Sayo Masudas story is an extraordinary portrait of rural life in Japan and anilluminating contrast to the fictionalised lives of glamorous geishas. At theage of... » 

Sayo Masudas story is an extraordinary portrait of rural life in Japan and anilluminating contrast to the fictionalised lives of glamorous geishas. At theage of six masudas povertystricken family sent her to work as a nursemaid. Atthe age of twelve she was indentured to a geisha house. In Autobiography ofthe Geisha Masuda chronicles a harsh world in which young women faced therealities of sex for sale and were deprived of their freedom and identity. Shealso tells of her life after leaving the geisha house painting a vividpanorama of the grinding poverty of rural life in wartime Japan. Many yearslater Masuda decided to tell her story. Although she could barely read or writeshe was determined to tell the truth about life as a geisha and explode themyths surrounding their secret world. Remarkable frank and incredibly movingthis is the record of one womans survival on the margins of Japanese society. «