Women Of The Pleasure Quarters
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Women Of The Pleasure Quarters
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Author : Lesley Downer
language : en
Publisher: Crown
Release Date : 2002-01-08
Women Of The Pleasure Quarters written by Lesley Downer and has been published by Crown this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2002-01-08 with History categories.
From critically acclaimed author and Japanese scholar Lesley Downer, an enchanting portrait of the mysterious world of the geisha. Ever since Westerners arrived in Japan, they have been intrigued by Japanese womanhood and, above all, by geisha. This fascination has spawned a wealth of extraordinary fictional creations, from Puccini's Madama Butterfly to Arthur Golden's Memoirs of a Geisha. The reality of the geisha's existence, though, whether today or in history, has rarely been addressed. Contrary to popular opinion, geisha are not prostitutes but, literally, "arts people." Their accomplishments include singing, dancing, playing a musical instruments; but above all, they are masters of the art of conversation, soothing the worries and stroking the egos of the wealthy businessmen who can afford their attentions. It is this which imbues the geisha with such power—and which makes absolute secrecy such a crucial aspect of their work. As denizens of a world defined by silence and mystery, geisha are notoriously difficult to meet and even to find. Lesley Downer, an award- winning writer, Japanese scholar, and consummate storyteller, gained more access into this world than almost any other Westerner ever has and spent several months living among them. In Women of the Pleasure Quarters, she weaves together intimate portraits of modern geisha with the romantic legends and colorful historical tales of geisha of the past. From Sadda Yakko, who dined with American presidents and had her portrait painted by Picasso, to Koito, a modern-day geisha who maintains her own website, geisha throughout history step out of the pages of Women of the Pleasure Quarters to become living, breathing creatures. Looking into such traditions as mizuage, the ritual deflowering which was once a rite of passage for all geisha, and providing colorful depictions of the geisha's dress, training, and homes, Downer, with grace, elegance, and respect, transforms their reality in a captivating narrative that both informs and entertains. At once a symbol of a bygone age and an institution more quintessentially Japanese than any other, geisha are a society at a crossroads, struggling to reinvent their place in the new millennium while honoring the traditions of the past. Both instructive and evocative, Women of the Pleasure Quarters is an enthralling portrait of a world unlike any other.
The Women Of The Pleasure Quarter
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Author : Elizabeth de Sabato Swinton
language : en
Publisher:
Release Date : 1995
The Women Of The Pleasure Quarter written by Elizabeth de Sabato Swinton and has been published by this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 1995 with Art categories.
This volume is the first comprehensive study of the women of the pleasure quarters and entertainment districts of Japan of the seventeenth through nineteenth centuries. It examines the cultural and metaphorical meanings of courtesans and geisha and their appearance in art and Kabuki theater. These women were at the nexus of social relations, part of public culture, organized into institutions and transformed into emblems of femininity, personifications of the romantic ideal. The Women of the Pleasure Quarter reproduces paintings and woodblock prints by forty-six artists, virtually all the leading masters of the genre, including Miyagawa Choshun, Ando Hiroshige, Katsushika Hokusai, and Kitagawa Utamaro. These works, the most familiar forms of Japanese art to Westerners, are important both for their intrinsic aesthetic quality and for their value as documents of Japanese cultural history. Art and life were fundamentally intertwined in the floating world; it was a realm in which art not only influenced life but in which popular entertainment also transformed itself into art by inventing its own conventions and artistic forms. The Women of the Pleasure Quarter is published in conjunction with an exhibition organized by the Worcester Art Museum, Massachusetts, and also seen at Equitable Gallery, New York, and Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth. Every work in the exhibition, including several rare hand-colored photographs, is reproduced in full color and discussed in an individual commentary. Capsule biographies of each artist, a glossary, and a selected bibliography complete this enchanting survey of one of the most extraordinary bodies of work in art history.
Yoshiwara
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Author : Cecilia Segawa Seigle
language : en
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
Release Date : 1993-03-01
Yoshiwara written by Cecilia Segawa Seigle and has been published by University of Hawaii Press this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 1993-03-01 with History categories.
Drawing on both historical and literary sources, examines life in the pleasure houses of Japan during the Edo period from the early 1600s to 1868. Among the topics are the origins, illegal competitors, the cost of a visit, the treatment of the courtesans, traditions and protocols, Yoshiwara arts, th
The Women Of The Pleasure Quarter
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Author :
language : en
Publisher:
Release Date : 1995
The Women Of The Pleasure Quarter written by and has been published by this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 1995 with categories.
Geisha
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Author : Lesley Downer
language : en
Publisher:
Release Date : 2001
Geisha written by Lesley Downer and has been published by this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2001 with Geishas categories.
Ever since Westerners arrived in Japan, we have been intrigued by geisha. This fascination has spawned a wealth of fictional creations from Madame Butterfly to Arthur Golden's Memoirs of a Geisha. The reality of the geisha's existence has rarely been described. Contrary to popular opinion, geisha are not prostitutes but literally arts people. Their accomplishments might include singing, dancing or playing a musical instrument but, above all, they are masters of the art of conversation, soothing worries of highly paid businessmen who can afford their attentions. The real secret history of the geisha is explored here.
Yoshiwara
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Author : Stephen Longstreet
language : en
Publisher: Tuttle Publishing
Release Date : 1988
Yoshiwara written by Stephen Longstreet and has been published by Tuttle Publishing this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 1988 with History categories.
Yoshiwara was for centuries the famed pleasure center of Tokyo. There, behind moated walls, an erotic world unmatched in the West was created by beautiful courtesans, geishas, dancers, actors, and artists. To this "floating world" came the hedonists, the women-seekers, the sensual pleasure-hunters of old Japan. Stephen and Ethel Longstreet trace the rise and fall of this city within a city, a sanctioned preserve of teahouses and brothels that was not abolished until 1958, sketching a vivid portrait of social and sexual mores in Japan's capital.
Fertility And Pleasure
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Author : William R. Lindsey
language : en
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
Release Date : 2006-11-30
Fertility And Pleasure written by William R. Lindsey and has been published by University of Hawaii Press this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2006-11-30 with History categories.
As their ubiquitous presence in Tokugawa artwork and literature suggests, images of bourgeois wives and courtesans took on iconic status as representations of two opposing sets of female values. Their differences, both real and idealized, indicate the full range of female roles and sexual values affirmed by Tokugawa society, with Buddhist celibacy on the one end and the relatively free sexual associations of the urban and rural lower classes on the other. The roles of courtesan and bourgeois housewife were each tied to a set of value-based behaviors, the primary institution to which a woman belonged, and rituals that sought to model a woman’s comportment in her interactions with men and figures of authority. For housewives, it was fertility values, promulgated by lifestyle guides and moral texts, which embraced the ideals of female obedience, loyalty to the husband’s household, and sexual activity aimed at producing an heir. Pleasure values, by contrast, flourished in the prostitution quarters and embraced playful relations and nonreproductive sexual activity designed to increase the bordello’s bottom line. What William Lindsey reveals in this well-researched study is that, although the values that idealized the role of wife and courtesan were highly disparate, the rituals, symbols, and popular practices both engaged in exhibited a degree of similitude and parallelism. Fertility and Pleasure examines the rituals available to young women in the household and pleasure quarters that could be employed to affirm, transcend, or resist these sets of sexual values. In doing so it affords new views of Tokugawa society and Japanese religion. Highly original in its theoretical approach and its juxtaposition of texts, Fertility and Pleasure constitutes an important addition to the fields of Japanese religion and history and the study of gender and sexuality in other societies and cultures.
Madame Sadayakko
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Author : Lesley Downer
language : en
Publisher: Penguin
Release Date : 2003
Madame Sadayakko written by Lesley Downer and has been published by Penguin this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2003 with Biography & Autobiography categories.
The author of Women of the Pleasure Quarters shares the story of the famous geisha whose life inspired Puccini's Madame Butterfly, from her training and participation in secret geisha traditions to her defection from her lucrative career to marry the penniless actor and political maverick Otojiro Kawakami and her rise to international celebrity. Reprint.
Imagining Prostitution In Modern Japan 1850 1913
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Author : Ann Marie L. Davis
language : en
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Release Date : 2019-03-13
Imagining Prostitution In Modern Japan 1850 1913 written by Ann Marie L. Davis and has been published by Rowman & Littlefield this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2019-03-13 with History categories.
This cultural history examines representations of pleasure work during Japan’s transformation into a modern nation-state. It traces the figure of the prostitute in the context of Japanese nation- and empire-building immediately before and during the Meiji era.
The Courtesan And The Samurai
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Author : Lesley Downer
language : en
Publisher: Random House
Release Date : 2010-04-13
The Courtesan And The Samurai written by Lesley Downer and has been published by Random House this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2010-04-13 with Fiction categories.
1868. In Japan's exotic pleasure quarters, sex is for sale and the only forbidden fruit is love ... Hana is just seventeen when her husband goes to war, leaving her alone and vulnerable. When enemy soldiers attack her house she flees across the shattered city of Tokyo and takes refuge in the Yoshiwara, its famous pleasure-quarters.There she is forced to become a courtesan. Yozo, brave, loyal and a brilliant swordsman, is pledged to the embattled shogun. He sails to the frozen north to join his rebel comrades for a desperate last stand. Defeated, he makes his way south to the only place where a man is beyond the reach of the law - the Yoshiwara. There in the Nightless City where three thousand courtesans mingle with geishas and jesters, the battered fugitive meets the beautiful courtesan. But each has a secret so terrible that once revealed it will threaten their very lives ...