Original language:
English Translated from: English
Authors: Iwasaki, Mineko, Brown, Rande
Translated by: Jakutienė, Dalė Virginija
ISBN: 987-9955-38-710-7
Published in: Vilnius
Published on: 2010
Publisher: Alma Littera
This book can be divided into two parts. The first part is about young girl who grew up in a house with her parents and other family members. According to the author, years she spent with her family was the best ones in her life. Her family was big and she even didn‘t see some of her sisters because they were living in geisha house. It was like that because family had difficulties with money. Mineko saw how her brother died near their house but despite that it was the place where she felt the most happiest she ever was. Still at age of five she left her parent‘s house and never came back.
The second part is about Mineko as a grown up woman, who is well know for everyone. Second part is telling about her meeting with United Kingdom’s Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Charles. In this part we can read about romance with married man, about different think of geisha‘s and their lives. Finally, about her husband and totally different life she had after her retirement.
In this book we can find a lot of phrases in Japanese, which allow us to understand the book better. There also are photos from Mineko‘s life that helps us feel the times the author lived in. In them we can see Mineko‘s days with her real family, her becoming maiko, kimono that decorate her body and new family members after moving to Iwaski geisha house.
There is two titles: „Geisha, a life“ in the US and „Geisha of Gion“ in the UK. This books allow us to see a completely different of a woman from what we are used to see. This story let us to touch the real experience of a real geisha. It makes us admire geisha’s life, sympathize and understand how much effort and work required to achieve what Mineko Iwasaki reached. People, who are interested in Japanese culture, should read this book. They won’t regret it.
Mineko Iwasaki was born in 2 of November 1949 as Masako Tanaka. She is a Japanese businesswoman, writer and former geiko. Iwasaki was the most famous Japanese geiko until her sudden publicized retirement at the age of 29. Mineko Iwasaki is her professional name she got after the adoption. At the age of three Mineko was convinced that her destiny is to become a geisha. She moved to Iwasaki‘s geisha house when she was five and began her artistic training when she was six. At the age of fifteen she became maiko and at twenty one she got name of best dancer in Japan and best maiko. Then officially became geiko and know as Iwasaki Mineko. In 1982 got married and in 1983 gave birth to her child.