"I want you to know what it's really like to live the life of a geisha. It was a life in which I was extremely successful, many say the best of my generation. And yet it was a life that I found too restrictive to continue. A life I eventually had to leave behind. This is a story I've wanted to tell for a long time. My name is Mineko..." For more than four decades, Mineko Iwasaki lived within the confines of powerful but invisible restrictions. Bound by an ancient, unwritten code – "the shroud of tradition and the sanctity of this exclusive profession" – she and thousands of other women throughout three centuries of Japanese history protected their extraordinary lives from the public eye. Mineko's compelling and moving story captures her earliest memories, beginning with her move to a geisha house at just four years of age and her initiation into the profession she wanted to improve. As we follow Mineko's gradual blossoming over the years from little "princess" to "the brightest of stars," we learn more about the complex training and the entire educational system that makes girls become geishas.

Michela Quartiero

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Sep 18, 2026

GEIKO · J.K. Tyl Theatre

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