Craig Kissho's Reviews > Geisha of Gion

Are geishas really 'merely artists'? Or could there be a good reason why nobody before her had revealed anything about their trade? You be the judge.

I thought the movie was interesting, but suspected that many of the events told must have been inaccurate. That made me research a little on the story, which led me to this book.

Although definitely not a literary masterpiece, I could not put the book down, and could not sleep after finishing it. I admired Mineko's determination and dedication to her crafts, and she obviously was a very clever, capable and formidable woman. Through her confessions, we gain valuable insights into this secretive world that might not survive modernity. Yet ironically, the very controversy that surround the movie and the book might just end up being its saviour.

For the life of me, I really wish she was just a victim of a greedy and unethical American scum of an author whose book inspired the movie, and her book sets the record straight for good. In all honesty however, I feel many claims in her book did not add up either.

Whatever really happened, only she knows what that world of willow and flower was really like. And even if the things she denied were in fact true, I certainly would not view her as being any less a person. She was just another human being with strengths and flaws, trying to make the best out of her life like any one of us. It has to be noted that she lived in a society and era where women probably did not have a lot of means to be completely independent, and which was very different from western convention. As much as I would like to believe her story, I did not find her defence convincing. Yet I totally understand what she must have been going through.