After seeing Maiko in Kyoto last spring and passing many tea houses, I was curious to know more about this subculture. A strange world dependent on male patrons but where the women feel empowered. Definitely confusing. Interesting read.

Encontré este libro cuando buscaba saber más sobre las geishas y quería una referencia fiable. No sabía si se me trataría de un libro muy técnico o denso pero finalmente me llevé una grata sorpresa al ver que era una lectura muy amena.
En principio se trata de un trabajo académico, no sé si ha recibido algún tipo de adaptación para su publicación, pero la forma en la que se estructuran los diferentes epígrafes es muy clara. El contenido no deja de ser didáctico pero va mezclando las impresiones que la propia Dalby recibe mientras recorre su camino como una geisha.
Hasta el momento no sabía que había habido geishas que no fueran japonesas pero Dalby lo consiguió y si no me equivoco fue una de las primeras. En el libro conocemos cómo era la vida de las geishas en sus comienzos, de dónde surgieron y es una parte que se toca un poco de pasada pero que siempre está presente para explicar de dónde vienen las costumbres o las reglas. Dalby se convirtió en geisha a finales del siglo XX y ya por entonces ser geisha era algo raro incluso en Japón.
Al leer este libro debemos tener presente que en el siglo XXI la vida de las geishas y su número ha seguido cambiando, así que no está totalmente actualizado y más después de la pandemia, pero sigue siendo un libro de referencia que yo consideraría imprescindible.
La narración, junto a la buena estructuración de la información, hace que la lectura sea amena. La verdad es que no me aburrí en ningún momento y siempre consiguió mantener mi atención. No hay relleno y casi todo lo que cuenta sería algo a tener en cuenta. Aunque no es un libro muy grueso me sorprendió comprobar lo completo que era y lo mucho que se aprendía.
Quise leer este libro porque cuando era adolescente me encontré con Memorias de una geisha y me quedé fascinada. Era conocedora de la polémica que tachaba al autor Arthur Golden de haber manchado la imagen de las geishas convirtiéndolas en prostitutas, pero lo cierto es que él también se documentó leyendo este libro, como muestra su bibliografía. Muchas de las cosas que Dalby nos cuenta ya las conocía por la novela de Golden así que solo me queda leer las memorias de Mineko Iwasaki para conocer su versión.
Un detalle que me encantó de esta edición de Círculo de lectores, ya descatalogada, es que incluye fotografías. Son en blanco y negro pero ayudan mucho a ponerle cara a las geishas, ver sus ropas, peinados, complementos, etc. Gracias a eso descubrí que los extraordinarios trajes que se ven en la película Memorias de una geisha no son del todo realistas, ni tampoco los peinados o el maquillaje. Los kimonos reales no me parecen tan espectaculares, ni tampoco el maquillaje, lo admito, pero aún así disfruto tanto de la historia de las geishas como de la película.
Fue una de mis mejores lecturas del año 2021 porque me fascinó totalmente y me ayudó a salir de un bloqueo lector. Estoy muy interesada en Asia y el mundo de las geishas me llamaba especialmente de la atención por lo sutil que es, por su misterio y porque no deja de ser un mundo enteramente de mujeres en un país en el que casi siempre eran relegadas a la casa. Una geisha trabaja, tiene su propio dinero y muchas veces es su propia jefa, sin embargo, su oficio está enfocado en el entretenimiento masculino.
En la lectura podréis conocer el significado de los peinados, la diferencia de kimonos de maikos y geishas, la importancia del arte y en general de cada movimiento que realiza una geisha, la necesidad de contactos sociales, las diferencias entre las geishas “clásicas” y las geishas modernas, etc
Si os gusta el tema de las geishas este libro queda recomendadísimo, incluso si solo tenéis un poco de curiosidad porque consigue ser una lectura muy ligera. Me alegra que no haya perdido vigencia, ojalá cada vez haya más libros así traducidos al español.

I borrowed this book from my co-worker who teaches Japanese. I love it. It's a fascinating memoir, historical document, and anthropological work. The explanations and insights into this subculture are fascinating and help clarify details of Japanese culture that I had not understood before.

A must-read for anyone interested in not only geisha, but Japanese dress, male-female relations, aspects of traditional culture, and Japanese history. Fascinating and a page-turner!

Overall, it was a well-written and fairly insightful book.

However, there are points where Dalby seems to conveniently forget that not all geisha neighborhoods (no matter how close they are/were on the map) had the same work practices, for instance. Dalby pushes the idea that, before it was outlawed, all geishas once offered their virginities to high bidders as part of "mizuage." However, Gion geisha, for instance, would never have done this. The term "mizuage" was also used to mean monthly earnings in general, so translators will often interpret it in a more "titillating" way, regardless of truth. (I highly recommend reading the chapter on geishas in Sheridan Prasso's book, "The Asian Mystique" for more about how Dalby got this wrong. I'm still reading it, but it seems really good so far.)

I was really hoping that Dalby would have done more to dispel the myth of the sex-selling geisha, but perhaps I was expecting too much.

Liza Dalby was the first Western woman to be allowed to train as a Geisha--or artist of the flower and willow world---I had high expectations of this book. We glimpse a rare world of tradition, ritual, art, entertainment and flirting---which in itself is becoming a lost art. Dalby's research clears up common misconceptions (geisha are not prostitutes but may take a patron if they choose) both about Geisha themselves and their patrons. As there are currently fewer than 1,000 working Geisha left in Japan this book is a worthwhile and invaluable document.

Many observations seem to be opinion based from Liza's personal experience and are now rather dated. She makes comparisons of American culture, rather than Western culture to Japanese culture. It was a hard slog and I decided by the time I finished booked one, to skip ahead to the information about Kimono, and call it a day. Clearly she had done a lot of research, but interspersed with her personal experiences, it didn't flow very well.

Likes:
- Really got into a morning routine with this one and I enjoyed this aspect of things a lot. (Waking up every morning and reading one chapter out of the book)
- I really enjoyed the parts of the book that were focused on Japanese history and culture (i.e. part one, the part about kimono and the differences between the kimono of geisha and modern Japanese women, comparisons to bar hostess, etc.)
- I learned a lot of new things that I previously would not have known about (i.e. Portugal's relation to Japan, how the geisha has changed over the years).
- Felt that from this explanation of modern and historical geisha are women who are quite free and empowered. While this may no longer be as true as Japan has further modernized, I am curious to learn more about Japanese societal expectations and geisha as it pertains to the 21st century.
- Reading this has made me more curious about geisha and has also made me more eager to read history books in general.
- would love to compare this account to one written by a Japanese author or "expert".

Dislikes:
- In general, I enjoyed the more personal, memoir-y parts of the book far less and felt that there was less for me to gain from reading these.
- While I now have a much better understanding of geisha and their role in society, I still have a hard time making sense of some things (i.e. how a Japanese wife would not be concerned if her husband frequented geisha parties, the relaxed sexual expectations, etc.). I don't think that this is necessarily a fault of the author's, but instead is more likely due to their not being a direct comparison in North American culture and me not being familiar with Japanese culture.

A great insight into the real lives of the Geisha girls but too factual for me.

While the author noted that it was an ethnology, there seemed to be a bias not only towards the culture of the geisha but within it. As the American geisha of a particular society in Kyoto, she seemed to look down on the country geisha and feel the some of the other urban communities too snobbish.

Seriously, this book is AWESOME. It is such a fascinating ethnography on geisha culture. Not only does it span historical geisha culture but modern geisha culture as well. Love. Love. Love.

Those who read Memoirs of Geisha, this book clears the questions about facts and fiction. Nice and recommended who like text-book like books.

I've been an enthusiast of Japan and the Japanese culture since a young age, so Geisha by Liza Dalby was perhaps unsurprisingly an incredibly engaging and illuminating read for me. I knew a lot of the information she addressed going in, but many of the technical aspects of the lifestyle and the traditions she discussed were new to me. It was also one of my first encounters with anthropological literature, which turned out to be a great mixture of raw informative and personal accounts.

Undeniably, geisha is a subject that has been greatly misconceived by the American culture since World War II. Many today still believe that they are merely glorified prostitutes; a subject that Liza thoroughly addresses in her book with pictures and descriptions of practices between the two. From the greatly discussed mizuage that appears in Arthur Golden's book, Memoirs of A Geisha, to the sisterhood apparent in geisha houses; from the rituals and tea ceremonies to the dress and training a maiko undergoes, Liza Dalby gives an unprecedented look at a subculture that, until her time, was unknown. And while the information may be a little outdated now, the historical validity and interest factor is definitely there.