There are two kinds of Geisha. There of the Geisha of Gion and Tokyo, who pride themselves as being not only social entertainers but also artists. Sex is almost always implied, never overt. Then there are the Hot Springs Geisha. For these geisha, shamisen and dance are not an art unto themselves, they are a means to an end. Sex is the ultimate goal, and the line between artist and prostitute is so blurred it is almost non-existent.

Sayo Masuda wrote about her experiences as a pre-WWII hot springs geisha, and her life afterwards, in the mid 1950s. Although a best-seller in Japan, it wasn't translated into English until 2003, when the mythology of the geisha entered western thought with Arthur Golden's [b:Memoirs of a Geisha|930|Memoirs of a Geisha|Arthur Golden|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1157749066s/930.jpg|1558965]. Although Masuda only spent about 5 years as an actual hot springs geisha, she shows how the experience affected her life -- both in terms of the talents she picked up there and the stigma she earned -- for the next several years. In the afterward, the translator even mentions that just the publication of the book ran her out of the town she had been living in at the time.

Masuda writes with a simplicity brought on by the fact that she wasn't taught to read or write until her 20s, and the tense often switches from past to present and back again. But the simplicity also means there's no room for deceit, and the plain truth of her words jump off the page with an easiness not found in more "serious" memoirists.

Although, as I said, she only spends about 5 years, and about 1/4 of the book, as an actual hot springs geisha, this book is still a fascinating account of what it was like to be a woman living on the margins of society in the early 20th century Japan. Most women like her could have never told their story, since most of the them would have been as illiterate as she started out. So this book uniquely preserves an unexamined strata of society in Japan.

A little gem I picked up second hand. I read this after reading Memoirs of a Geisha, and it's non-fiction to Memoirs' fiction, as well as portraying the life of a geisha in a hot springs resort as opposed to the very rich and priviliged life of a big city geisha, as the one in Memoirs. The writing style, closely translated from the original japanese, has such an honest charm to it. I really enjoyed this book.

This book strips away the delicate talk about the artistry of geisha life. She confirms that there was an element of slavery involved. Geishas were sold into indenture and the money went to their families. If their contracts were extended, their families were paid again for their services. The life of a hot springs geisha was rather cheap, and only worth buying for a few years. Disease and suicide were not uncommon.

Masuda makes her painful story readable with a distinctive voice. The translation has a refreshingly casual aspect, as the translator captures conversations in Japanese vernacular.

The poverty and disenfranchisement could make this a painful read, and it's brutal in its honesty. But Masuda's voice is aware and immediate--she moves quickly through her memoir, she sketches other people distinctly, she balances pathos with an expected liveliness that approaches humor. It creates a surprisingly accessible view into the rarely discussed (but oft imagined) realities of life for a bathhouse geisha in the 1930s and 40s, but Masuda expands from her memoir into a broader view that critiques the effects of misogyny and politics on poor women in rural Japan. My previous touchstone on geisha was Iwasaki's Geisha: A Life, which I also recommend; I appreciate the memoirs even better in tandem, as they explore vastly different experiences within a shared, flawed system.

This is my third reading of a book on Geisha and as a true story this is much more valid than others, even more entertaining. In Masuda's view a Geisha's life is not as glamorous as seen by the outside world, so her writings concentrate on the contempt faced by an ordinary Geisha from her own society. A simple and beautiful work which everyone will love!