The Cover of Memoirs of a Geisha

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Book Review: Memoirs of a Geisha

Author: Arthur Golden

Reviewer: Mark Groenewold

Date: June, 2003

A Disapearing Dream

Normally, for the book reviews on Karate The Japanese Way, I try to limit my reviews to non-fiction works. The reason for that, is that I want to try to present to visitors and readers a truthful and balanced account of what life is like here in Japan. But this book is an exception, and it is also exceptional in so many ways.

Arthur Golden has crafted a beautiful text that describes in no small amount of detail the life and experiences of what a geisha goes through. Framed in familiar tragedy of parents who abandon, sell, or give up on their kids, young girls find themselves in all forms of exploitive situations, most too heinous to imagine. Golden does not gloss over this fact in the least, and he does not glamorize the lifestyles of women who are bread and trained to serve the wishes and fantasies of men.

Yet in the midst of all of this there are tiny pockets of beauty, places where the very lucky few can be rescued from utter torment and exploitation on the backstreets of the city, and where education, art, and style are preserved. It is a shocking contrast, and an alien world that hides itself in the secret rooms of the priviledged and powerful. Here is the place where the willowy women of the geisha's world exist.

Arthur Golden did a phenomenal amount of research to write this book. The technical information, the details throughout, the cultural and historical backdrop to this text are all very close to the best information that we have. This sense of accuracy, coupled with his incredible writing style has resulted in a phenomenal fiction that leaps off the page and embeds itself in the imaginations of its readers.

Geisha have held visitors to Japan in awe, surprise, and bewilderment. What are they? What do they do? What are they required to do? Who do they serve? Who “owns” them? These are all questions that seem to surround the geisha, and they are questions that Golden artfully and beautifully explores and paints for his readers.

One issue in particular that this book addresses, and that Mineko Iwasaki does not address in her text, is the issue about geisha sexuality. Contrasting that book to this one will leave you with more questions concerning this area. This text is an excellent read, a beautiful read, and one to be enjoyed page by page. Don't hurry through this one. Just let each word seep into your brain slowly, gently, and like rain drops falling through the branches and leaves of a tree.

Mark Groenewold
Kanazawa, Japan
June, 2003.

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