![]() ![]() She certainly seems to be unattached to him a young woman named Yoko spends far more time with him and after his death she visits his grave every day. ![]() She denies that the young man was her fiance but Shimamura has heard she was. Komako tells Shimamura that she became a geisha in order to pay the medical bills of the son of a music teacher with whom she lived. She was not a geisha when they first met but by the second visit she had become one. Shimamura is a wealthy dilettante who comes periodically to the valley and spends time with Komako. ![]() People (well men mostly) come here to spend time hiking, skiing, partying and taking baths in the hot springs. ![]() This novel is set in a mountain valley quite far from Tokyo which gets abundant snow in the winter time. Even after reading this book I don't think I truly understand the reason women became geishas but it gave me a bit more of a glimpse of their life. She chooses who she will spend her time with and what she will do with that person. The geisha is supposed to be artistic as well as beautiful. Westerners really don't have an equivalent to the geisha perhaps the French with their mistresses come close but the geisha is not committed to one man. Or at least there was at the time this book was written which was (mostly) prior to World War II. As I read this book I couldn't help reflecting on the large gap between Eastern and Western cultures. ![]()
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