The glamorous world of big-city geisha is familiar to many readers, but little has been written of the lives
of hardship and pain led by the hot-springs-resort geisha. Indentured to geisha houses by families in desperate
poverty, deprived of their freedom for a decade or more, these young women lived in a world of sex for sale, unadorned
by the trappings of wealth and celebrity. Upon completion of their indenture, geisha were often left with no means
of making a living. In Autobiography of a Geisha, the first full-length account of a former hot-springs-resort
geisha, Sayo Masuda chronicles the harsh life in the geisha house in which she and her "sisters" worked.
Masuda also tells of her life after leaving the geisha house, painting a vivid panorama of the grinding poverty
in wartime Japan. After the war, as she eked out an existence on the margins of Japanese society, earning money
in odd jobs and hard labor-even falling in with Korean gangsters-Masuda experienced firsthand the anguish and the
fortitude of prostitutes, gangster mistresses, black-market traders, and abandoned mothers struggling to survive
in occupied Japan.
Chapter 1. ALittleDog,AbandonedandTerrified
LittleCranethenursemaid
Theeyesoftheoxenglowinthedark
I,too,hadamother
Chapter 2. TheSunburnedNovice
Thedreampalace
Geishaschool
Iwanttobeageisha,rightnow
Myfour"ElderSisters"
ThedeathofElderSisterTakemi
Thehotiron
Thescar
Ilearnmyname
Cruelrules
Idevotemyselftoart
Chapter 3. MissLowGetsWise
Shallowriver
Asecretplace
Thenewnovice
Thesleep-with-anyonegeisha
Howtobecuteandsexy
Chapter 4. BirdinaCage
Myfirstcustomer
Thegeishatemperament
Miscarriage
Thoushaltnotlove
Inthepartybusiness
Tiptaker
Tsukiko'ssuicide
Revenge
Chapter 5. AwakeningtoLove
NumberTwoandNumberThree
Tricksofthelovetrade
Thewitcherbewitched
Truelove
Attemptedsuicide
Chapter 6. WanderingsofaCastaway
Noplacetocallhome
Abrother'slove
Tearsofhumiliation
War'send
Thedumpling-soupdiner
Chapter 7. ADreamforMyLittleBrother
Beautifuleyes
Peddler
Streetstall
Gangmoll
LittleFoundling
Sevenfunerarylaths
Chapter 8. TheDepthsofDespair
Mylittlebrother'ssuicide
ReturntoSuwa
Reunion
Happydays
Farewellbanquet
Love'sanguish
Happinessandunhappiness
Wanderingbetweenlifeanddeath
Chapter 9. TheRoadBacktoLife
Innocentsmile
Vaindreams
TheProstitutionPreventionAct
Cats'paws
Afterword
Notes
Bibliography
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