num_pages: 336
description: A critically acclaimed author tells the enthralling true story of the real Madame Butterfly, a woman who became the most celebrated geisha in Japan and the first to tour the West. At twenty-nine, she captivated the worldas stage. From San Francisco to New York, Paris, and Berlin, audiences thrilled to her mesmeric acting and exquisite dancing. She performed for the American President and for the Prince of Wales in London. Picasso painted her. Gide, Debussy, Degas, and Rodin were among her devoted fans. She was Sadayakko, Japanas most notorious geishaaand its first international superstar.In Italy, Puccini was working on "Madame Butterfly," He had the plot for his opera, but he had yet to see a real live flesh-and-blood Japanese womanauntil Sadayakko arrived with her troupe of traveling actors."Madame Sadayakko" is the true story of this extraordinary womanamuse to writers, artists, and fashion designers. Her adventures lift the veil on the secretive world of the geisha and reveal a missing piece of history from the turn of the last century, when Japanese women wore bustles and learned the waltz and women in the West wore Sadayakko kimonos.
language: English
title: Madame Sadayakko : The Geisha Who Seduced the West
titlecomplete: Madame Sadayakko : The Geisha Who Seduced the West
genres: Cultural, Historical, Biography, Asia, Japan, Nonfiction, Asian Literature, Biography Memoir, 20th Century, History
ratings_count: 624
publisher: Review