What do japanese think of memoirs of a geisha

Reviewers aren't saying this is a groundbreaking novel. They are saying that while it may seem strange for a foreigner to write about this topic, the book really doesn't come across as if it was written by a foreigner.

And like Golden's Western audience, Japanese readers have been impressed by his detailed accounts of feminine customs and traditions. Natsuyo Yukawa, a year-old Japanese teacher and student of the tea ceremony, says she was shocked by some parts of the novel -- particularly an exam that establishes the virginity of two girls -- and that she learned new and, let's hope, accurate things from Golden's book that she never knew about geishas.

Still, she admits that the only reason she read the book was that she heard about how famous it is. Otherwise, she says, "in the bookstore, another book might have seemed more interesting. So for now, heaps of unsold copies of "Sayuri" are gathering dust, towering over diminishing piles of more successful books.

One of these -- the country's biggest bestseller since World War II -- focuses on an issue that's much more relevant. With its simple but inspiring message, "Gotai Fumanzoku" "Nobody's Perfect" , the autobiography of a year-old Japanese man born with no arms and legs, has sold 4.

In the words of its author, Hirotada Ototake: "You don't have to be born perfect to be happy. Meantime, plenty of gaijin foreigners in Japan are still lapping up the exotic angle. A trip to the Japanese-English bookstore in Roppongi revealed heaps of the Japanese translation of Golden's novel up front, but when the clerk went looking for the English version at the back of the store, he came back empty-handed.

Sold out. Sticky Header Night Mode. Related Topics Books. The film, based on the book by Arthur Golden, tells the story of Sayuri Nitta, played by Zhang Ziyi, the daughter of a fisherman who is sold to a geisha teahouse and rises to the top of her profession. The Japanese actor Ken Watanabe plays Sayuri's love interest. But Japanese criticism was restrained when compared with the abuse hurled at Zhang by her compatriots, angered by her involvement in a film about China's former colonial ruler.

In the past, other cultures have portrayed geishas as simply glorified prostitutes. Before filming, the film's actresses submitted to a sort of "geisha bootcamp" for six weeks to quickly pick-up skills that took real geishas a lifetime to acquire. Others have disparaged the filmmakers for shooting most of the movie on California soundstages and criticized the casting of non-Japanese actors for Geisha 's three female leads: China's Zhang Ziyi stars in the title role, while compatriot Gong Li and Chinese-Malaysian actress Michelle Yeoh star as her rival and mentor, respectively.

Japan's Ken Watanabe stars in the lead male role as Zhang's love interest, while other Japanese actors portray secondary characters. In China, on the other hand, the lead actresses have drawn disapproval from those who still resent Japan's occupation of Chinese regions before and during the Second World War.