Why a Booktrail?
Destination: Kyoto Depature Time: 1920s
What a wonderful world this was to enter – the world of the Geisha!
Memoirs of a Geisha
What you need to know before your trail
Memoirs of a Geisha paints a picture of a secret, beautiful world. But scratch off the paintwork and the world within is one of pain and suffering.
Geishas are beautiful ladies who seem to live a life of luxury, but appearances are very deceptive. They cannot think for themselves – they are owned by the men they entertain. Their freedoms are controlled and contained by the women who own the geisha homes
In 1920’s Kyoto, Japan, a young girl named Chiyo lives with her sister Satsu, in a poor town called Yoriodo along with her elderly parents. She is sold to a man who takes her to be an apprentice geisha in the city. The head geisha is jealous of her good looks and soon starts to make Chiyo’s life painful. All a geisha has to do now is to serve her master and to find a man who will not necessarily love her but to keep her and control her. But Chiyo falls in love
Travel Guide
Gion, the pleasure district of Kyoto.
At nine years of age, Sayuri is bought from her life of poverty in a village and starts work in Gion, the pleasure district of Kyoto.
In the years that follow, as she works to pay back the price of her purchase, Sayuri will be schooled in music and dance, learn to apply the geisha’s elaborate makeup, wear elaborate kimono, and care for a coiffure so fragile that it requires a special pillow.
But she will also acquire much more – including a venomous rival. This is quite a story of an exotic world yes, but more so of a young girl in a chilling, strange and dangerous world.
The world of the Geisha
Memoirs is a window into a different world – a world which you may not wish to enter and certainly not want to be part of, yet it is worth a visit for the fascinating fate of one geisha who is herself representative of many others.
There are evocative descriptions about places, ceremonies, kimonos and feelings which paint a picture however horrifying at times, you simply cannot take your eyes off. But that’s a good thing as to do so would be missing an amazing tour of the streets and atmosphere of Kyoto.
Streetview Maps
B) Japan - Kyoto - Houses near Yasaka Shrine
B) Japan - Kyoto - Houses near Yasaka Shrine
Where Next?
