25 Quotes by Mineko Iwasaki

One time after the adoption papers came through I was fooling around with a water pistol and, in a childish bid for attention, sprayed her. She came after me and said, “If you were my real child I’d give you a good spanking.” It was like a slap in the face. I thought I was her child.

I looked at him and said, “I’ve died.

This transparent system of accounting means that we know which geiko did the most business on any given day. It is always clear who is Number One.

Her death was a defining moment in my life. It felt like the brightest light in Gion Kobu had gone dark. Sadly, she was the last master of the musical tradition in which she had been trained. The form died with her.

Whom did I belong to?

How come we kept celebrating things that made me feel bad?

This is why the whole notion of “geisha houses” being dens of ill repute is so ridiculous. Men are barely allowed inside these bastions of feminine society, let alone permitted to frolic with the inhabitants after they arrive.