Madame Sadayakko

by Lesley Downer

"At twenty-nine, she captivated the world's stage. The crowned heads of Europe vied for her favors. Picasso sketched her portrait. Puccini based the title character of Madame Butterfly on her and borrowed one of her haunting melodies. Gide, Debussy, Degas, and Rodin were among her devoted fans. She was Sadayakko, Japan's most notorious geisha - and its first international superstar.". "Drawing from meetings with Sadayakko's family members, including her granddaughter, who granted rare access, and others who knew her intimately, this noted geisha expert chronicles the pivotal moments of Sadayakko's dramatic life. As an exquisite young geisha, her virginity was sold for an exorbitant amount to the prime minister, Japan's most powerful man. She shocked the Tokyo geisha world when she left her lucrative career to become the wife of the rebellious - and penniless - actor and political maverick Otojiro Kawakami. He took her to the United States, where posters and crowds hailed her arrival, a