Ordered from BookCloseouts.com; arrived today. TBR

From the front cover:

"[Madame Sadayakko] is a comprehensive portrait of a woman whose fame was shaped in equal parts by her will and her time." -- The New York Times Book Review

Madame Sadayakko
The Geisha Who Bewitched the West
Lesley Downer
author of Women of the Pleasure Quarters

From the back cover:

A critically acclaimed author tells the enthralling true story of the real Madame Butterfly, a woman who became the most celebrated geisha in Japan and the first to tour the West.

At twenty-nine, she captivated the world’s stage. From San Francisco to New York, Paris, and Berlin, audiences thrilled to her mesmeric acting and exquisite dancing. She performed for the American President and for the Prince of Wales in London. Picasso painted her. Gide, Debussy, Degas, and Rodin were among her devoted fans. She was Sadayakko, Japan’s most notorious geisha -— and its first international superstar.

In Italy, Puccini was working on Madame Butterfly. He had the plot for his opera; but he had yet to see a real live flesh-and-blood Japanese woman -— until Sadayakko arrived with her troupe of traveling actors.

Madame Sadayakko is the true story of this extraordinary woman -— muse to writers, artists, and fashion designers. Her adventures lift the veil on the secretive world of the geisha and reveal a missing piece of history from the turn of the last century, when Japanese women wore bustles and learned the waltz and women in the West wore Sadayakko kimonos.

"Downer... does an admirable job of making this exciting woman and her times comes to life." -- Pat MacEnulty, The Sun-Sentinel

"Downer offers a kind of real-life Memoirs of a Geisha." -- Publishers Weekly Daily

"The captivating story of a brilliant actress." -- Richmond Times-Dispatch

"With the impassioned hand of a novelist, Lesley Downer sweeps you off your feet and transports you to the world of Sadayakko -- a world of breathtaking dramas and whirlwind adventures." -- Margaret F. Rosenthal, author of The Honest Courtesan (inspiration for the film Dangerous Beauty

LESLEY DOWNER is the author of On the Narrow Road, which was short-listed for the Thomas Cook Travel Book of the Year Award; The Brothers: The Hidden World of Japan's Richest Family, chosen as a New York Times Notable Book; and the highly acclaimed Women of the Pleasure Quarters. A frequent contributor to The Wall Street Journal, Ms. Downer divides her time between London and New York.

Won by azuki in the Annual Fort Holders Swap.

Mailed today.

Doumo Arigatou!! I flipped through the pages to look at the photos (I always love photos in a book and there's never too many...) and find it very interesting already: photos of dinner with the Czar, in a tea party dress in New York, traditional Japanese opera, and portraits by Picasso. Looks like Sadayakko had a very exciting life indeed.

A well researched, well written biography, from a piece of history I knew little about. I most certainly didn't know that Sadayakko was not just appearing in the West as a geisha, but as a renowned actress.

I also found most intriguing the fact that at the earliest stage of WWII, when Japan invaded Russia, countries like England and America were cheering for and supporting Japan, never suspecting that the little country would next invade British colonies in Asia and even America itself. Most certainly were Sadayakko born a few decades later, her life would have been very different. Even if she managed to land in America, she would be sent to an internment camp!

Halfway through the book, I saw a little note that this book is supposed to go to Lemonitsa. Looks like I offered this at NWP Memorial Read-A-Thon as a prize, as the book was originally registered by NWP. This was back in 2013. I started the book during the read-a-thon but then put it aside for a while. For a long while. I couldn't believe two years just flew by like that!! As we didn't record this in the Zoho database I totally forgot. Sorry!!

So here you go, Lemmy, your read-a-thon prize, two years late!!

This special book arrived today. Azuki, I had forgotten also, so don't worry about the time it took getting here. I'm looking forward to reading it and learning about a time and a life I know next to nothing. Then, in honour of NWP, I'll send it to someone else.

It took me a long time to pick up and read this book. This is mostly because there are too many books I want to read and end up choosing the 'new instalments' of the series I follow over the older books on my shelf.

I should have read this a long time ago. It was very interesting. I enjoyed learning a little about the customs of Japan. I was also drawn in to Sadayakko's life and was eager to read what she did next!

(finished)

RES for surprise

Given to a fellow gym member