On The Tenth Day of Fun I present… a new book review! This isn’t exactly a new book, but it’s one that I’ve referenced a few times in the past and so I feel that it finally deserves a good review.



Book’s cover courtesy of Amazon.



The Asian Mystique: Dragon Ladies, Geisha Girls & Our Fantasies of the Exotic Orient by Sheridan Prasso (ISBN 1-58648-214-9)

Date of Publication: 2005

Language: English

Format: Hardcover

Availability: Can Be Found In Some Libraries and Easily Found Online

Price: $17 New, Can Be Purchased Quite Cheaply Used

Errors: 0



The title may seem a bit cliché and some of you may balk at the “geisha girls” part, but this book was written for the Western market as a way to understand how our many cultural misconceptions of various Asian countries and cultures manifest and affect those that they end up hurting. It is honestly one of the best books that I’ve ever read as the author and her style of writing take a very different approach to the subject of an outsider looking in on various foreign cultures. When we look at most books written by foreigners we see a culture from their point of view, which is inherently flawed as they are the ones who seem to simply pop in to learn a few facts and make a quick buck on their publication rather than allowing people of that culture to speak for themselves. From what becomes apparent after the first few chapters, Sheridan has been to most countries in Asia an impressively large amount of times, but she never speaks as though it is her talking; aside from the first part that lays the groundwork for the rest of the book, all of the stories are told via interviews that she had with various women across many cultures. Not once does she interject her own will, but rather goes with the flow of where various experiences with these women, her subjects who do the speaking, take her.



The book overall is divided into two parts that each have their own way of sharing information. They are:



Part 1: The Asian Mystique

The shorter of the two parts that only takes up approximately one quarter of the entire book, it lays the groundwork for how certain stereotypes were produced in the West of Asian cultures and how these effects have played out and have continued to be portrayed in popular media such as books, movies, and television shows. I don’t want to spoil it as it was very eye opening when I read it, but this part really made me think, which can be rare for a book. It allowed me to see how so many parts of our own culture have been shaped by stereotyping and subjugating various Asian cultures, especially over the past century, but it doesn’t feel as though it’s a lecture. It uses facts with anecdotes of the people that it has affected the most (the Asian minority outside of Asia) to help us understand the various complexities that these often harmful stereotypes have on our own lives. You may feel as though this does not affect you in any way, but I can guarantee that you’ll find at least one topic that you had never really given thought to before and have never really tried to understand what it all means. This part is written by the author in a way that’s meant to speak directly to you, the reader, before your mind is expanded in the second section.



Part 2: Ten People, Ten Colors

It is here that we meet the women who share their experiences and tales in a bid to help us, the reader, understand their culture. The second part, which is probably the most useful pertaining to this blog, is called “The Real Memoirs of a Geisha,” but it is in the first topic, “Ten People, Ten Colors,” that we are given a basic understanding of Japanese culture by ten women who live it. We’re first introduced to Japanese culture via a woman named Yukie, a prominent business woman who tells the tale of how she ended up as a single mother back in Japan after her failed marriage to an American (at the time of writing she was in the process of getting a divorce). It’s here that we get to see one of the topics discussed in the first part in action: Yukie tells us that her marriage has failed because her husband had long bought into the idea that Japanese women are meant to be subservient to men, and how his commands and constantly talking over her as if she had some sort of mental deficiency eventually wore her down and she had enough. She speaks of how when she attended university in the United States she would try to avoid American men as much as possible because they had all seen her as some quiet, exotic beauty who would cater to their every whim. She believed at the time that she met her husband that he was different, but not long into the marriage he showed his true colors and they had kept the family together for the sake of their children. As the children grew older she saw how their strained relationship was affecting them, and so she finally decided that she would file for divorce. A large problem, she explains, was that she was the sole breadwinner for the family as she had a very well paying job that eventually saw the family move back to her native Japan. While there, Yukie, her husband, and their children lived with Yukie’s parents, which is a common thing to do in Japan, but Yukie’s husband refused to adapt to a Japanese lifestyle. In the end he had moved back to the United States and wanted Yukie to follow him, which she did and heavily resented. Yukie was interviewed while she was in Japan visiting her parents for a few weeks as she had taken her children to see their grandparents in Japan each year. She tells us about the Japanese dynamic of marriage that sees all household duties dictated by the wife, including the raising of children and the spending of money, whereas the husband is expected to work (I’ve gone into this topic numerous times on the dichotomy of the house wife and the geisha too). It also tells of female empowerment that’s changed the dynamic of marriage in Japan since the burst of the bubble economy in the 1990s and how women now have a much greater say in the world around them compared to the tradition that Yukie’s parents grew up in. We then get to meet Yumi, Kumi, Karen, and Akiko; women who are living in modern Japan and share their opinions on various topics, such as American culture (especially men) and the pressure that Japanese society still puts on women to become mothers above all else. Some of them, like Yumi, are housewives, and she shares with us what her experiences are like in and around the world she knows. She tells us about how she knows a few friends who have filed for divorce because they want to be treated as equals in a marriage instead of the “subservient” housewife and how divorce is becoming more common in Japan because of this. This isn’t very different from when divorce laws changed in the United States; women began to file for divorce because they were no longer being held in abusive or demeaning relationships with no way out. We are also introduced to some of her friends from a local “Mother’s Club” that allows women some time together while their children play. In the end, the basic foundations that are important in the next part are laid out and we are given an understanding how Japanese culture and society blend for these women.



In “The Real Memoirs of a Geisha” we are introduced to the muse that Arthur Golden used for his trashy book, the great Mineko Iwasaki. Sheridan first gives us a little bit of background on geisha and the studies that Dalby and Downer both did while in Japan, but it is Mineko’s words, both about the karyukai and the work of the three foreigners, that allows us to understand the true nature of being a geisha. Sheridan even tells us how hard it was to get an audience with Mineko because of the damage that various foreigners have done to the image of the karyukai, but how Mineko relented when Sheridan said that she wanted her to tell her own story. This interview ended up being the longest conducted for the book that topped out at almost thirteen hours, and it shows; Mineko eventually felt comfortable enough with Sheridan to tell her side and her opinions on everything that affected her life in outer ways (popular culture) and personal ways (her life as a geiko). Even the hospitality that Sheridan is shown throughout the day is exactly how a geiko would treat a guest in an ozashiki; Mineko retains these traits years after her retirement. It is here that Mineko tells us of her time in Gion Kobu, and picks up on the various manners that are displayed by Sheridan which only a person well versed in Japanese culture would know (she uses an example of chopsticks on dumplings here), which impresses Mineko to tell her more. Eventually she becomes comfortable enough to have her husband Jin join in on the conversation, and they cover such topics of how mizuage is misrepresented in the West, the overall image of geisha in the West, the role of women in traditional Japanese relationships, and the writings of Dalby and Downer (I’ve written about that specific topic in the past as well). In the end Mineko even fetches many of her kimono and accessories from the time she was a maiko and a geiko and explains why the small details of each piece are so important: geisha are meant to be perfection; every last detail requires large amounts of training to understand so that it can be presented to guests as the height of perfection. Mineko states that guests pay for this perfection, and it shows in every part of a maiko and geiko’s wardrobe, mannerisms, and gei. The next day Sheridan goes to a henshin studio to be dressed up as a geiko, and comments on how hard it is to move in kimono, let alone serve others.



We then go over to Tokyo’s Asakusa district and meet with Chitose, a twenty year old woman who originally went to secretarial college, but then joined the ranks of the Asakusa women. Sheridan is allowed to sit in on her drum lesson as a way to see what the training in traditional arts entails (she does lament at how hard it is to sit with your feet tucked under you, but how Chitose doesn’t even move for the entire six hour lesson). After the lesson Chitose and Sheridan meet up with Yachiyoko, an elderly geisha who is still working at age 66, who then tells her tale of growing up in Tokyo as a geisha and how the culture around her has changed to meet the demands of the time. In the end, Yachiyoko tells us that geisha aren’t really any different from normal women when it comes to their desires and needs, but that living the life of a geisha has given her a luxurious lifestyle that most women would not get to experience outside of the karyukai.



The rest of the book follows women in other Asian countries (China, Singapore, Vietnam, Malaysia, The Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, Burma, Korea, and the addition of Okinawa in Southern Japan) and is as eye opening and interesting as the first part.



It is a breath of fresh air reading what life is like for these women in their own words and experiences rather than having it relayed and interpreted as most Western authors do. Since these stories are told by the women themselves, the book has no errors and I can’t really find any fault in it. I highly recommend reading this insightful and well written piece!



Rating: ✪✪✪✪✪ (out of 5)

