Autobiography of a Geisha
Encyclopedia
is a book by .
. During her later teen years, into her early twenties, she was an onsen geisha
at a hot-spring resort in Japan. After this, she became a prostitute, vigorously protesting the passage of anti-prostitution laws. She eventually got a job making soap for a Korean worker, which she held for several months. When the soap business failed, she began drinking heavily, which led to her near death from liver failure and a suicide attempt. She survived and quit drinking, and when she had sufficiently recovered, she began to look after children, eventually becoming a full time caretaker for several years. Eventually, she was able to open her own restaurant, and ran it for several decades. As a result of heavy drinking in her twenties, she died of liver cancer on June 26th, 2008.
Masuda wrote her autobiography between the years of 1956 and 1957. She had never learned to read more than hiragana
, and wrote her entire book in it. Her editors worked carefully to convert her work into the standard kanji while preserving the feeling of her original writing.
During these years her nickname became “Crane,” as she was never allowed to wear socks and would lift one leg up and warm her foot on the thigh of the other leg. This nickname was used even after she moved to the okiya. Masuda did not know her own real name until she was hospitalized for an injury as a geisha apprentice and the doctors called her Ms. Masuda.
Masuda’s autobiography details her struggles as a geisha in a hot-springs resort. These geisha were frequently expected to have sex with their clients, which resulted in Masuda feeling her only useful skill was the ability to sell her body, a concept she struggled with well into her life. Her book covers her time as a geisha, her struggles to get by in a war-torn Japan, her efforts to keep her splintered family together, and her desire to completely remove herself from the sex trade. Masuda longed to get an education and find decent employment, a feat near impossible with a background as frowned upon as hers.
Throughout her autobiography, Masuda continually projects the idea that parents should be responsible for their children and should not bear children they are not prepared to support. Masuda never got married and never had children, although caring for the children of others was always her favorite way to spend her time.
Masuda’s Autobiography of a Geisha has been strangely ignored in many publications about geisha. In her autobiography Geisha, a Life (also known as Geisha of Gion), Mineko Iwasaki
claims to be the first geisha to come forward to tell her story. Many scholars echo this claim, though Masuda’s work was published 40 years before Iwasaki’s.
Tsukiko: One of her younger sisters in the Okiya
Mother: Masuda's Mother of the okiya, brutal disciplinarian
Cockeye: Masuda’s first danna, small-time promoter, gang boss, and very fond of virgins
Hii-san: Tsukiko’s ex-boyfriend, the son of the owner of a small factory in Suwa.
Naoko: Cockeye’s first mistress. She ran a restaurant in the town of Lower Suwa.
Motoyama-san: A son of a liquor merchant. He was a second lieutenant, become ill, and had been excused temporarily from military service. He worked in Nippon Wireless
Brother: One of her brothers. Devoted to Masuda, he suffered intestinal tuberculosis and committed suicide at a hospital.
About the author
Masuda was born in 1925, near the town of Shiojiri in Nagano PrefectureNagano Prefecture
is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of the island of Honshū. The capital is the city of Nagano.- History :Nagano was formerly known as the province of Shinano...
. During her later teen years, into her early twenties, she was an onsen geisha
Onsen geisha
Onsen geisha is a term referring to Japanese geisha, or entertainers, who work in onsen resorts or towns. The term onsen geisha has a negative connotation in that the term has come to be synonymous with prostitute...
at a hot-spring resort in Japan. After this, she became a prostitute, vigorously protesting the passage of anti-prostitution laws. She eventually got a job making soap for a Korean worker, which she held for several months. When the soap business failed, she began drinking heavily, which led to her near death from liver failure and a suicide attempt. She survived and quit drinking, and when she had sufficiently recovered, she began to look after children, eventually becoming a full time caretaker for several years. Eventually, she was able to open her own restaurant, and ran it for several decades. As a result of heavy drinking in her twenties, she died of liver cancer on June 26th, 2008.
Masuda wrote her autobiography between the years of 1956 and 1957. She had never learned to read more than hiragana
Hiragana
is a Japanese syllabary, one basic component of the Japanese writing system, along with katakana, kanji, and the Latin alphabet . Hiragana and katakana are both kana systems, in which each character represents one mora...
, and wrote her entire book in it. Her editors worked carefully to convert her work into the standard kanji while preserving the feeling of her original writing.
Content of the autobiography
As a child Masuda lived as a nurse-maid in a large farming household, where she got little to eat, no education, poor sleeping quarters, and was frequently punished. When Masuda was about twelve, her mother needed money to pay for her husband’s medical treatment. Her uncle retrieved her from the landowners and sold her to an okiya (geisha house) called Takenoya.During these years her nickname became “Crane,” as she was never allowed to wear socks and would lift one leg up and warm her foot on the thigh of the other leg. This nickname was used even after she moved to the okiya. Masuda did not know her own real name until she was hospitalized for an injury as a geisha apprentice and the doctors called her Ms. Masuda.
Masuda’s autobiography details her struggles as a geisha in a hot-springs resort. These geisha were frequently expected to have sex with their clients, which resulted in Masuda feeling her only useful skill was the ability to sell her body, a concept she struggled with well into her life. Her book covers her time as a geisha, her struggles to get by in a war-torn Japan, her efforts to keep her splintered family together, and her desire to completely remove herself from the sex trade. Masuda longed to get an education and find decent employment, a feat near impossible with a background as frowned upon as hers.
Throughout her autobiography, Masuda continually projects the idea that parents should be responsible for their children and should not bear children they are not prepared to support. Masuda never got married and never had children, although caring for the children of others was always her favorite way to spend her time.
Reception
After the book's writing, Masuda was harshly criticized by her community, and eventually had to move to another town. Largely because of this, she almost always communicated with people through her publisher, and refused to meet with most people interested in discussing her book, although she made a personal request to meet G.G. Rowley.Masuda’s Autobiography of a Geisha has been strangely ignored in many publications about geisha. In her autobiography Geisha, a Life (also known as Geisha of Gion), Mineko Iwasaki
Mineko Iwasaki
, born , was Japan's number one geiko until her sudden retirement at the age of 29. Arthur Golden later used her story to write the book Memoirs of a Geisha.-Geisha:...
claims to be the first geisha to come forward to tell her story. Many scholars echo this claim, though Masuda’s work was published 40 years before Iwasaki’s.
List of characters
Takechiyo, Karuta, Takemi, Shizuka: Masuda’s older sisters in the OkiyaTsukiko: One of her younger sisters in the Okiya
Mother: Masuda's Mother of the okiya, brutal disciplinarian
Cockeye: Masuda’s first danna, small-time promoter, gang boss, and very fond of virgins
Hii-san: Tsukiko’s ex-boyfriend, the son of the owner of a small factory in Suwa.
Naoko: Cockeye’s first mistress. She ran a restaurant in the town of Lower Suwa.
Motoyama-san: A son of a liquor merchant. He was a second lieutenant, become ill, and had been excused temporarily from military service. He worked in Nippon Wireless
Brother: One of her brothers. Devoted to Masuda, he suffered intestinal tuberculosis and committed suicide at a hospital.