Site Presented By
Tuesday, Nov 10, 2009
Arthur Golden's American bestseller, "Memoirs of a Geisha," gets a thumbs down from the country where it's set.
May 3, 2000 | In America, everyone loves her. Through her journey from fisherman's daughter born near the Sea of Japan to her ascent into the upper echelons of Kyoto geishahood, Arthur Golden's Sayuri has charmed Western hearts, and his novel has leapt onto American bestseller lists. Now, more than two years after "Memoirs of a Geisha" was first published in the United States, the book is getting a big shrug from Japanese readers and a decisive thumbs down from the woman Golden credits with teaching him the most intimate aspects of geisha life.
"Sayuri" -- as the novel is called in Japan -- is in all the posh bookshops in central Tokyo, from Aoyama Book Center to Shibuya's Book 1st, where browsers can find it wedged between the likes of Banana Yoshimoto's latest novel and other recent translations, such as Melissa Bank's "The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing." In proper Japanese style, the book has been elegantly packaged with a traditional textile pattern cover (making it look serious and not sleazy) and an extra half-sleeve informing readers that it has been a bestseller in the United States and will be made into a movie by Steven Spielberg.
Although Bungei Shunju, the book's publisher, says it's satisfied with the book's performance so far -- sales have reportedly hit 50,000 since it was released in November -- "Sayuri" hasn't launched a "geisha boom" in Japan. In fact, it's fairly rare to find someone who has read the 650-page novel (published in two volumes) from beginning to end. Bookstore managers say the book is just not that popular.
The main reason for this is that a foreigner writing about a topic like geishas seems kitschy to Japanese readers. An editor at a rival publisher, which turned down a shot at "Memoirs," says: "Books written by foreigners that are set in Japan spend too much time explaining the exoticness of Japan, and readers here don't need that. They've been exoticised before. Geisha stories just aren't interesting to them, and furthermore, they feel like Western writers focus too much on the seedy, sexy side rather than the cultural side."
And as Nagusa Toda, a 29-year-old artist and Web designer puts it, "In Japan, geisha is a cultural icon. It's nothing new to write about them." Moreover, there's mistrust when it comes to a book written by a foreigner on a world so closed off to even the average Japanese person.
Part of the problem, according to Japanese academics, is that Japanese audiences aren't interested in having their culture explained to them through Western eyes. "This book is tapping the image that Americans already have of Japan," says university lecturer and translator Hiroko Hagino. "When Americans think of Japanese culture, they may think of ninja and shogun. When I went to Nobu restaurant in New York, I found that it's not typical Japanese, but it's exactly what Americans expect -- all bamboo and lacquerware. It's the American version of what America wants to imagine it's like in Japan."
Of course, in America, the book was praised for its authenticity. Certainly Golden's nine years spent researching it add to his novel's credibility. While most Western readers have no basis to judge its accuracy, they have pretty much accepted "Memoirs of a Geisha" as a semifictional memoir in a nonfictional setting.
