Word: iwasaki
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...first day of Mineko Iwasaki's life as a geisha. Wrapped in a turquoise-and-orange satin kimono, hair piled atop her head and secured with red silk bands, face covered in a wash of white makeup, the young maiko, or novice geisha, was ready?and she wasn't the only one. When Iwasaki stepped outside her home, she was greeted by applause and congratulations from a swarm of admirers who had come for a glimpse of the young geisha's debut...
...Almost four decades later, Iwasaki is having a new debut?and this one has been just as anticipated. Iwasaki was a primary source for Arthur Golden's hugely successful 1997 novel, Memoirs of a Geisha. Now she has published her story?which she characterizes as the real memoirs of a geisha. Golden's glimpse into the mysterious geisha world delighted readers and was bought by Hollywood for big bucks. (At one point, Steven Spielberg planned to direct the film version.) But that book?despite the "memoirs of" moniker?was fiction. Geisha, a Life, written by Iwasaki with Rande Brown...
...what a story it is. Born in 1950, Iwasaki says she knew by the age of three that she wanted to become a geisha and, at the age of five, left her family and moved for training into an okiya, or geisha household. Years of schooling in dance, music, pouring sake and performing the tea ceremony followed, and at the age of 15 she turned...
...Iwasaki became the most famous and sought-after geisha of her day. She worked steadily, refusing to take a single day off for five years, and soon developed a following of customers who paid top dollar for the privilege of seeing her strum the shamisen at lavish parties held at ochaya, or teahouses. In her heyday in the 1960s, she was earning $500,000 a year, and her face adorned everything from posters to shopping bags. Iwasaki entertained world leaders and assorted celebrities, including Prince Charles, who scrawled his name?uninvited?on one of her favorite fans, and fashion designer...
Last June, graduate students called the Japanese literature specialty "unhealthy" and "understaffed" as a result of Iwasaki's tenure denial and the departure of another faculty member, Assistant Professor of Japanese Literature Dennis C. Washburn...