A Woman of Pleasure: A Novel

I only can speak about the translation by J. Carpenter, which is excellent. I am full of admiration for the author who revealed what the lives of indentured women in Japan were like 100 or so years ago. The "pleasure" quarters is a popular misnomer for their living arrangements. It was never glamorous nor desirable but one of desperation on the part of a population surviving in poverty. As hard as their existence was, the women portrayed, never lost their liveliness, individuality nor humanity

I have developed quite a love for Japanese literature (in translation, of course). Murakami, Yoshimoto, Oe, and Kawakami are all writers I’ve read and enjoyed. So, when I saw this novel by award-winning author Kiyoko Murata, I thought I would give it a try. Though I did enjoy it, I wouldn’t hold it quite to the level of these other authors.In a strange way, I came away from this novel feeling as though I had read a book by an American writer writing about Japan rather than something by a Japanese writer. I think I felt this way because I learned a lot about the experience of Japanese women at the turn of the 20th century in this novel, but I don’t feel like a got a sense of the interiority of the characters like I do with the other authors I mentioned.A Woman of Pleasure tells the story of young prostitutes in the brothels of Kumamoto. Though I’m not blind to the fact of human trafficking and prostitution that goes on around the world today, seeing the description of the cultural acceptance of such things as late as this was surprising to me. And Ms. Murata is excellent at describing the various levels of prostitutes and the rigors they put their bodies through. I felt not a voyeuristic but, rather, a clinical interest in how these women took care of themselves, educated themselves and, ultimately, rebelled.The novel culminates in a labor strike that frees these women from their former lives; however, it comes across as anticlimactic. The real interest is in the experiences the characters have while in the bondage of prostitution. This is good stuff; however, I was left wanting a bit more.

This book has just recently been translated from Japanese to English. Interesting story about something I had never known anything about. Found it quite interesting and rather fascinating. Characters were interesting and had very different backgrounds that were headed in the same direction and to the same life.Informative read!

Perhaps a little too rosy a picture of a prostitute’s life in the early 20th century, but clear cry for the end of sexual slavery and the right of every human to dignity and self determination.

Reading about how women were sold, especially a 15-year-old, is deeply disturbing. However, let’s be honest, this novel also has salacious elements. Unfortunately, human trafficking remains a significant issue today, so we shouldn’t fool ourselves. One bright spot I hadn’t known about is the profound, transformative impact the Salvation Army had on the rights of these women, particularly in a country like Japan, which must have been incredibly dangerous at the time.

Translated by Juliet Winters Carpenter, Kiyoko Murata’s A Woman of Pleasure follows 15-year-old Aio Ichi, sold and transported in 1902 from her southern island home to the urban Shinonome brothel. Here, like all the girls and women of Japan's Medji-era pleasure districts, Ichi is ranked and then further and continuously commodified, with her every aspect—from her appearance to her speech and manner of walk—reshaped with a single goal in mind: to please men.As we learn about the poverty the Shinonome residents were sold out of and encounter even less fortunate women in the district, women sold and resold to rougher and less ethical brothels, we’re forced to confront our own notions of fortune and luck. We read and must decide which we’re more comfortable with—generational poverty or perpetual indenture. We must weigh how we value education against its purpose within the novel. And we must remain mindful that, although categorized as historical fiction, what we’re really reading is fictionalized history—and that history nearly always reaches with long arms into the present.With prose that is sometimes sparse and always unapologetic, this is a novel that is difficult to love, but I love it all the more for that difficulty. Although it tells the story of hierarchy and competition among and within Japan's turn-of-the-twentieth-century brothels; of the near impossibility of a woman ever meeting the terms of her contract, which she had no hand in creating and no control over amending; of the poverty many of the women were sold out of, it never feels like it’s truly about those things.This is a novel about subversive women. It’s about reciprocity and mutual support among those with seemingly nothing to give. It’s about self-emancipation and the possibility of systemic change. Brutal without being bleak and hopeful without ever seeming cavalier, A Woman of Pleasure is, quite simply, a book worth reading.

Dieses Buch war eine sehr positive Überraschung. Ich hatte es als Kindle Deal des Monats gekauft, da ich momentan sehr viel zu Japan lese. Anfangs war ich skeptisch. Ich erwartete ein weiteres sozialromantisches Buch über die finsteren Auswirkungen der Prostitution. Das war es auch, aber ohne Sozialromantik. Die Autorin beschreibt intelligent und mit Humor in einer wunderschönen Sprache (Danke auch an die großartige Übersetzerin) das Leben der Prostituierten Anfang des letzten Jahrhunderts. Und nebenbei erfährt man viel über die damalige japanische Gesellschaft.Uneingeschränkte Empfehlung

Book Review⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️Genre: Historical FictionThis was the first piece of Japanese literature that I have read. I was apprehensive at first as having read translated novels before the nuances and meaning don’t always carry over. However, this book was different, it was translated sensitively and the way in which it was done conveyed some of the complexities of the underlying story. The novel focuses on Aoi Ichi, a young girl sold into prostitution by her family and details her journey of self-discovery about the world in which she finds herself. I found the novel intriguing as women in this context were highly valued and their worth was recognised this is in direct contrast to the views of the time. Although there were moments of sadness, much of the novel was about sisterhood, and the tenuous ties that bound a group of women together in an activity designed to pleasure men. The novel was well- constructed and gave a detailed insight into the lives of the Japanese women of pleasure in 1903.

From the blurb,I expected this to be historical fiction. It is but as you progress through the story of a very young girl brought to the Japanese mainland to work in the sex trade,the book becomes too focussed on the mechanics of what such young women had to face in their daily lives in early modern Japan.I like to think I'm broadminded but I was turned off by the increasing attention given to female cycles. I don't want to read about how to stop vaginal bleeding if you're having a period and you're out in public. Just who is this book designated for? Not this bloke.

This novel shows the fate and life of Japanese prostitutes with both humanity and thorough authenticity. To Western eyes 5his presents a profound insight into contemporary attitudes to morality, social status as well as sexual morals and the relative rights of the genders.