Geisha is a profession. It is about her that Mineko Iwasaki talks in his books. Having stayed in this role until the age of 29, when the geisha’s career was considered incomplete, she interrupted her studies, and later decided to tell readers around the world that her occupation had nothing to do with debauchery. This profession is the oldest in Japan. “The true memoirs of a geisha” is a book that tells what the concept of “geisha” means, what role women in this profession play in Japanese culture. And the literary work “Geisha's Journey” tells the story of Mineko Iwasaki herself from childhood to old age.
How it all started
She was born on November 2, 1949 in Kyoto. For her, the path to fame began when she was sent to a traditional geisha house in Kyoto at the age of five. Her family was poor. Although the father was of noble blood. The Minamoto Sinzo Tanaka was a bankrupt aristocrat who lost his title. He made a living by painting kimonos and selling them in his shop. It was a family business, but there was still not enough money to adequately support a large family consisting of a husband, wife and eleven children. To give up children at that time was in the order of things. Thus, the family corrected its financial situation and gave the offspring a chance for a good life. So did Mineko Iwasaki. Her four sisters - Yaeko, Kikuko, Kuniko, Tomiko - suffered the same fate. They all went to study at the Iwasaki Okiya geisha house.
Abandonment of the past
The first thing young girls began to teach was traditional Japanese dance. Mineko Iwasaki surpassed the other girls in this lesson. At 21, she was considered the best Japanese dancer. Classes deprived her of a lot of physical strength, but her efforts were rewarded. Mineko Iwasaki is a geisha who danced for Queen Elizabeth and Prince Charles. Few have received such an honor. But still, as a little girl, Mineko Iwasaki fell into a privileged position. She was noticed by the owner of the educational institution, Madame Oima, and made her atotority, that is, the heiress. That is, after some time she would have owned the Gion’s geisha house. To make this possible, she had to abandon her parents at the age of 10 so that Oima could adopt her and adopt the name Iwasaki, although she was named Masako Tanaka at birth.
What was taught
Studying for many years, at 15 years old girls became only students, and at 21 true geisha who can work independently. Mineko Iwasaki has always been attracted to dancing. But they taught girls and many other subjects. To become successful, they had to be able to sing, play traditional musical instruments, know the rules of etiquette, a tea ceremony, speak several languages, look after their appearance, dress properly and have a conversation. One of the subjects was calligraphy. In order to communicate with customers, and these were always people from the upper layers of society, girls had to be in the know about world events, scientific discoveries, business news. This was necessary in order to competently maintain a conversation. The girls were associated with the geisha house by a 5-7 year contract, and although they worked on their own, the owner gave the money for their services. Indeed, large amounts of money were spent on their training. Take at least expensive costumes. And so the students paid their debt for free tuition.
Popularity Fee
"The true memoirs of a geisha" is a book in which Iwasaki, unashamedly, reveals the whole truth about his life in the house of the geisha. Therefore, she does not hide the fact that during her career, girls had to sacrifice their beauty. For example, daily tight hairstyles using styling products resulted in hair damage, and sometimes baldness. In addition, Iwasaki had to listen to clients and be something like a psychologist. And what they said, trying to lighten the soul, was often so unpleasant that she compared herself to a garbage can, into which sewage was poured. Among other things, popularity brought not only pleasant results. Numerous fans envied the women around her. Sometimes she faced physical abuse, for example, when men wanted to get an intimate relationship from her against her will.
End of the way
Perhaps this was the impetus for the fact that Iwasaki decided to end her career as a geisha, although she was very popular and highly paid. She earned $ 500, 000 a year for 6 years, which no geisha could achieve anymore. Iwasaki explained the reason for her departure that she wants to start a family and stop playing the role of a geisha. However, her departure caused a public outcry. As Mineko admitted later, she wanted society to pay attention to the imperfection in the education system of geishas, but achieved the opposite effect. More than 70 girls of the same kind of activity also interrupted their occupation. Iwasaki considers himself somewhat involved in the fact that today her profession is very rare. There are only a few real geisha and their services are so expensive that only very rich people can pay for them.
Life after dancing
After leaving the world, Geisha Mineko Iwasaki married an artist named Jimchiro. At first, she acquired several beauty salons and hairdressers, but eventually decided to devote herself to art. The husband taught her to restore the paintings, this is her main occupation for today. In addition, she studied at the University of Kyoto at the faculties of history and philosophy. Iwasaki has a daughter who is now 31 years old. The former geisha lives with her husband in a suburb of Kyoto.
Who betrayed her?
However, the memories of the previous lesson were needed by the writer Arthur Golden. She agreed to give him an interview in confidence. But for some reason, the author of the book "Memoirs of a Geisha" violated him and indicated the name of Iwasaki in the thank-you list, which he printed in his work. Mineko got into an unpleasant situation because of this. After all, geishas are obliged to keep a secret about how they are trained and not to reveal the secrets of their work in the future. Iwasaki even threatened physical harm for violating this law. All this forced her to sue, which she won and even received monetary compensation.
It's all a lie
The reason for filing the lawsuit was not only the disclosure of confidential information, but also the fact that the writer in his book seems to draw a parallel with the life of Iwasaki herself, while distorting the facts. Of course, he strove for popularity and enrichment. The work turned out to be so interesting that on its basis a famous film of the same name was shot, which also added fame and wealth to the writer. But Iwasaki’s feelings were offended. The reader gets the impression that geisha and girls of easy virtue are one and the same. In addition, Iwasaki is outraged by the scene of the sale of virginity at auction. She claims that this has never happened in reality. Although he does not deny that there was an intimate relationship between geisha and clients, all this was out of love and the geisha had nothing to do with sex for money.
