Word: thegeisha
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Dates: during 1999-1999
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Golden's debut novel, chronicling the lush andexotic life of a geisha in the Japan of the 30sand 40s, has been wildly successful. InMemoirs, Sayuri, an aging geisha recountsher youth spent in the Okiya, a cloisteredbrothel where women trained for the rigors of theGeisha art. Hatsumomo is the primadonna geisha ofthe Okiya, supporting a household of youngapprentices and aged ex-geishas. From the momentSayuri is sold into the Okiya Hatsumomorecognizes her as a challenge to her supremacy andspends the rest of the novel plotting Sayuri'sdemise...
...Golden. Wealthy maleexecutives paid for the company and entertainmentof geisha (who were extensively trained in teaceremony, dance and traditional instruments) atteahouses, and those who were wealthy enough kepta geisha as a mistress and became theirmaster. (The mizurai, or virginity,of one geisha was sold for $850,000.) Although thegeisha's livelihood depended on the generosity andwhims of their patrons, the geisha district ofKyoto, Gion, was a woman's world. When geishasentered a teahouse, they bowed to the other geishafirst and then their male patrons. Economicallythe geisha controlled Gion as well, because themore successful a geisha was, the more kimonos,make...
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