I think if you have read Memiors of a Geisha this is a must read. Mineko does a good job of telling about the life of a geiko (geisha) from her personal perspecive. I appreciated getting the first hand account of it.My only complaint would be the way she laud out the time line. At some points she jumped forward in time then jumped back in time and it was hard for me to keep track of her age and what other things were happening at the same time. I would have been able to follow along easier if it was told from a time line perspective rather than event perspective so to speak. Overall, I really enjoyed this book and highly recommend it for anyone who is interested in geisha life or has read Memiors of a Geisha.

First, I would like to urge anyone who wants to learn more about geisha - READ THIS BOOK INSTEAD OF MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA. The author of that, Arthur Golden, interviewed Mineko Iwasaki and twisted her tales into falsities, making it seem that geisha were high class prostitutes. This is not the case - oiran, a high class courtesan, sold their bodies, not geisha. In fact, Iwasaki was extremely upset when she realized Golden had twisted her facts on the life of being a geisha, and decided to write her factual and realistic account. Her memoir reads as a beautiful balance between her personal recollections and facts on geisha (or the term used specifically in Kyoto, geiko) life in the 60s-70s. I expected a pretty basic factual account, but was pleasantly surprised by Mineko's escapades - hiding in the closet as a kid, working her hardest to embrace her passion for dancing, chasing down the pervy men who harassed her. Put straightforward, Mineko Iwasaki is a bad ass, and I would love to meet her one day if possible. I highly recommend this memoir for anyone interested in personal stories, the lives of geisha or how Japanese society functioned in the 1950s through 1970s. 4.5/5 stars.

For people who don't know about Japanese culture maybe geisha for them has 'negative' image. But it's all wrong. Geisha don't sell their body. They sell arts!And this book tells the very detail about Geisha and their life.Geisha really are the real artist! They learn various traditional Japanese culture since they were very young.And being Geiko (Geisha) is not an easy thing. They have to take so many lessons, performing those arts (dancing, singing, playing traditional music instruments, etc) while wearing heavy kimono. The kimono itself can weigh 30-40 pound!The author is a really amazing person. I can imagine who hard it is to be a success Geisha like her. This book is a MUST READ book for people who love Japanese culture.And I'm so proud of Japan because of those beautiful cultures!(((o(**)o)))

Check out my blog to see Reviews of Books and Movies as well as Recipes and DIY projectsThis book was a solid 4 star read for me. Whereas Arthur Golden's Memoirs of a Geisha was meant to entertain, Mineko Isawaki's Geisha, a Life was meant to inform.Mineko Isawaki is most notable for being one of, if not THE most famous Geisha in Japan's history. This autobiography is told from her own view of the traditions and trails that she faced. Mineko does a brilliant job of taking the reader through the grueling daily schedule she had from a young age as well as giving a lot of historical background to her life and the life of a Geiko (female artist). She dispels much of the rumors of geishas being little more than pleasure companions. I love the detail she gives on traditions of a geiko as well as the intricacies associated with each year and season and the symbolism and immense cost of each important occasion and dress of a geisha's career. This book is drastically different from memoirs of a Geisha and makes you wonder how both of these stories are about the same thing. This is definitely not a re-read of Memoirs of a Geisha and stands on its own If you are interested in learning more about geisha, and as known in Kyoto as geiko, I highly recommend giving this book a read.

I was eager to read this, so eager that I read it in French--the only copy I could find. The translation from English (and previously of course from Japanese) was easy to read, in spite of a couple of hiccups--as a former professional translator myself, I know those are impossible to avoid. The French translation must be gentler than the English version, as there is quite a lot of self-deprecating humour included in the tales of her beginnings as maiko, and her bid for independence when she gets her first apartment at twenty-one and tries to learn to shop and cook for herself.An odd book, by an odd person. We learn that from toddlerhood until well into adolescence, the author voluntarily spent hours if not days on end shut up in any cupboard within reach. Wouldn't a normal parent, realising they are bigger than the child, just lift her out of there? We also learn that well after the age of 5 she "needs" to suckle someone to be able to fall asleep--and is allowed to do so by her onesan or the maid, for quite some time, though neither of them have any of your actual breastmilk (the onesan being by this time past middle-age). Hmmmm.The beginning of the book is confusing; first we are told Mineko accepted adoption into the world of Gion because she just had to be a dancer; then we find out she was only about five or six when she left her parents to be adopted legally by the teahouse. She seemed to do this out of a sense of economic responsibility to her parents--who, by the way, basically sold three of their daughters into Gion, though they hung onto all their male children. I'm sure Mineko tells it the way she chooses to remember it, but how can such a young child make such a life-changing decision and really know what she is doing?I can only imagine that either "everyone" in Japan knows so much about what it means to become a geiko that she didn't feel the need to go into much detail, or that Gion is a closed world, where those who don't "belong" aren't meant to know. She does talk about kimonos, hairstyles, ceremonial passages from one stage to another, but it's all pretty superficial. In fact, the most important changes in her life (taking on an "older sister/mother", "turning her collar") are mentioned only in passing; you can get more detail from reading Geisha. Even in Dalby's book mizua-age is referred to as a sexual initiation; beyond saying this is not true, and saying she herself had the rite, no more is said. And no, I'm not terribly interested in that aspect.What is clear is that from a very young age the author knew how confined and rigid the world of a Kyoto geisha was in the 1950s, when she joined it; so why did she continue there? We're told that she repeatedly tried to change conditions for the geiko, and "no one listened"--well, what did she expect? In the end, it all comes down to economics; she tells the reader just how extremely lucrative it was to be a geiko at the time she was practically Kyoto's poster-child.I did recognise the photographs of Mineko, and thought "I've seen those pictures somewhere before." It's kind of a "poor little rich girl" or teen rock-star story; yes, those kimonos (which weighed nearly half what she did!) and accesories are wildly expensive, but anyone who can buy not one but two "immense" apartments in exclusive areas of Kyoto before the age of 30 is not doing very badly. The author does explain that this is why geiko are not prostitutes--they are so hugely well paid, they don't need to sell their bodies, though some accept kept-woman status--or did in the days the big businessmen could afford it. She would have the reader believe that she worked and rehearsed nonstop for nearly ten years without a single day's break--but again, no one was forcing her to work every night, she repeats several times that she was so competitive that she chose to do so. (I myself at the ages of 16-19 tried to burn the candle at both ends, and had at least one breakdown in the process. I know from experience, she had to be getting more than "one hour of sleep a night". Even with four or five, I collapsed eventually.) Other geisha certainly took time off, took vacations etc., and later in the narrative, surprise! we hear about her taking trips around Japan and the world. All memoirs are selective, this one perhaps more than some. Bored or tired of the life she chose, she decides to retire at age 30; she says that the ochaya she was adopted to "inherit" has become worn and her geiko sisters (not her, you notice!) are "aging"--and whose fault is that? The reason she gives for rejecting the young girls who come asking to join the teahouse is, "This is such a rigid profession, no one will respect you." Why not find her own heir apparent and let them take over once they're trained? Looks like her onesan made an unfortunate choice, as Mineko is quite content to continue to delegate all administration decisions on her "mama"; at no time does she evince any understanding of what the position of heir was meant to involve, except of course her own privileges. Once her decision to leave is made, she is quick enough to bail out and start her own business(es), using the contacts she made as a geiko to ensure her own material sucess. There again, a new incoherence arises; first we are told she "left to get married"; then that she didn't meet Mr Wonderful until after she had already retired.Three and a half stars. I had hoped to make it four, but by the end of the book I was rolling my eyes here and there at her constant "poor me" line. As a side note, if Mineko was the real "inspiration" behind Memoirs of a Geisha no wonder she was annoyed by that...text. I was too.