Autobiography of a Geisha

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'An engrossing and very humán story of survival...a compelling portrait' Arthur Golden, author of Memoirs of a Geisha The glamorous world of Kyoto's geisha is * familiar to many readers, but Sayo Masuda's tale telis a different story Masuda was a geisha at a rural hot-springs resort where the realities of sex for sale were unadorned by the trappings of wealth and power. Sent to work as a nursemaid at the age of six she was then sold to a geisha house at the age of twelve. When she made her debut as a geisha in 1940 she was sixteen. Although she had barely learat to write Masuda was determined to set down her story motivated by the desire to teli the truth about life as a geisha and explode the myths surrounding their secret world. Remarkably frank and incredibly moving, this is the record of one woman's survival on the margins of Japanese society. 'A fascinating and heart-rending tale' Liza Dalby Ma Jian Red Dust Hajin Waiting Natsuo Kirino Out Sayo Masuda Autobiography of a Geisha... Tovább

Fülszöveg

'An engrossing and very humán story of survival...a compelling portrait' Arthur Golden, author of Memoirs of a Geisha The glamorous world of Kyoto's geisha is * familiar to many readers, but Sayo Masuda's tale telis a different story Masuda was a geisha at a rural hot-springs resort where the realities of sex for sale were unadorned by the trappings of wealth and power. Sent to work as a nursemaid at the age of six she was then sold to a geisha house at the age of twelve. When she made her debut as a geisha in 1940 she was sixteen. Although she had barely learat to write Masuda was determined to set down her story motivated by the desire to teli the truth about life as a geisha and explode the myths surrounding their secret world. Remarkably frank and incredibly moving, this is the record of one woman's survival on the margins of Japanese society. 'A fascinating and heart-rending tale' Liza Dalby Ma Jian Red Dust Hajin Waiting Natsuo Kirino Out Sayo Masuda Autobiography of a Geisha Yukio Mishima The Sailor Who Feli írom Grace with the Sea Haruki Murakami Norwegian YVood Shan Sa The Girl Who Played Go Dai Sijie Balzac and the Little Ghinese Seamstress Xinran The Goocl Women of China
'An unvarnished firsthand look into the world of a woman who unflinchingly relates the bittér struggle of her geisha existence in pre-World War II Japan. This is a fascinating and heart-rending tale'
LIZA DALBY
Sayo Masuda's story is an extraordinary portrait of rural life in iapan and an iliuminating contrast to the fictionalised lives qf glamorous geishas.
At the age of six Masuda's poverty-stricken farnily sent her to work as a nursemaid. At the age of twelve, she was indentured to a geisha house. In Autobiography of a Geisha, Masuda chronicles a harsh world in which young women faced the realities of sex for sale and were deprived of their freedom and identity. She alsó telis of her life after leaving the geisha house, painting a vivid panorama of the grinding poverty of rural life in wartime Japan.
Many years later Masuda decided to teli her story. Although she could barely read # or write she was determined to teli the truth about life as a geisha and explode the myths surrounding their secret world. Remarkably frank and incredibly moving, this is the record of one woman's survival on the margins of Japanese society.
Front cover: photograph Eberhard Grames/Bilderberg Back cover: deta<) from a kimono © V&A Picture Library-
L6.99
VINTAGÉ U.K. Random House vww. randomhoüse co. uk/vintagi Vissza