Status Updates From Geisha Of Gion

Shutting down the geisha districts during the war is an interesting topic between Iwasaki & Golden’s books. Mineko’s family is well off and wouldn’t have suffered as hard but I’m curious of the people who didn’t have money or family to return to. Factory life must’ve been miserable but Iwasaki family didn’t have to experience it.

I love the gender swap here with babies being born in the okiya. They prized girls and shunned men for the same reason it happens vice versa, for heirs. Men need boys to carry on their name in the same way these women need girls to carry on their business.

Another Arthur Golden misstep. The baron is mentioned here as a person Mineko has heard of sponsoring a geiko but sexual favors are not expected. They may happen naturally but it’s not the way dhanna were described in Memoirs of a Geisha. I have to wonder whether Iwasaki is covering things up. She is the first woman in 300 years to speak of this because they were barred from it, maybe she’s not entirely honest.