Kiyoko Murata’s A Woman of Pleasure is a feminist novel about the self-liberation of Japanese sex workers in the early twentieth century. It’s also a vibrant window into a different world and a true pleasure to read. Murata’s work has won almost every major Japanese literary prize, and Juliet Winters Carpenter has crafted a beautiful translation of her writing.
A Woman of Pleasure is set in 1903 in the adult entertainment district of Kumamoto, where the fifteen-year-old Ichi has been sold by her impoverished family to a high-ranking brothel. While she apprentices under a senior geisha, Ichi also attends literacy classes run by a retired entertainer named Tetsuko.
Ichi’s honest yet playful diary entries are interspersed between third-person accounts of her everyday life, the mundanity of which comprises the bulk of the novel. Despite the unfairness of her situation, Murata portrays Ichi with sympathy and dignity, as well as with a welcome touch of light humor.
While the last fifty pages of the book describe how the women at Ichi’s establishment decide to exercise their legal right to leave, the majority of the story explains – very gently – why they would choose to do so. For a contemporary reader, there’s a lot to be upset about, but Murata never degrades her characters or their agency in shaping the course of their lives.
A Woman of Pleasure reminds me a great deal of Jun’ichiro Tanizaki’s classic novel The Makioka Sisters. Despite several startling and high-tension incidents, the book doesn’t have much of a plot. This is to its benefit, I think, as what’s interesting about Ichi’s story would be ruined by melodrama. Murata’s project is first and foremost to celebrate the essential humanity of the women who lived in a different era, but she also presents a compelling demonstration of how normal, ordinary people are capable of powerful political action.
Contemporary Japanese Literature 
Very nice review, I have read the book and I have felt exactly the same as you do.
Thank you, and that’s good to know. Because of the sensitive nature of the subject matter, this was a tricky book to write about. I’m relieved to hear that I’m not totally off the mark!
This is one I’d like to try. I did receive a digital review copy a while back, but yeah, I regard those as glorified emails, and they rarely get read…
I feel the same way about marketing copy. That sort of lavish adulation stifles any desire I might have had to read the book in question.
I actually put off reading A Woman of Pleasure for almost a year because of this, especially since none of the praise suggested that the reviewers had actually read the book past the back cover. It’s an interesting work of fiction and a lovely translation; but, at the same time, it also contains dozens of pages of 15yo girls trying to figure out mundane questions like “what do you do in a public bath if you’re on your period.” Of course a novel about sex work is going to have political elements, but it was my impression that these elements were almost embarrassingly exaggerated by reviews.
Despite all that, A Woman of Pleasure is indeed a good book, and definitely something to look forward to. I hope you enjoy it when you get a chance!
Well, my annual #JanuaryInJapan bout of wall-to-wall J-lit reading and reviewing is coming up, so you never know 😉
Excellent! Whatever books you review, I’m looking forward to it.
“Despite all that, A Woman of Pleasure is indeed a good book, and definitely something to look forward to. I hope you enjoy it when you get a chance!”
I liked that book! Especially I liked Tetsuko (Education is needed for the poor!), not only teaching Japanese characters and letters, but an urge for strike. Though I liked Ichi too….