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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.
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Reviews:
Just a minor quibble
As others have noted, the author includes a fair amount of conjecture in this charming and passionate account. Most of it is credible, but Sadayakko could not possibly have "sailed under the Golden Gate Bridge" in 1899, as Downer writes on page 91. Oops!
EXCELLENT LIFE STORY OF A GEISHA
I read this book today, and I couldn't put it down. It is beautifully written and had some happy and sad parts. It is a really great story about the life of Japan's first star who traveled to America and Europe telling of her experiences. It also tells of her lovers, historical events, scenery,family, and geisha life. While I was reading this, I felt like I was in olden day Japan. Very descriptive and a wonderful read. I highly recommend this book.
below expectations
I got interested in geisha culture after watching Memoirs of Geisha and then reading the same named book, and then buying more and more books about geisha. Out of everything I've read so far,I found " Madame Sadayakko.." to be the least interesting one. It's very biographical. The language and the contents of the story is very dull. Besides the author going back and forth refering to the events,which have happenned in the past and will happen in the future. I understand that the mission of the book was to provide historical accounts of Madame Sadayako's life and geisha traditions. But taking in the account the name of the book, it fell below my expectations. I still don't see how this Geisha bewitched the West.
A great historical tie-in
I love books on the Victorian period and found this tied in on two levels. The view of Japan and its culture at the time was enlightening, and the parallels with Europe and the U.S. informative.
Saddayakko's struggles were almost epic, and her strength of will amazing. The reader is pulled into her struggles just to survive, maintain some dignity, and fight convention in Japan and the world.
It is also an interesting history of the world of theater and the hypocrisy of society as it worships and vilifies at the same time.
Interesting but Fanciful
The book is an interesting look at a woman that lived an unconventional life during what were probably the most tumultuos years of Japan's history. The author sets the background beautifully, giving you incicive details of each historical period of Sada's life and paints a clear picture of a woman who knew herself and was quite unique.
However, I found it irksome to read so many suppositions about Sada's thoughts, emotions and motivations that simply would not be found Ms. Downer's reasearch. Not only are Sada's thoughts guessed and given as motivations, those of her nearest and dearest as well. If this were a fictional account like Liza Dalby's "The Tale of Murasaki : A Novel" or even Arthur Golden's "Memoirs of a Geisha", both based on real people, it would be just fine. In both those VERY entertaining novels the authors allow themselves this artistic liscence once they clasify their efforts as fiction.
This book however is an interesting read and gives a tantalizing glimpse into an epoch of Japan's history and the people that populated it. I recomend it to other Japan and Geisha enthusiasts but with the above warning.
