Autobiography of a Geisha
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| Author | Sayo Masuda |
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Autobiography of a Geisha (芸者、苦闘の半生涯 Geisha, kutō no hanshōgai?, literally Geisha, Half a Lifetime of Pain and Struggle) is a book by Sayo Masuda (増田 小夜 Masuda Sayo?). It was first published in Japan in 1957, and the English translation by G. G. Rowley was published in 2003. Masuda wrote her autobiography between the years of 1956 and 1957 in response to a magazine ad for a non-fiction women's writing competition. She had never learned to read more than hiragana and wrote her entire book in it. Her editors carefully worked to convert her work into standard kanji while preserving the feeling of her original writing.
As a child Masuda lived as a nurse-maid in a large farming household near Shiojiri, where she got little to eat, no education, poor sleeping quarters, and was frequently punished. She initially spent most of her time looking after the owners' young children but, after being caught taking extra melons from the field to feed herself, she was forced to do manual labor. During these years other children gave her the derisive nickname "Crane", as in the winter she was never allowed to wear socks and would lift one leg up and warm her foot on the thigh of the other leg. This nickname was used even when she started as a novice geisha. She did not learn her real name until she was hospitalized at the age of 12 and the doctors called her Ms. Masuda.
When Masuda was 12, her mother needed money to pay for her husband’s medical treatment. Her uncle retrieved her from the landowners and sold her to an okiya (geisha house) called Takenoya in Suwa. Due to her illiteracy and total lack of education or understanding of etiquette, the geisha gave her another nickname, "Low", which was short for low intelligence. She was frequently mocked for her dark, sunburned skin, as a pale complexion was highly valued among geishas. However, Elder Sister Karuta, the second oldest geisha in the okiya, worked with Masuda to help her through her training, starting a lifelong friendship between the two.
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