12. “Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden”: Featured Review

 

Reviewed by JoAnn S.

            Arthur Golden opens the door to the arcane world of the geishas of the 1930′s and 1940′s by creating a fictional character who writes a narrative about a famed geisha, Nitta Sayuri, who assumes the name Mameha.  Golden’s opening this door allows the reader to follow Mameha as she maneuvers a sinuous, convoluted path to progress from being a slave to achieving a measure of independence.  To stay on this path, Mameha must master many skills and rituals.  Examples of these rituals include donning 20 undergarments which lie beneath the kimono, presiding over the elaborate tea ceremony in which movements reflect belief systems, propitiating the multitude of Shinto gods and goddesses, and practicing the Okiya (a social and economic system as well as a physical structure in which the geishas live).

            The geisha and her sponsor observe an intricate protocol to negotiate the geisha’s mizuage, the selling of her virginity.  When she chooses a danna, her principal protector, Mameha and her sponsor must again negotiate according to strict rules. Mameha’s choice of a protector is complicated by her falling in love, but not, as you might guess, with her chosen protector.

            The author reveals Mameha’s charm and intelligence through the metaphors she fashions-some charming and innocent, some saucy and witty.  The book closes with an image Mameha uses to describe the choices she has made:

            “But now I know that our world is no more permanent than a wave rising on the ocean.  Whatever our struggles and triumphs, however, we suffer them, all too soon they bleed into a wash, just like watery ink on paper.” 

Many of you have read this book.  Please comment on your memories of the Memoir.

 

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