Autobiography of a Geisha

Sayo Masuda was a geisha at a hot springs resort, where the realities of sex for sale are unadorned by the trappings of wealth and power. Remarkable for its wit and frankness, the book is a moving record of a woman’s survival on the margins of Japanese society—in the words of the translator, “the superbly told tale of a woman whom fortune never favored yet never defeated.”