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Author: James Gordon Bennett
Publisher:
Published: 1991
Total Pages: 180
ISBN-13: 9780671740009
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →This fresh, poignant first novel features two siblings who will capture readers's hearts in the manner of Salinger's Franny and Zooey. Army brats Teddy and Cora are constantly on the move from base to base with their warring parents. With their edgy intelligence and precocious charm, this duo jumps off the page and pulls readers into their hearts.
Author: Arthur Golden
Publisher: Longman
Published: 2008
Total Pages: 0
ISBN-13: 9781405882675
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →"Captivating, minutely imagined . . . a novel that refuses to stay shut" ("Newsweek"), "Memoirs of a Geisha" is now released in a movie tie-in edition.
Author: Mineko Iwasaki
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Published: 2003-09
Total Pages: 336
ISBN-13: 9780743444293
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →A Kyoto geisha describes her initiation into an okiya at the age of four, the intricate training that made up most of her education, her successful career, and the traditions surrounding the geisha culture.
Author: Mineko Iwasaki
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Published: 2012-12-11
Total Pages: 352
ISBN-13: 1471105733
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →The extraordinary, bestselling memoir from Japan's foremost geisha. 'A glimpse into the exotic, mysterious, tinged-with-eroticism world of the almost mythical geisha' Val Hennessy, Daily Mail '[An] eloquent and innovative memoir' The Times 'I can identify the exact moment when things began to change. It was a cold winter afternoon. I had just turned three.' Emerging shyly from her hiding place, Mineko encounters Madam Oima, the formidable proprietress of a prolific geisha house in Gion. Madam Oima is mesmerised by the child's black hair and black eyes: she has found her successor. And so Mineko is gently, but firmly, prised away from her parents to embark on an extraordinary profession, of which she will become the best. But even if you are exquisitely beautiful and the darling of the okiya, the life of a geisha is one of gruelling demands. And Mineko must first contend with her bitterly jealous sister who is determined to sabotage her success . . . Captivating and poignant, Geisha of Gion tells of Mineko's ascendancy to fame and her ultimate decision to leave the profession she found so constricting. After centuries of mystery Mineko is the only geisha to speak out. This is the true story she has long wanted to tell and the one that the West has long wanted to hear.
Author: Geoffrey Pharaoh Adams
Publisher: Leo Cooper Books
Published: 1973
Total Pages: 232
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →Author: KellyM. Foreman
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2017-07-05
Total Pages: 151
ISBN-13: 135154408X
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →The Japanese geisha is an international icon, known almost universally as a symbol of traditional Japan. Numerous books exist on the topic, yet this is the first to focus on the 'gei' of geisha - the art that constitutes their title (gei translates as fine art, sha refers to person). Kelly M. Foreman brings together ethnomusicological field research, including studying and performing the shamisen among geisha in Tokyo, with historical research. The book elaborates how musical art is an essential part of the identity of the Japanese geisha rather than a secondary feature, and locates current practice within a tradition of two and half centuries. The book opens by deconstructing the idea of 'geisha' as it functions in Western societies in order to understand why gei has been, and continues to be, neglected in geisha studies. Subsequent chapters detail the myriad musical genres and traditions with which geisha have been involved during their artistic history, as well as their position within the traditional arts society. Considering the current situation more closely, the final chapters explore actual dedication to art today by geisha, and analyse how they create impromptu performances at evening banquets. An important issue here is geisha-patron artistic collaboration, which leads to consideration of what Foreman argues to be the unique and essential nexus of identity, eroticism and aesthetics within the geisha world.
Author: Deborah Kemp
Publisher: AuthorHouse
Published: 2001-10-28
Total Pages: 148
ISBN-13: 0759669902
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →In Kiss of the Geisha, Page and Kenji Tanaka are enjoying a passionate life together following their whirlwind courtship, when they are drawn into a mysterious murder. Page is teaching part time at Kyoto University when a fellow professor dies of poisoning from the deadly puffer fish, fugu. Several other men have died in the same way, and Page begins to suspect that the professor was murdered because of his research into Japanese war crimes involving the dead men. Page is tutoring a young Japanese girl who is training to become a geisha. This young girl becomes involved in the killings when she overhears a conversation between her geisha mother and her geisha mothers patron. Page and Kenji travel to Europe, but when they return, the threat of danger still hangs over them. Page realizes that having all the money she could ever need doesnt make her immune to that danger. She knows that someone wants to silence her, possibly forever, and she must rely on Kenji and her friends to save her. Kyoto, Tokyo, Kamakura, and Osaka are the settings for Kiss of the Geisha where every day life in Japan presents some interesting challenges for Page. Some familiar characters from Kyoto Connection return in this second book in the continuing series.
Author: Arthur Golden
Publisher: Vintage
Published: 1999-11-09
Total Pages: 450
ISBN-13: 0375406786
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →A literary sensation and runaway bestseller, this brilliant debut novel tells with seamless authenticity and exquisite lyricism the true confessions of one of Japan's most celebrated geisha. Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read Speaking to us with the wisdom of age and in a voice at once haunting and startlingly immediate, Nitta Sayuri tells the story of her life as a geisha. It begins in a poor fishing village in 1929, when, as a nine-year-old girl with unusual blue-gray eyes, she is taken from her home and sold into slavery to a renowned geisha house. We witness her transformation as she learns the rigorous arts of the geisha: dance and music; wearing kimono, elaborate makeup, and hair; pouring sake to reveal just a touch of inner wrist; competing with a jealous rival for men's solicitude and the money that goes with it. In Memoirs of a Geisha, we enter a world where appearances are paramount; where a girl's virginity is auctioned to the highest bidder; where women are trained to beguile the most powerful men; and where love is scorned as illusion. It is a unique and triumphant work of fiction—at once romantic, erotic, suspenseful—and completely unforgettable.
Author: Rebecca L. Copeland
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
Published: 2001-07-31
Total Pages: 404
ISBN-13: 9780824824389
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →This provocative collection of essays is a comprehensive study of the "father-daughter dynamic" in Japanese female literary experience. Its contributors examine the ways in which women have been placed politically, ideologically, and symbolically as "daughters" in a culture that venerates "the father." They weigh the impact that this daughterly position has had on both the performance and production of women's writing from the classical period to the present. Conjoining the classical and the modern with a unified theme reveals an important continuum in female authorship-a historical approach often ignored by scholars. The essays devoted to the literature of the classical period discuss canonical texts in a new light, offering important feminist readings that challenge existing scholarship, while those dedicated to modern writers introduce readers to little-known texts with translations and readings that are engaging and original. Contributors: Tomoko Aoyama, Sonja Arntzen, Janice Brown, Rebecca L. Copeland, Midori McKeon, Eileen Mikals-Adachi, Joshua S. Mostow, Sharalyn Orbaugh, Esperanza Ramirez-Christensen, Edith Sarra, Atsuko Sasaki, Ann Sherif.
Author: Tamara Hareven
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Published: 2003-01-15
Total Pages: 376
ISBN-13: 0520935764
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →The makers of obi, the elegant and costly sash worn over kimono in Japan, belong to an endangered species. These families of manufacturers, weavers, and other craftspeople centered in the Nishijin weaving district of Kyoto have practiced their demanding craft for generations. In recent decades, however, as a result of declining markets for kimono, they find their livelihood and pride harder to sustain. This book is a poignant exploration of a vanishing world. Tamara Hareven integrates historical research with intensive life history interviews to reveal the relationships among family, work, and community in this highly specialized occupation. Hareven uses her knowledge of textile workers' lives in the United States and Western Europe to show how striking similarities in weavers' experiences transcend cultural differences. These very rich personal testimonies, taken over a decade and a half, provide insight into how these men and women have juggled family and work roles and coped with insecurities. Readers can learn firsthand how weavers perceive their craft and how they interpret their lives and view the world around them. With rare immediacy, The Silk Weavers of Kyoto captures a way of life that is rapidly disappearing.
