Hardcover Book Set: A Geisha, A Life (Memoir) and The Tale of Murasaki (Novel)

Hardcover Book Set: A Geisha, A Life (Memoir) and The Tale of Murasaki (Novel). Two great reads: •The former is the autobiography of Mineko Iwasaki, the most celebrated Geisha who began her dance, music and tea ceremony training at the age of five in Kyoto. She provides a true, inside look into kayrukai, the secretive world of the geisha community. Iwasaki was extensively interviewed by Arthur Golden for primary background material for his 1997 novel Memoir of a Geisha. She cooperated with Golden’s research under the strict legal and ethical condition that her identity remain confidential. However, Golden named Iwasaki in the book’s acknowledgements and press interviews, causing intense backlash & harassment against Iwasaki within traditional Japanese circles. Iwasaki later sued Golden and settled out of court. Good for her! In 2002, Iwasaki wrote “A Geisha, A Life” to present her own authentic account. The memoir emphasizes that geisha are elite and highly disciplined artists, performers and preservers of traditional Japanese culture, dispelling the western stereotype that equates geisha with sex workers. •The Tale of Murasaki is written by Liza Dalby, an anthropologist, consultant for the film adaptation of Memoirs of a Geisha, and the only westerner to ever become a geisha. She imagines the life of Murasaki Shikibu, 11th century author of Tale of Genji. Dalby uses surviving diaries, poetry and historical research to recreate daily life of the Heian period. EUC.