Friday, August 11, 2006

... I don’t think any of us can speak frankly about pain until we are no longer enduring it. – Sayuri, Memoirs of a geisha.

I decided to watch the movie release before reading the book and this was a good thing because I was able to imagine better as I read. All of the movie actors embody the characters well and Gong Li’s portrayal as Hatsumomo, a jealous-embittered geisha is a lingering resemblance. I wonder if there was a possibility she was living out her a bitter rivalry against Zhang Ziyi in the movie who became director Zhang Yimou’s muse in recent years. No matter, Memoirs is an exceptional story with an abundance of dramatic flair as vividly narrated by Chiyo/Sayuri of her personal encounter as a fishing village girl turned geisha.

Geisha – flirtatious artisan and beguiling courtesan, hidden behind masked emotions. These are women entertaining powerful dignitaries for a living and having them eating out of their hands night after night. Talk about girl power. Metaphorically described, I’m amazed at the choice of words used to illustrate even the most mundane of events. The story does get draggy at times when every microscopic detail is brought to attention. The momentum picked up towards the ending of the book and I was sad that it had to end so soon.

I personally enjoyed the book out of my fascination towards Japanese culture. The Japanese, I find preserve their heritage very well and their generations are unashamed to embrace it. Written by a foreigner of Japanese culture, it is evident that a lot of careful effort has been invested to capture the insight of Japanese culture. Some of the facts have been refuted to be misleading though and it was highlighted by Mineko Iwasaki in her biographical account, Geisha of Gion, published 2003 after Memoirs in 1997.



Iwasaki was a prominent geisha herself during the 1960s in Gion and Golden had the privilege to speak with her while researching for his book. One of her main discontent was an issue which she felt was unjustifiably represented in Memoirs: the ceremonial mizuage. In Memoirs, mizuage was described as a ceremony where the geisha’s virginity is sold off to the highest bidder. Iwasaki strongly disagrees and reiterates that mizuage involves a coming-of-age ceremony, symbolically representing an apprentice becoming a full fledged geisha, and not losing one’s virginity. I believe both versions of the mizuage hold some truth, I think, since Golden’s Memoirs took place during the 1940s, before the enactment of anti-prostitution laws in 1958. Gion was the first geisha-related book I read and I wasn’t swayed by any bias account. In fact it urged me to read Golden’s interpretation of the flower and willowy world. Gion is told in straightforward manner littered with some light humour. Read it to complement Memoirs.



I read another account of a geisha by Sayo Masuda in Autobiography of a geisha. Her account didn’t paint a glamorous life of wealthy patrons and beautiful kimonos but a life forced into geisha for basic survival prior to the Second World War. She recalled that even the cat at the geisha house which she was sold to ate better than the village people where she came from. How do you escape poverty if not by embracing the one and only opportunity placed before you? This is the depressing narration of life as a geisha in the hot springs area.

All three books serve as introductory material of the Japanese geisha. It's time to turn my attention to something different.

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