ジェンダー研究第 25 号

2022 年◆ 書評 ◆Jan Bardsley

Maiko Masquerade:Crafting Geisha Girlhood in Japan（University of California Press 2021 ISBN 978-0-520-29644-2(paperback) US$29.95+tax）

G.G. Rowley（School of Law, Waseda University）

Who would have thought that there was alooks back to Mizoguchi Kenji’s Gion

serious, scholarly monograph to be written

bayashi (1953), Sugie Toshio’s Janken

about maiko? Jan Bardsley shows in her

musume (1955), and Fukasaku Kinji’s

deeply researched and carefully constructed

Omocha (1998), Bardsley focuses on workbook that there most certainly is. Bardsley

produced in Japan in the 2000s, mostly by

has long been interested in representation,women.

especially “the construction and influence

There are discussions of Yamato Waki’sof cultural icons” (xii), and she has exploredmanga Kurenai niou (2003–7), itself based1some of these icons in her earlier work. Inon Iwasaki Mineko’s memoir Geiko Mineko

this book, she examines “representations

no hana-ikusa: Honma no koi wa ippenof the maiko as a cultural icon of Japanese

dosu (2001; translated as Geisha, A Life,

girlhood for a national audience” (3). The2002); Koyama Aiko’s manga Maiko-san-texts she analyzes include guides to life andchi no Makanai-san (2016–2020), centeredwork in Kyoto’s hanamachi; memoirs byon the okiya cook Kiyo and her maiko

former maiko and geiko; as well as movies,

pal Momohana; the NHK morning drama“light novels,” television series, and manga.

Dandan (screened 2008–9); and Nanami

Apart from the chapter on movies, which

Haruka’s 54 volume light novel series

1See the collection of essays Bad Girls of Japan, ed. Laura Miller and Jan Bardsley (New York: PalgraveMacmillan, 2005); and Bardsley’ s “Transbeauty IKKO: A Diva’ s Guide to Glamour, Virtue, andHealing,” in Diva Nation: Female Icons from Japanese Cultural History, ed. Laura Miller and Rebecca
Copeland, 133–50 (University of California Press, 2018).

DOI：10.24567/0002000557

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Chiyogiku ga iku (2002–14), featuring

to understand her role in maintaining her

the teenage boy Okamura Mikiya whoarts community, sending a powerfully

crosses gender to masquerade as the maiko

conservative message about the end-goal ofChiyogiku. There is also a chapter focusing

girlhood in Japan,” and “reassur[ing] viewers

on maiko visual comedy in everything fromof the nation’s well-being, its procreative

hand towels to manga. These amusing twists

future, and their identity as Japanese.” (134)

on maiko as icon serve to “mute the historical

Maiko Masquerade began as an attempt

weight of [Kyoto’s] world heritage sites”

to answer questions posed by students in theand satirize the constraints of being a maiko.

“Geisha in History, Fiction, and Fantasy”(162)

first-year seminar, later undergraduate

Bardsley’s is no breathlessly adulatory

course, that Bardsley taught at theaccount. Throughout, she astutely places theUniversity of North Carolina, Chapel Hill,maiko’s masquerade—the “endless publicfor many years. In 2002, I had the pleasureperformance of compliant femininity” (137)of discussing Masuda Sayo’s memoir—in a broader socio-political perspective.

Autobiography of a Geisha (ColumbiaFor example, in her discussion of three first-University Press, 2003) with students

person accounts of life in Kyoto’s hanamachi,

enrolled in the seminar and can vouch for its

she observes:

seriousness of purpose and the high standards
expected.

the personal success story as a genre

It is no surprise, then, that Maiko

complements the neoliberal climate of theMasquerade is designed for classroom use.

2000s in Japan where the responsibility for

Bardsley begins each chapter with a clear

one’s lifelong health and financial stability

scene-setting section, describing the subject

rests on one’s own shoulders. These

she will explore and the sources that willkinds of success stories tend to translate

illustrate the journey. She ends each chapterforms of discrimination and structural

with a summary-conclusion. Her website

inequalities into personal hurdles that one

features links to teaching materials: reading

must overcome. One must steel individualquestions, writing exercises, and discussion

resolve, not buck the system. (86)

activities, all requiring real engagement fromstudents. (See: https://janbardsley.web.unc.

Likewise, in NHK’s Dandan, “the maiko

edu/welcome-to-teaching-materials/). She

as the quintessential Japanese girl comes

uses a wide range of texts and colleagues

226ジェンダー研究第 25 号

2022 年

will find their research generously cited

shop, do makeovers, and engage in romantic

throughout. I can see the book working infantasies of the maiko’s shōjo girlhood.” (21)a first-year seminar as well as a variety ofShe finds that women professionals—writers,other courses: on gender, girlhood, or popular

academics, artists—have also become

culture in Japan; on Kyoto as both Old Japan

consumers of hanamachi culture, enjoying

and Cool Japan (25); and in those examining

parties (ozashiki) with geiko and promoting

the creation of imagined communities andits salon culture. (203)national narratives.

Maiko Masquerade is full of many

Bardsley shows that despite thesurprising discoveries. Bardsley writes with aperformative effort required of a real maiko,light touch that successfully draws the reader

her image “works in Kyoto to create spaces

in to her analytic project. Even to one whoof female pleasure, sites and things thatlives here, Kyoto and Japan appear different

particularly welcome girls and women,

now.

domestic and international, to play, eat,227