Women of the Pleasure Quarters: The Secret History of the Geisha

Inspired by Arthur Golden's massively popular Memoirs of a Geisha to ""meet the real geisha"" in the last stronghold of geisha training in Japan, Downer skillfully intertwines her profiles of Kyoto personalities and tea-house customs with a fluidly written geisha history that's unabashedly aimed at a Western audience. Author of On the Narrow Road and The Brothers: The Hidden World of Japan's Richest Family, Downer was no stranger to the country. However, she found the entrance to the ""geisha world"" heavily guarded. She writes: ""I was always an outsider, I could never step through the looking glass."" But small successes (finding the right cakes to present to ""the mama,"" a very powerful geisha) and patience eventually won Downer a place at events that are ""utterly closed to outsiders."" These included an invitation to a young girl's misedashi (""store opening""), the ""rite of passage"" from trainee to geisha. We also learn, for example, of the distinction that has developed between a prostitute and a geisha (which translates as ""arts person""), who undergoes intense and lengthy apprenticeships in dance and music. Written in dynamic, highly readable prose, the book is supported by exhaustive research and a lengthy bibliography. Readers who were as smitten with Golden's geisha as Downer was will find this good companion reading. Photos. (Mar. 6)