Bandon Public Library

The "memoirs" of one of Japan's most celebrated geishas describes how, as a little girl in 1929, she is sold into slavery; her efforts to learn the arts of the geisha; the impact of World War II; and her struggle to reinvent herself to win the man she loves.

In 1929, an impoverished nine-year-old named Chiyo is sold to a geisha house in Kyoto's Gion district and subjected to cruel treatment from the owners and the head geisha Hatsumomo. Her stunning beauty attracts the vindictive jealousy in Hatsumomo and she is rescued by Hatsumomo's bitter rival, Mameha. Under Mameha's mentorship, Chiyo becomes the geisha named Sayuri, trained in all the artistic and social skills a geisha must master in order to survive...

Exotic, sensuous, exquisitely mysterious. For centuries, the seductive grace of the Japanese geisha has fascinated and confounded outsiders who have attempted to fathom this secretive world of tradition, intrigue, and pleasure. Now, enter a realm once known only to the rich and powerful. Go beyond the popular Western misconception of the geisha as little more than a high-priced call girl, and discover the 400-year history of a profession where women...

The glamorous world of big-city geisha is familiar to many readers, but little has been written of the life and hardship and pain led by the hot-springs-resort geisha. Indentured to geusha houses by families in desperate poverty, deprived of freedom and identity, these young women lived in a world of sex for sale, unadorned by trappings of wealth and celebrity.

At the age of twelve Momokawa was sold to Yōkirō, the most successful Geisha house in western Japan. Despite being the top geisha, her many complicated relationships provide unending challenges throughout her glamorous but turbulent life.