Madame Sadayakko: the Geisha Who Seduced the West.(Book Review)

By Lesley Downer. London: Review (Hodder Headline), 2003. xii + 336 pp.

For years I've thought that Kawakami Sadayakko deserved a full-length study in English--better yet, a movie. Since Spielberg has dropped Memoirs of a Geisha, maybe he, or Merchant and Ivory, would consider filming her story instead? It is a terrific rags-to-riches talc: young girl sold into geishadom finds love with a brilliant farm boy but is forced to leave him when he is married off to the daughter of the architect o f Japan's modernization, Fukuzawa Yukichi; she loses her virginity to future prime minister Ito Hirobumi, then marries brash actor, "rap star," and would-be politician Kawakami Otojiro, with whom she embarks on a bumpy decade of popular success and financial fiasco complete with a crack-brained rowboat voyage with niece and dog that nearly kills them; sire tours the United States and Europe, once again stepping ahead of creditors and even starvation, where sire and her husband's gumption and hard work are finally rewarded by sold-out performances. Her tours abroad with Kawakami and their ragtag troupe …