Geisha: The secret history of a vanishing world - Lesley Downer

Ever since Westerners arrived in Japan, they have been intrigued by Japanese womanhood and, above all, geisha. This fascination has spawned a wealth of extraordinary fictional creations, from Puccini's 'Madame Butterfly' to Arthur Golden's 'Memoirs of a Geisha'. The reality if the geisha's existance, though - whether today or in history - has very rarely been addressed.