“There is much mystery and misunderstanding about what it means to be a geisha. I hope this story will help explain what it is really like and also serve as a record of this unique component of Japan’s cultural history,” writes Mineko Iwasaki in Geisha: A Life

Over a cup of green tea, the book Geisha: A Life by Mineko Iwasaki will be the base for a discussion with guest Gideon Fujiwara from the Department of Asian Studies at the University of Lethbridge on the role of the geisha in Japanese culture, past and present.

Copies of both Geisha: A Life and Memoirs Of A Geisha are available from the Fernie Heritage Library. A copy of the movie Memoirs Of A Geisha is available at the Fernie Heritage Library or can be viewed on Netflix here.

ABOUT THE GUEST SPEAKER
Gideon Fujiwara grew up in Southern Alberta and Vancouver, BC. He studies the social and intellectual history of Japan, focusing on the Tokugawa (1600-1868) to Meiji periods (1868-1912). He holds a PhD in Asian Studies from the University of British Columbia (2013), an MA in Japanese Intellectual History from Tohoku University (2004), and a BA in a History and English Literature Double Major also from UBC (1999).

The Art Of The Geisha Book Club is a free program offered jointly by the Fernie Heritage Library and the Fernie Museum.