Butter fly’s Sisters the geisha in western culture yoko kawaguchi 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Butterfly’s Sisters 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 20 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 30 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 39 40R 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 20 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 30 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 39 40R 1 2 Butterfly’s 3 4 5 6 Sisters 7 8 9 10 1 T H E G E I S H A I N 2 3 W E S T E R N C U L T U R E 4 5 6 7 8 9 YOKO KAWAGUCHI 20 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 30 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 39 YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS | NEW HAVEN AND LONDON 40R 1 2 3 4 5 For Simon 6 7 8 9 10 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 20 Copyright © 2010 Yoko Kawaguchi 1 All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part, in any form 2 (beyond that copying permitted by Sections 107 and 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law and except 3 by reviewers for the public press) without written permission from the publishers. 4 For information about this and other Yale University Press publications, please contact: 5 U.S. Office: [email protected] www.yalebooks.com 6 Europe Office: sales @yaleup.co.uk www.yaleup.co.uk 7 Set in Arno Pro by IDSUK (DataConnection) Ltd 8 Printed in Great Britain by TJ International Ltd, Padstow Cornwall 9 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data 30 1 Kawaguchi, Yoko. 2 Butterfly’s Sisters / Yoko Kawaguchi. p. cm. 3 Includes bibliographical references and index. 4 ISBN 978–0–300–11521–5 (cl:alk. paper) 5 1. Geishas—History. 2. Civilization, Western. I. Title. GT3412.K36 2010 6 792.702'80952—dc22 7 2010017516 8 A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. 39 40R 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Contents 8 9 10 1 2 3 List of Illustrations vii 4 Acknowledgements ix 5 6 Introduction 1 7 8 1 Were They or Weren’t They? Geishas and Early Western 9 Perceptions of the Morality of Japanese Women 12 20 1 2 Geishas as Artefact: Artifice, Ideal Beauty and the 2 Natural Woman 67 3 4 3 Madame Butterfly’s Antecedents: The Women of the 5 Ports and Japanese ‘Wives’ 118 6 7 4 Hara-Kiri! Sadayakko and Madame Hanako on the 8 Western Stage 161 9 30 5 From Foe to Friend: Geishas in Anglo-American Popular 1 Culture before and after the Second World War 211 2 3 6 Bunny-boiler or Like a Virgin: Images of the Geisha in 4 Late Twentieth-century America 257 5 6 Notes 285 7 Select Bibliography 313 8 Index 329 39 40R 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 20 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 30 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 39 40R 1 2 3 4 5 6 Illustrations 7 8 9 Rights were not granted to include these illustrations in electronic media. 10 Please refer to print publication. 1 2 3 4 5 page 6 7 1 Hand-tinted picture postcard of an oiran(Scènes de la vie en Chine et au Japon, No. 263). Early twentieth century, published by Raphael Tuck et Fils, Paris 8 (private collection). 33 9 2 ‘Cherry Blossom at Yoshiwara, Yokohama’ (The ‘Ellanbee’ Japanese Series, 20 No. 137). Early twentieth-century hand-tinted picture postcard published by 1 Landeker and Brown, London (private collection). 39 3 Letter from the artist Mortimer Menpes to the actor Herbert Beerbohm Tree, with 2 a watercolour painting of a geisha, late nineteenth/early twentieth century (© V & A 3 Images/Victoria & Albert Museum, London). 70 4 4 Engraving of Toilette japonaise, 1873, Marie-François Firmin-Girard (Hulton 5 Archive/Getty Images). 80 5 James Jacques Joseph Tissot, The Prodigal Son in a Foreign Land, 1880, oil on canvas 6 (Musée des Beaux-Arts, Nantes, France/Giraudon/The Bridgeman Art Library). 82 7 6 Kitagawa Utamaro, lovers in a private upper-storey room of a teahouse. Coloured 8 woodblock shungaprint from the printed folding album Utamakura, 1788 (© The 9 Trustees of the British Museum). 86 7 Katsushika Hokusai, an abalone diver pleasured by two octopuses. Coloured 30 woodblock shungaprint from the illustrated book Kinoe no komatsu, 1814 (© The 1 Trustees of the British Museum). 89 2 8 ‘Charming Geishasat dinner – the correct serving of a Japanese meal, Tokyo, Japan’. 3 Stereograph published by Underwood & Underwood (private collection). 95 9 Felice Beato, a Japanese woman checking her hair with two hand mirrors. Late 4 nineteenth-century hand-tinted photograph (Felice Beato/Hulton Archive/ 5 Getty Images). 100 6 10 A Japanese woman standing on a cushion, tying/untying her sash, her obi at her 7 feet. Early twentieth-century hand-tinted picture postcard published in Japan (private collection). 101 8 11 Tamamura Ko-zaburo-,geishas dancing. Late nineteenth-century hand-tinted 39 photograph (Nagasaki University Library collection). 102 40R 12 Party entertainment – women dancing to a shamisen. Late nineteenth-century hand-tinted photograph (Nagasaki University Library collection). 103 viii Illustrations 13 Baron Raimund von Stillfried-Ratenicz, three women holding hands. Late nineteenth- century hand-tinted photograph (Nagasaki University Library collection). 106 14 Three bare-chested Japanese women holding hands. Late nineteenth-century hand-tinted Japanese photograph (private collection). 107 15 ‘New No. Nine Girls Kanagawa’. Late nineteenth-century hand-tinted Japanese photograph (private collection). 109 16 ‘Yoshiwara, Tokyo’. Early twentieth-century hand-tinted picture postcard of a harimisescene published by Marukiya, To-kyo-(private collection). 110 17 ‘When Shall We 3 Meet Again?’. Early twentieth-century hand-tinted picture postcard published by Karl Lewis, Yokohama (private collection). 111 18 Black and white picture postcard of Edwardian musical comedy actress Gabrielle Ray (Rotary Photographic Series 1955S), photographed by Foulsham and Banfield (private collection). 112 19 Black and white cabinet photograph of actress Marie Tempest as O Mimosa San in the musical comedy The Geishaat Daly’s Theatre, London, 1896 (© V & A Images/V & A Theatre Collections, London). 115 20 Jean Faust, Fleurs de Japon. Late nineteenth-century, oil on canvas (Courtesy of Sotheby’s Picture Library). 116 21 The English actress Evelyn Millard as Cho-Cho-San in the London staging of David Belasco’s play Madame Butterfly, c.1900. Photograph by W. & D. Downey (W & D Downey/Hulton Archive/Getty Images). 137 22 Sadayakko as Katsuragi in the play The Geisha and the Knight. Coloured illustration from the cover of Le Théâtre, 44, October 1900 (Mary Evans Picture Library). 176 23 Leonetto Cappiello, Sadayakko as the maddened Katsuragi in the play The Geisha and the Knight. Coloured cartoon published in Le Rire, 306, 14 September 1900 (Mary Evans Picture Library). 176 24 Auguste Rodin, Hanako(head, Type A), plaster, 17.6 ×12.5 ×11.2 cm, photographed by Adam Rzepka (Paris, Musée Rodin, S 535). 198 25 Auguste Rodin, Hanako(mask, Type C), plaster, 26 ×20 ×12.4 cm, photographed by Adam Rzepka (Paris, Musée Rodin, S 538). 199 26 Edward Steichen, Mask of Hanako in the Dépot des marbres atelier. Undated photograph of Rodin’s mask of Hanako (Type D, known as La Tˆete d’angoisse de la mort), tirage au charbon, 24.4 x 20 cm (Paris, Mus´ee Rodin, Ph 675). 200 27 Albert Harlingue, Mask of Hanako. Undated photograph of Rodin’s mask of Hanako (Type E in pˆate de verre), aristotype, 13 x 18 cm (Paris, Mus´ee Rodin, Ph 1992). 201 28 Dust jacket design by ‘Givo’ for Kimono, by John Paris. New York, Boni and Liveright, 1922 (private collection). 212 29 ‘You think Japanese girls look like this?’. Bill Hume cartoon in Babysan,1953 (private collection). 243 30 ‘Can I help if guys have a yen for me?’. Bill Hume cartoon in Babysan,1953 (private collection). 244 31 An American serviceman with two maikoat a US forces social event in occupied Japan, 1949. Black and white photograph (private collection). 255 32 Lucy Dell (Shirley MacLaine) successfully fools her husband Paul Robaix (Yves Montand) into believing she is a real geisha. Still from the Paramount Pictures film My Geisha(1962) directed by Jack Cardiff (©INTERFOTO/Alamy). 258 33 Madonna performing at the 41st Annual Grammy Awards held at the Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles, 24 February 1999 (Frank Micelotta/ImageDirect/Getty Images). 267 34 ‘Au baiser je le reconnais,/Mon amoureux est un Français’. Early twentieth-century hand-tinted picture postcard published in France (private collection). 277 1 2 3 4 5 6 Acknowledgements 7 8 9 10 1 2 3 4 5 This book has been many years in gestation, and I would like to thank my 6 numerous friends who have lent me their warm support through the various stages 7 of its development. I am grateful to Dr John Pikoulis for giving me the opportunity 8 at a very early stage to present some of my ideas in the form of a series of lectures 9 for the Department for Continuing Education, Cardiff University. The late 20 Maureen Lawrence also kindly invited me to give a talk for the Friends of Welsh 1 National Opera, at which I became so enthusiastic that I overshot my allotted time 2 by twenty minutes before I got to my first musical example. The encouragement 3 from the many Friends over the years has been very important to me. I would also 4 like to thank my husband’s colleagues at Welsh National Opera for the warm 5 welcome and generous help they have always extended to me. 6 I would like to thank Robert Baldock and Phoebe Clapham, my editors at 7 Yale University Press, London, for giving me the opportunity to write this book, 8 and the editorial department for their patience and expertise in seeing the 9 project through to the end. I owe a deep debt of gratitude to Professor Peter 30 Davidson and Professor Jane Stevenson, who generously read through a draft of 1 this book. Their practical advice and emotional support have been invaluable to 2 me, while the intellectual stimulus they have provided has helped to push me to 3 aim towards their own high standard of scholarship. The unflagging support of 4 Mike and Alice Sharland, my agents, has been crucial to me in getting to the end 5 of this project. I would also like to thank Iwata Tatsuji and his family for their 6 – – warm hospitality in Tokyo, when I needed to get some vital research done at 7 several major libraries in that city. 8 I am grateful to the following libraries and their staff for making their 39 resources available to me: the British Library, London; the Bodleian Library and 40R