By 1850, Japan had been closed to the outside world for centuries. It was a secret, hidden world. And deep within Edo (now Tokyo) was Yoshiwara − “The Floating World.” The center of pleasure. And within Yoshiwara was the Hidden House. The place that only the very wealthiest could afford. The place where the geisha were…special.
And in the Hidden House lived Midori No Me. Half Japanese, half foreign Barbarian, born to captivity. She was trained to dedicate her life to serving the wealthiest men in Japan. Defiled at thirteen when her virginity was sold to the highest bidder. Possessed by the greatest actor in the kabuki theater. Stolen from him by the most powerful yakuza in Edo.
The geisha who escaped from the Floating World.
The Geisha with the Green Eyes.
Sales are currently 200 copies per month and increasing every month.
The first time I was with a man I was only thirteen years old.
But of course, this was normal for any geisha. After all, until one has undergone the ceremony of mizuage – which in English means “hoisting from water” – one is still only a half-jewel, a hangyouku, as we were called in Edo. Elsewhere, the term was maiko, and this is the word I shall use from now on, as I know it is easier for your Western tongue to pronounce.
Sometimes maiko undergo the mizuage ceremony a little later; it all depends on the girl. Occasionally, a maiko would not have her mizuage ceremony until she was as old as sixteen or even seventeen, quite elderly for a maiko! But of course, those were the girls who came late in life to Yoshiwara - the Floating World in Edo, Japan’s capital city.
I was born in the Floating World.
I cannot remember a time when I did not expect to undergo the mizuage. After all, how else did I expect to pay back my Okaasan – my Auntie – for all the years she had fed me, clothed me, kept me warm, kept me safe? How else was I going to start to pay her back for my clothes and my samisen? Apart from all of those important matters, if I declined – if I should dare! – to undergo my mizuage, where would I go? What would become of me? The Floating World was my world, my family. I knew nothing else. Knew nowhere else.
Of course I would undergo the mizuage.
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Portuguese
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Already translated.
Translated by Francisco Borges
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Spanish
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Already translated.
Translated by Maria de la O Merino Aguilera
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