Lesley Downer has brought Sada Kawakami to life through the pages of this book. Known as Yakko during her geisha career and Sadayakko during her acting career, Sada had been largely forgotten after her death. When she was remembered, it was in disparaging terms. But Sadayakko was a ground breaking woman. She was the first Japanese woman to work as an actress. She established a training academy for other women who wanted to act. With her husband Otojiro she changed the nature of drama in Japan and introduced aspects of Japanese culture to the West. She performed across America, in Paris, Vienna, Berlin and London. She inspired Puccini when he was adapting the play Madame Butterfly for his opera. Sadayakko knew Sarah Bernhardt and Ellen Terry, and worked with Isadora Duncan. But in Japan, to be an actress was seen as something shameful, and at the end of the Meiji era to step out from behind your husband was anathema. Downer's research into contemporary accounts of Sadayakko's career and her conversations with Sadayakko's family provides the basis for an engaging and entertaining biography. Sadayakko knew key figures in Japanese society following the Meiji Restoration, and their inclusion in this biography provides a more human angle to Japanese political history. As a young geisha, her first danna was Prime Minister and later Prince Ito. Her first love Momosuke married into the Fukuzawa family and had become an important businessman by the time Sadayakko re-encountered him. Sadayakko certainly had a rich and varied life. I was immersed in this biography, and didn't really want it to end. The only reason it doesn't get 5 stars is because Downer describes many photographs throughout the book, but not one is reproduced other than the cover photograph. I don't know whether that's only true of the Kindle version, but I wish the photos had been included. ( )

A remarkable look at the life of one of Japan's greatest stars, the geisha Madame Sadayakko. The book begins with her early life and her entrance into the world of the geishas. She rose higher and higher in the ranks of her craft and was ultimately the lover of the Prime Minister, who became her patron. The book tells of her unhappy marriage, her world travels as a famous actress, her performances before the world's royalty, and her eventual return to Japan. After the death of her husband, she found love with a friend she had known in her youth. Recommended for those with a love of Japanese culture and geisha history. ( )

http://www.schlaikjer.net/reviews/063.htm ( )

Sada became a trainee Geisha as a very young girl, soon rising to the highest echelons available to her - her Danna (patron) was one of the most important men in the country, and she was as renowned as a woman could be in Japan at the time. She married an actor, and eventually travelled to the West, where she began acting as part of a Japanese acting troupe, touring their mish-mash version of Japanese dance and theatre through America and Europe. Sadayakko was always the star of the show, and was one of the highlights of the Paris Exposition. Sada returned to Japan and founded an acting school for girls.
This is a well-written book, the author being most famous for her book on Geishas. Many readers will probably come to this book searching for another read on Geishas, and if this is the case, they may be a little disappointed - Downer does not write in too much details about this time in Sada's life, choosing to concentrate on her overseas travels. However, this does not detract from the overall story. What does is the fact that Downer states some things as fact when they must be supposition: "He stood watching until she disappeared from view. He could not help noticing her sweetness and pride and the skill with which she handled her horse." I can almost guarantee that there is no written record anywhere that on the exact occasion in question the man who saw Sadayakko was thinking those exact thought. This is a fault of many biographers, and it will probably be overlooked by all but the nitpickers like this reader.

This is a book I would recommend to the growing number of readers interested in Japanese history and culture, and also to anyone interested in the cultural currents of the late 19th Century, as Madame Saddayakko had a far reaching influence in the realms of drama, dance and fashion for the Japan-crazed period. ( )