Geisha, a Life by Mineko Iwasaki

 I have wanted to read GEISHA, A LIFE, for a while. Mineko Iwasaki was one of Arthur Golden's sources for his book, MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA, where he then proceeded to get everything wrong, apparently, to the point where Iwasaki even tried to sue him. She then wrote this spite memoir to tell her own story, in her own words. Good for her. I think we can all agree that this is a level of pettiness that is truly aspirational in nature. Living well isn't the best revenge unless you also write a fuck-you memoir about it, too.

I can 100% see why Golden's story pissed Iwasaki off. The virginity auctions and child grooming were not at all what happened in Iwasaki's life. She was brought to the okiya at a young age, but not to be prepped for work as an escort. The owners of the okiya wanted her to be the successor, so everything she was taught was all business. There were no virginity auctions and when she came of age, she was free to sleep with whomever she liked. Mizuage actually refers to (1) the total of a geisha's profits or (2) their non-sexual coming of age ceremony. The mizuage that is one of the climaxes of MEMOIRS is actually something the oiran, or prostitutes, did. Not the geisha. Whoops.

For the most part, GEISHA, A LIFE, is very slow-paced. but there were some moments I found very interesting/amusing. For example, when King Charles visited in the 70s, he asked to borrow her fan and then autographed it without her permission because, I guess, he figured she'd fangirl over him. She made no secret of her distaste and immediately had it tossed into the trash afterwards. Then, a few years later, she got pissed off that his mother, Queen Elizabeth, wouldn't eat the food at an event she was hosting, so she decided to flirt with her husband in front of her just to fuck with her. She also dated the actor Shintaro Katsu, but he wouldn't leave his wife for her, so she cut up his wife's fur coat with scissors and leaves it on the bed of the hotel she was supposed to meet him at. Bad-ass.

Smashed in between the who's-who in 1960s Japan and endless recounts of virtually any facet of geisha life you would want to know (or not know), we get a little window into some of the in-fighting and cattiness that happened in such a competitive industry. Again, it wasn't nearly as bad as what happened in Golden's book. It actually reminded me of Holly Madison's memoir about living in the Playboy Mansion, where there's jealousy over resources, looks, and attention. I feel like both geisha and the Playboy Bunnies occupy this grayspace that isn't quite sex work but feels like maybe it because of how everybody fetishizes them, even when things are technically above board.

If you enjoyed-- or didn't enjoy-- MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA, you should read this book.

3 out of 5 stars