What happened to the woman who was the inspiration for the novel “Memoirs of a Geisha” (and why she sued the book’s author)

The Western world has always had difficulty understanding Japanese culture. But what really does not fail to pique curiosity are the mysterious geishas, ​​their stories, traditions and rules of behavior. What is the position of these women in modern society? The topic has been addressed several times in films and literature. The life of Japan’s most famous and highest paid geisha, Mineko Iwasaki, was described by Arthur Golden in Memoirs of a Geisha, whose heroine was based on Mineko. From that book — which caused controversy and was published by major publishers — a movie was made. But Mineko herself wasn’t too happy with the romance.

All of the editorial staff awesome.club were intrigued by the interesting story of this woman. So we decided to find out more details about her biography. We also want to know why she sued the book’s author, Arthur Golden, and why she decided to write her own novel, My Life as a Geisha. Follow up!

Mineko was born in 1949 and her family was not always poor. Her father came from a family of bankrupt aristocrats. During the Meiji Restoration in 1870, Mineko’s father’s ancestors refused to move to the new capital, Tokyo, and lost all titles and privileges they had. When the 11th child in the family, the girl Masako, was born, the parents still had a stable business: they sold kimonos with drawings in a store. This, unfortunately, was not enough to support the large family and also help relatives. Masako’s older sisters had been given to a geisha house to earn a living, and the little girl would have the same fate.

In fact, this “selling” of daughters in Japan was never considered a terrible thing — it was seen as an honor, and parents would be reassured about their children’s future.

Masako left her parents’ home at the age of five. She went to live in Kyoto in a specific house for geisha teachings known as “Okiya”. The owner of the establishment saw the girl’s potential from an early age, for her grace, lightness and love for dance. Some of Masako’s sisters also attended this school, but the girl was the one to be adopted to become the heiress of a famous geisha. The parents accepted, and that’s how Masako became Mineko Iwasaki.

She was then given a mentor—one of the experienced geishas—who turned out to be her own biological sister. But that didn’t make the girl’s life easier, as the two didn’t have a good relationship.

Movie scene Memoirs of a Geisha2005

Mineko started to put a lot of effort into her studies. The girl’s favorite subject was dancing, for which she had a real talent. But she needed to develop other skills, such as calligraphy, the art of conversation and learning to play traditional Japanese musical instruments, for example. All the girls also needed to behave only in a certain way, take care of their bodies and create new habits. And, of course, to learn more and more all the nuances and secrets of the geisha.

in a part of My Life as a GeishaMineko talks about certain things in the daily life of geishas that a person from the West would have difficulty understanding.

One of the topics she mentions is that after becoming maiko — third level of geisha studies — the girl now had to go to the hairdresser every five days. She goes on to comment that they all needed to maintain the perfect hairstyle and, for that, the geishas slept on wooden pillows with a very thin pillowcase. In addition, rice was thrown around the pillow so that it would be possible to assess the next day if any girl had moved during the night. From there, it was decided whether or not she would need to go to the hairdresser again the next morning.

Furthermore, Mineko also needed to visit a fur specialist so that there wouldn’t be a single hair on her face, even if imperceptible.

You had to shave your face completely, which is a very common practice for Japanese women.🇧🇷 The procedure should be performed about once a month.

“Aunt Oyma told me that we used a lot of sharp objects hidden in our hair so that we could protect our customers from possible attacks. And the corals we used were intended to ensure the safety of the sake: they would fall apart on contact with poison”said Mineko in her book.

To become full-fledged geishas, ​​girls had to go through stages of learning. But Mineko was already invited to visit customers even before she was an official student at the school. the girl became an official student only at age 15 and famous guests already noticed her in the crowd. She danced very well, knew how to lead conversations and entertain guests brilliantly. Rumors about the appearance of a new star began to spread across the country.

Evidently, this situation had repercussions on her relationship with the other geishas. The girls were quite jealous and, therefore, they created several conflicts: they attacked her in the street, stuck needles in her kimono🇧🇷 The girl was also attacked, threatened and nearly raped by rejected admirers.

To ease the situation with the other girls, Mineko started taking them with her to sessions so they could get more money. But that didn’t help much, and the conflicts didn’t lessen. She also tried to live on her own, but later ended up going back to school.

At the age of 29, she was forced to leave her career as her health was at risk. After all, a workday started at 7:30 and ended well after midnight. The rest of the time, she took care of her body, organized events, studied, and slept only about three to four hours a night. Mineko began to have serious kidney problems, even developing an infection. At that time, she was the highest paid geisha in Japan: she was paid about 500 thousand dollars a year.

Movie scene Memoirs of a Geisha2005

Mineko told about her encounters with famous and influential people in her book. She had to deal with a range of different treatments—from prejudice to admiration. But one of the main qualities of geishas is the ability to soften uncomfortable and adverse situations.

Mineko met Aldo Gucci, the famous Italian couturier. By accident, he spilled soy sauce over the geisha’s — quite expensive — kimono, which embarrassed him tremendously. To ease the awkward situation, she asked the designer to sign the kimono, saying it would be a great honor for her. In fact, his autograph was of no value to Mineko, who was just thinking that she would never be able to wear that costume again. After a while, she thought about gifting the kimono to the designer, but they never saw each other again.

The geisha once decided to teach Queen Elizabeth II a lesson for being disrespectful. She approached the queen’s husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, and made it look like the two were having an intimate conversation, and this sparked an argument between the spouses. All because, during the reception, the queen did not even touch the dishes that had been prepared especially for her, which was seen as arrogance.

Another story related to another member of the royal family, Prince Charles, also caused quite a stir. At one of the meetings, he asked for Mineko’s fan and, after receiving it, he signed his autograph and then returned it to the geisha, who was shocked.

🇧🇷‘Not that,’ I thought in disbelief. “I loved that fan and couldn’t believe the prince had signed it without asking me. I didn’t care who he was, I found that attitude just ignorant. He returned the fan to me, thinking, of course, that I would be flattered.”🇧🇷

Mineko tried to give the fan back. Prince Charles, however, looked embarrassed that someone wasn’t interested in his autograph, and evidently didn’t want to keep the fan. Afterwards, Mineko had to throw away the “ruined” accessory.

Movie scene Memoirs of a Geisha2005

In the early 1990s, the Japanese woman agreed to give an interview to American writer Arthur Golden, who wanted to write a book about geishas. She accepted on conditions of anonymity, but later realized she had been tricked several times. The main character of the novel was inspired by Mineko and the pages of the book contained thanks directed to her. When the geisha read the work, she was horrified: the book did not make much of a distinction between geisha and women in prostitution. Instead of showing the traditions of this cut of Japanese culture and explaining that they have nothing to do with prostitutes, Arthur Golden created his own story to feed readers’ interest. And it did. The novel was a great success, and a film was later produced from it. the movie actress Memoirs of a Geisha has a very similar appearance to Mineko, but unfortunately, she has also become hostage to an inauthentic image created by Golden.

Iwasaki demanded that Arthur correct the inaccuracies and release the book again. The writer refused, so the discussion went to the courts. The geisha won and received considerable compensation from the author for moral damages.

The Japanese woman couldn’t stand the fact that the first novel defamed the reputation of geishas. Furthermore, the author wrote in the book that the heroine had sold her virginity, which was simply not true.

Mineko then decided to co-author her own book with Rande Brown. In My Life as a Geisha – which also turned best seller — she tells about peculiarities of her life and geisha traditions. Based on the plot of the story, a movie was shot in Japan called Hana Ikusa (War of Flowers)🇧🇷

Mineko Iwasaki with husband Jinichiro Sato and daughter Kosuke

Mineko Iwasaki managed to find happiness, although she didn’t spend much time on her personal life while working. She fell in love for the first time at age 21. The chosen? One of her clients — the Japanese actor Shintaro Katsu, who was almost twice her age. And yet it was…