Quotes from Mineko Iwasaki

I had found what I was looking for. I was madly in love, and the intensity of our passion made a profound difference in my life. More than anything else, it affected my dancing, which attained the expressiveness I had been seeking for so long.

I felt powerless, like a carp on the cutting board ready to be sliced into sashimi.

Colocar el abanico entre una y la maestra es un acto ritual, y significa que la alumna está dispuesta a dejar atrás el mundo cotidiano y a entrar en el ámbito de los conocimientos de la profesora. Al hacer una reverencia, declaramos que estamos preparadas para recibir lo que la maestra está a punto de inculcarnos.

My real problem isn't in my throat or kidneys. The doctor should have operated on my heart instead.

El shibori consiste en hacer innumerables ataduras con hilo en la seda antes del tinte, para lograr, finalizado el proceso, un sorprendente efecto veteado. Kioto es famoso por esta técnica, que también utilizaba mi madre.

For the first time I understood how important it was to Auntie Oima that I become a maiko. It was a powerful realization. I really hadn't been paying attention.

I opened my own place in June of 1977. I named it Club Hollyhock.

Los quimonos son nuestra vida. Lléveselo si lo desea, pero tendrá que llevarme también a mí. ¡Puede ocupar mi país, pero jamás ocupará mi alma!

At that moment, I couldn't have agreed with her more. I would have given anything to exchange my life for his.

I looked at him and said, "I've died.

As soon as I walked through the door I went straight into the closet. I rocked myself and chanted, "I'm sorry. Forgive me. I'll never do it again," over and over again in my head, like a mantra.

There were three things I had to do on my way to class.

Maybe there really was something wrong and I needed to have myself checked out. But I didn't know when I would have the time to fit it in.

l'idea di una casa di geisha intesa come covo di malaffare è tanto ridicola. Gli uomini sono a stento ammessi all'interno di questi bastioni della società femminile, figuriamoci se potrebbero mai intrattenersi con uno dei suoi membri

Stab the body and it heals, but injure the heart and the wound lasts a lifetime.

Cleaning is considered a vital part of the training process in all traditional Japanese disciplines and is a required practice for any novice. It is accorded spiritual significance. Purifying an unclean place is believed to purify the mind.

And we are not mountaintop sages who can live by consuming mist.

Whom did I belong to?

They begged me not to quit. But they didn't offer to change anything.

A star geiko is never, ever alone and I always wanted to be by myself.

So we support the dance but it does not support us.

Dance and the other art forms can be taught, but how to make an ozashiki sparkle can not.

No, Mineko, beauty is universal. There is an absolute principle in this world that underlies the appearance and disappearance of all phenomena. That is what we call karma. It is constant and immutable, and gives rise to universal values like beauty and morality.

How come we kept celebrating things that made me feel bad?