Arthur golden memoirs of a geisha biography

Interview

Join us for a conversation with Arthur Golden about Memoirs of A Geisha as he shares what sparked his interest in the subject of geisha, why the Geisha was willing to open up to him, and answers the question, "Are geisha prostitutes?"

A Conversation with Arthur Golden, about Memoirs of A Geisha

A: I studied Japanese language and culture in college and graduate school, and afterward went to work in Tokyo, where I met a young man whose father was a famous businessman and whose mother was a geisha.

He and I never discussed his parentage, which was an open secret, but it fascinated me. After returning to the U.S., I began work on a novel in which I tried to imagine this young man's childhood. Gradually I found myself more interested in the life of the mother than the son and made up my mind to write a novel about a geisha.

I read everything I could find