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 Geisha : A Living Tradition
by Kyoko Aihara
Carlton Books
ISBN: 1858689708
Kyoko Aihara has produced a book in which you could describe as a dictionary and database of information about geisha and maiko. The book is written in a rather factual and matter of fact manner and whilst it unfortunately does not contain extreme in-depth information or historical background, it does contains a good amount of technical details that pertain to the modern day Flower and Willow world that tend to be missing from other books about geisha.
In addition to the information provided, Kyoko Aihara provides us with a wide array of stunning pictures of both maiko and geiko alike along with descriptive photographs of other various elements of the geisha culture. This is an especially nice touch, as being a very visual person myself, I always prefer to be able to view pictures relevant to the subject I am reading as it adds a whole new depth to the experience.
Whilst this book may not have as personal a feel to it in the sense of the authors own personal experience with geisha (such as Geisha, by Liza Dalby, or Women of the Pleasure Quarters by Lesley Downer), I found it quite refreshing to read plain straight facts. As a matter of fact, I use this particular book quite frequently as a reference book, as the information I may be searching for is generally easy to locate.
If you are wanting to get a quick rundown on geisha and maiko, I would strongly suggest starting off with this book first then progressing onto more in-depth books such as Geisha, or Women of the Pleasure Quarters.
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