Autobiography of a Geisha by Shafagh Amiraftabi Suthern

Autobiography of a Geisha
Sayo Masuda
Translated by GG Rowley
ISBN 0-099-46204-4
Adults Only

Book Review by Shafagh Amiraftabi Suthern
Instructor
White Crane Martial Arts

Masuda Sayo wrote her life story for a woman’s magazine for money, and also as a voice against the Prostitution Prevention Act, which criminalized and drove underground an existing industry.
She was born in 1925 in a poor rural area in Japan. Her parents were not legally married and so she was left with an uncle. Her uncle sent her to work at the age of six to be a nursemaid. At the age of twelve she was sold to a Geisha house for 30 yen.

(30yen was equivalent to 120 kilos of rice)
(120 kilos of rice would feed one adult for one year)

She worked as a maid in the Geisha house, and at the age of sixteen she became a Geisha, in 1940.
This book is important as it is the only account of a Hot Springs Geisha. There were no rich, powerful, glamorous clients here. The artistic talents, which Geisha pride themselves, were for Hot Springs Geisha crude and taught at a lower standard. As she could barely read or write, Masuda wrote her account in a very child like hand. The article was spotted by an editor, who understood the importance of this work and later published it. After leaving the Geisha, Masuda worked as a farm hand and in a restaurant.

I recommend this beautifully written account of a woman who struggled through her life, who writes with no self pity. Masuda Sayo was never defeated. She came through half a life time of pain and struggle and created art in her writing.

(Gei (Geisha) meaning Art)