Lara

Autobiography of a Geisha

Last month, I spent some time rooting through a ridiculous amount of boxed up books. Many of them were collecting dust, others were torn and fading. All of them were just 50p. 

I didn’t want to read a cheesy, romance novel, or another predictable murder mystery. I wanted to read something that would broaden my horizons as people often say. I found a few books, the most interesting being one called, ‘Autobiography of a Geisha.’ 

‘Autobiography of a Geisha’ completely engrossed me. It told the true story of former geisha, Sayo Masuda. The book paints a compelling portrait and, as it says on the blurb, ‘explodes the myths’ surrounding their secret world. 

Finishing the novel autobiography today, I came away feeling more educated about the lives geisha’s lead; the assumptions I had made about these women, were proved false. I was shocked at the horrific punishments geisha’s face during ‘training,’ and the way Sayo detailed these.

Something made clear very early on in the book, was how utterly powerless women were when it came to becoming a geisha; parents sold their daughters to geisha houses at stupidly young ages, it was their way of avoiding debt and starvation. So more than anything, this book made me grateful to have the freedom I do. 

This book might not seem like your kind of book, I know it wasn’t mine. But I’m glad I made the conscious effort to read it. For just 50p I’ve learnt about a whole other culture.