family needed money, and didn't even know her own name, having always responded to the contemptuous nickname of "Crane," until she was hospitalized at the age of twelve, and her virginity was sold five times. Throughout her life she suffered from abuse, alcoholism, depression, an unwanted pregnancy and poverty, attempted suicide, and was forced to teach herself to read well after most would learn.
Masuda did not set out to write her autobiography, but rather, entered a writing competition because she needed the prize money, and was later approached about expanding it into a book, only to later be faced with threats and disdain that eventually forced her to move to another town. Masuda is not a particularly eloquent writer, nor is her book full of amusing anecdotes or recognizable names, but it's a very interesting and worthwhile read, if not always (or even often) a pleasant one.