Tayuu and Oiran are not the same thing! And furthermore, there was much confusion between 'geisha' and 'maiko' in those captions. Even then, some of the captions were outright wrong - such as captioning a picture of a tayuu as a 'young woman with an oiran look'. But it's only real selling-point is the photos. Regardless and if you sort of ignore those parts of the text, this book is very interesting as it offers a short depection of geisha before our modern-day perceptions of them. It isn't to say that that particular book wasn't *good* - it features a very interesting story - it's that the story in MOAG is not factually correct, and to praise it in this book about historical geisha feels a bit. But there were parts within the text that were genuinely a bit worrying - such as the praise for Memoirs of a Geisha by Golden. It features many interesting photos, including some historical ukiyo-e prints, which are lovely to look at. I have a huge interest in geisha, and I have to say I was a wee bit disappointed with this book.
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