Memoirs Of A Geisha By Arthur Golden

In her novel, When the Emperor was Divine, Julie Otsuka develops the concepts of memory and identity as they applied to Japanese Americans 70 years ago. Before WWII, the featured family saw themselves as American rather than Japanese. Three years of internment later, they are not so sure. Their heritage, an aspect of their identity once only present in their heirlooms and the food they ate, had been perverted by society into a monstrosity malicious enough to justify their mass incarceration. The disparity between the life they once lived and the life the life they lived in the camps leaves them hollow, shells of their former selves, even when they finally return home. Thus, with her skillful incorporation of motifs of darkness and

The varying social interactions between status groups in Katsu Kokichi’s autobiography, Musui’s Story, convey a shift from the hierarchically strict Heian/Kamakura epochs to the more socially open late Tokugawa period. Throughout the work, Katsu illustrates his various dealings and communications with peasants, merchants, artisans and fellow samurai. While in theory a social hierarchy still presided, Musui’s Story dismisses the notion that social groups remained isolated from each other, as in previous Japanese eras, and instead reveals that people of Japan in the late-Tokugawa-era mingled with one another during their lives, regardless of their social status. Considering the

Throughout The Rape of Nanking, the brutal massacre of thousands of innocent Chinese citizens is brought forth through the invasion of this ancient city taken over by the Imperial Japanese army. Iris Chang illustrates the graphic details of the murder and rape of these victims through the perspectives of different sides of the attack. Chang; furthermore, ties in the mass genocide and destruction displayed throughout the book with the example of the Japanese government’s desperate attempt to cover up the incident and the reluctance of the survivors to discuss it. In addition, the horrifying events of The Rape of Nanking only further motivated an uncontrollable desire for aggression, violence, and imperialism in the Asian community evidently

“The perfect blossom is a rare thing. You could spend your life looking for one, and it would not be a wasted life” (Zwick). These are the words of Katsumoto, an important samurai warrior. The movie The Last Samurai directed by Edward Zwick is about an American War Captain named Nathan Algren who is hired to train, lead and modernize a group of Japanese soldiers to defeat a rebellion of the country's remaining Samurai in 1876. Algren is captured by the Samurai and soon becomes part of the village he is being held hostage in. There, Algren learns from the Samurai and comes to respect them. He finds that his true warrior is becoming unleashed as he trains to become a Samurai with the very people we once called his

In this day and age, people tend to avoid being different. Fitting in with the status quo when it comes to physical attractiveness is considered the proper thing to do, yet in The Samurai’s Garden, the characters show their beauty in a unique way. Due to their circumstances, Sachi, a once beautiful member of a leper colony, Stephen, a young Chinese student diagnosed with tuberculosis and Matsu, a quiet man who chooses to live in near seclusion, are all regarded as outcasts. However, these challenges give them a chance to grow and mature into truly beautiful people, especially on the inside. Through unveiling Matsu and Sachi’s distinct personalities, Stephen discovers another dimension to beauty; through this, Tsukiyama conveys that the most

Even up to the year 2016, several hundred years after Christian missionaries and Japanese Christian converts had been persecuted in Japan (日本), there resides a complete total of under one percent of Christians living within Japan, which possesses a population 126,354,292 people. It is quite a different story in China (中国) however. The amount of Christians present in current day China is somewhere between two to three percent of the whole population, which reaches 1,381,537,308 people. China’s Christian population is also developing much more rapidly that Japan’s Christian population. Why is this the case exactly?

left my mouth she looked up and studied me with her beautiful grey blue eyes. I felt as if I

Rivalry with an older geisha almost destroys her career. Sayuri is tormented and inspired by love for a man who she believes she cannot have. The story covers the period of the second world war - the end of an era for Japan.

The author who brought to us The Tale of Genji, a novel now regarded as the first written novel in history, left behind an arguably more treasurable artifact: a diary that opens a window into history. The Diary of Lady Murasaki by Lady Murasaki Shikibu gives the reader a glimpse of the imperial court during eleventh century Japan and presents the past in an illuminated vision. Being an attendant in the imperial court, Lady Murasaki is frequently involved with the activities of elite Japanese women. Her day-to-day interaction with the nobles and elites enhance her account with the curious perspective of an elite female. As a woman, Lady Murasaki's descriptions are oriented around clothing

The literary masterpiece The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu is a fictional tale that provides clear insight into the sociopolitical court life of the Heian period in Japan. In the tale we are able to see the standards of life that were expected of the aristocrats during the Heian period. The social nature of Heian court life is depicted in the many relationships of the characters through the various stories presented in The Tale of Genji. The relationships in the tale are mainly romantic relationships that surround the Shining Prince Genji, along with other relationships such as parent and child, master and servant, and relationships between social contemporaries. The romantic relationships in the tale indirectly provide the reader with

In the essentially dual religious system in Japan, ideologies and traditions play a heavy role in the everyday life of the Japanese people. Shintoism and Buddhism intertwine and complement themselves in Japanese culture, despite Buddhism coming in from mainland Asia. A particularly powerful idea from Buddhism is mono no aware, the realization and acknowledgment of the impermanence and its place in the world. This idea that nothing stays the same forever manifests itself heavily in Japanese literature, whether in personal writings or fictional works. Despite spanning hundreds of years, each work was shaped by and include manifestations of mono no aware. I intend to underline and pinpoint instances that mono no aware is influencing these works, and discuss similarities and differences between them. In this paper, I have three works that I will explore, each one corresponding to a different time period before the pre-industrial revolution; The Diary of Lady Murasaki comes from the classical period, Essays in Idleness from the medieval, and the immensely popular play Chushingura from the pre-modern era.

So it could be said one significant factor in Japanese culture is idealization, and Geisha is a component of this fantasy. They are pulled out from themselves as women and then become an illusory form. When Sayuri wears the twelve layers of elegant kimonos with exquisite makeup, stepped on those expensive black wooden clogs,

It is no secret that for centuries, the Japanese woman has been, to most observers, a model of elegance and graceful beauty. A picture of a kimono-clad, modest, and often silent woman has been plastered everywhere, allowing for the upmost passive subjection. If we look deeper into this image of woman, can we tell if this picture is complete? How do these women painted in representative images far in the modern world? The ideal woman in Japan is expected to be both a good wife, and a wise mother. Though these seem like reasonable expectations, there is a much deeper meaning to them that has shown signs of being outdated. During the 1800’s and 1900’s, women were subjected to society’s vision of them, and could not break free for fear of the

In his The Life of An Amorous Woman, Ihara Saikaku traces the demise of a woman whose thoughts and actions were controlled by insatiable lust and sexual desire. She begins as a wife and then progresses to a court lady-in-waiting, a concubine to a feudal lord, courtesan, priest’s mistress, brothel prostitute, and, finally a streetwalker. Though courtesans did not play a major role in ancient Japan, by the seventeenth century, the courtesan class was sanctioned by the government to the extent that official decrees created a separate district to enclose them and put up physical boundaries that mirrored the division between them and traditional prostitutes. According to Chesemore in her essay, Women of the Floating World, “as in all areas of Japanese life, attention was paid to the distinctions in the rank of the various inhabitants of this world, and clearly the courtesan reigned supreme” (Chesemore, 1990). Saikaku writes that, because of her beauty and talent, she had her choice of men, and “in the streets she walks with her head held high and does not step aside for anyone.” Far from the traditional Confucian gender roles, the amorous woman can afford to be haughty, as she was showered with gifts and other luxuries.

Power, prestige, personality, and a pleasing face: Chairman Ken Iwamura of the Iwamura Electric Company has it all. Undoubtedly, such a man would attract the great admiration of many. However, the Kyoto geisha, Sayuri Nitta, stands as an exception. She does not admire the Chairman. Instead, she is obsessed with him, so utterly entranced by his charm as to devote her entire life to having him become her danna. This intense love is the primary reason she transforms from a scared, reluctant young girl, Chiyo Sakamoto, into a manipulative and seductive full-fledged geisha. Analyzing Arthur Golden’s Memoirs of a Geisha through a psychoanalytical lens reveals that Sayuri Nitta’s fixation upon Chairman Iwamura emerges ultimately due to her