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Mineko Iwasaki - Japan's highest paid geisha

Geisha is a profession. It is about her that Mineko Iwasaki recounts in her books. Having stayed in this role until the age of 29, when the geisha's career is considered unfinished, she interrupted her studies, and later decided to tell the readers of the whole world that her occupation had nothing to do with debauchery. This profession is the oldest in Japan. "Real Memoirs of a Geisha" is a book telling about the meaning of the concept of "geisha", what role the women of this profession play in Japanese culture. A literary work "The Journey of a Geisha" tells about the life of Mineko Iwasaki herself from childhood to old age.

How it all began

She was born on November 2, 1949 in Kyoto. For her, the path to fame began when she was given up to the traditional house of a geisha in Kyoto for five years. Her family was poor. Although the father was a noble blood. Sineco Tanaka of the Minamoto clan was a ruined aristocrat who lost his title. He earned his living by painting kimono and selling them in his shop. It was a family business, but there was still not enough money to adequately support a large family consisting of a husband, wife and eleven children. To give children upbringing was at that time in the order of things. Thus, the family corrected its financial situation and gave the offspring a chance at a good life. So did Mineko Iwasaki. Her four sisters - Yaeko, Kikuko, Kuniko, Tomiko - suffered the same fate. All of them went to study in the geisha house "Iwasaki Okiya."

Rejection of the past

The first thing that little girls started to teach was a traditional Japanese dance. Mineko Iwasaki has surpassed other girls in this occupation. At 21, she was considered the best Japanese dancer. Classes took away from her a lot of physical strength, but the efforts were rewarded. Mineko Iwasaki is a geisha who danced for Queen Elizabeth and Prince Charles. Few honored such an honor. But still, being a little girl, Mineko Iwasaki fell into a privileged position. It was noticed by the proprietress of the educational institution Madame Oima and made her atoroti, that is, the successor. That is, after some time it would have belonged to a ghonesky geisha house. To make this possible, she had to abandon her parents at the age of 10, so that Oima could adopt her and take Iwasaki's surname, although she was named Masako Tanaka at birth.

What was taught

Studying for many years, at 15 years old girls became only pupils, and in 21 real geishas, who can work independently. Mineko Iwasaki always danced. But they taught girls and many other subjects. To become successful, they had to be able to sing, play traditional musical instruments, know the rules of etiquette, tea ceremony, speak several languages, take care of their appearance, dress properly and conduct a conversation. One of the subjects was calligraphy. In order to communicate with clients, and it was always people from the higher layers of society, the girls had to be aware of the events in the world, scientific discoveries, business news. This was necessary in order to competently support the conversation. With a geisha girl's house, they were bound by a 5-7 year contract, and although they worked independently, they gave money to their owner for their services. After all, they spent a lot of money on their training. Take at least expensive suits. And so the students gave their duty for free education.

Fee for popularity

"The real memoirs of a geisha" - a book in which Iwasaki is not shy, reveals the whole truth about his life in the house of a geisha. Therefore, she does not hide that during her career the girls had to sacrifice their beauty. For example, daily tight hairstyles with the use of styling agents led to damage to hair, and sometimes to hair loss. Besides, Iwasaki had to listen to clients and be a kind of psychologist to them. And what they said, trying to relieve the soul, was often so unpleasant that she compared herself to a slop bucket into which the sewage was poured. Among other things, popularity brought not only pleasant fruits. Numerous admirers aroused envy among the women around her. Sometimes she faced physical violence, for example, when men wanted to get her from her intimate relationship against her will.

End of the road

Perhaps this was the impetus for Iwasaki to finish her geisha career, although she was very popular and highly paid. She earned $ 500,000 a year for 6 years, which no geisha could achieve. Iwasaki explained the reason for her departure by wanting to start a family and stop playing the role of a geisha. However, her departure caused public outcry. As Mineko later admitted, she wanted the public to pay attention to imperfections in the geisha education system, but achieved the opposite effect. More than 70 girls of the same kind of activity also interrupted their occupation. Iwasaki considers herself in some way involved in the fact that in our days her profession is very rare. These are the geisha units and their services are so expensive that they can only be paid by very rich people.

Life after dancing

After leaving the world, Geish Mineko Iwasaki married an artist named Gimchiro. At first she bought several beauty salons and hairdressing salons, but eventually decided to devote herself to art. The spouse taught her to restore the paintings, this is her main occupation for today. In addition, she studied at the University of Kyoto at the faculties of history and philosophy. Iwasaki has a daughter who is now 31 years old. The former geisha with her husband lives in the suburbs of Kyoto.

Who betrayed her?

However, the memories of the previous occupation were needed by writer Arthur Golden. She agreed to give him an interview on confidential terms. But for some reason the author of the book "Memoirs of a Geisha" broke it and indicated the name of Iwasaki in the list of thanks, which he published in his work. Because of this, Mineko fell into an unpleasant situation. After all, geishas must keep a secret about how they are trained and do not give out the secrets of their work in the future. Iwasaki even threatened with physical violence for violating this law. All this forced her to sue, which she won and even received financial compensation.

All this is a lie

The reason for filing a lawsuit was not only the disclosure of confidential information, but also that the writer in his book seems to draw a parallel with the life of Iwasaki herself, while distorting the facts. Of course, he aspired to popularity and enrichment. The work was so interesting that it was based on a famous film with the same name, which also added to the writer's fame and wealth. But Iwasaki's feelings were offended. The reader gets the impression that geisha and girls of easy virtue are one and the same. In addition, Iwasaki outraged the scene of selling virginity at the auction. She claims that this has never happened in reality. Although he does not deny that there were intimate relationships between geishas and clients, but all this was for love and sex for the money geisha have nothing to do.

True story

In order to clean the profession of mud, Iwasaki wrote two books detailing how the geisha are actually trained and working. The book - co-authors of which Mineko Iwasaki, Rand Brown - "The real memoirs of a geisha" is an autobiography. In it, Mineko talks about his whole life. She also published one more of her literary work. Book of Mineko Iwasaki "Geisha's Journey" is a collection of notes about her life in a geisha quarter, amusing and instructive cases from her practice. Rand Brown did not accidentally co-author her books. She is the president of the company created to improve understanding between America and Japan. In addition, she is a well-known translator from Japanese.

Life spoiled this woman. She lived in love in her parents' house, was in a special situation in the house of a geisha, became a happy wife and mother. Perhaps its purpose was to tell the whole world the truth about refined and beautiful women, whose profession has been shrouded in mystery for so many years.

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