House of the 10,000 Pleasures - A Modern Study of the Geisha and of the Streetwalker of Japan

W H Allen, 1962
In the fasinating and revealing study of the geisha and of the street-walker of Japan, Sara Harris explores a strange and remarkable world. By following the lives of two women - Tsiyu-Giku, the leading Geisha of Kyoto, and Kofumi Levine, once a pan-pan of the streets, the reader is introduced to the highly structured society of Japan with its contradictions and inconsistencies. The comparisons and contrasts to be found in these two stories reveal in dramatic and human terms the rigidly defined role assigned to women and the corroding effect of increasingly rapid Westernization on the ancient ways of the land. The author travelled around Japan and interviewed scores of women at every social level. The result is a unique book that lays bare a vital and little understood aspect of Japanese character and life...