Status Updates From Geisha: A Life

Sayuri in Memoirs of a Geisha: my virginity got sold to a gross man in a ceremony called mizuage

Mineko Iwasaki: I asked Mama Masako if I was supposed to ask my customers to pay for the mizuage ceremony. She laughed and said “What are you talking about? I have raised you to be an independent, professional woman. We don’t need men to help with this.”

Sayuri in Memoirs of a Geisha: “oh no, life just keeps happening to me and i can’t do anything about it ):”
Mineko Iwasaki: “a man was rude to me so I held a sashimi knife against his throat and told him I’d kill him, but he wasn’t worth the jail time. then I stabbed a different man in the hand with a bamboo arrow for groping me :)”

there is no way Iwasaki is neurotypical with all these rituals and suchlike

so far, it’s as i expected. this book is way more mentally interesting than Memoirs of a Geisha, *but* Memoirs is more lyrically written and transportive.

unfortunately, Memoirs also wholesale took people’s lives and turned them into characters, and it’s no shock to me that Iwasaki sued!!!!!