NOVEL THOUGHTS
………
KNOPF, 1997
(available in paperback from Vintage, 1999)
WELL, LITTLE GIRL,’ Mother told me, ‘you’re in Kyoto now. You’ll learn to behave or get a beating…. Do as you’re told; don’t be too much trouble; and you might begin learning the arts of a geisha two or three months from now.’” So begins nine-year-old Sayuri’s life of slavery in Gion, the geisha district of Kyoto, after she and her sister were wrenched from their small Japanese fishing village and sold to an okiya (geisha house) in 1929.
Mother and Granny run the profitable Nitta okiya. There, Sayuri begins her apprenticeship under the tutelage of Hatsumomo, a successful but hateful older geisha who tries to thwart Sayuri’s progress. In spite of Hatsumomo’s efforts, over time Sayuri masters the subtle arts of the geisha—dance and music, elaborate makeup and hairdos, sparkling conversation and alluring body language—and learns to negotiate the competitive world of the okiya, where winning the affection of men, and the money that comes with it, is a matter of survival. After her apprenticeship, Sayuri starts to entertain men at local parties and teahouses, and several men want to be her danna, or protector. While her position requires that she submit to these sexual arrangements, Sayuri longs for a more loving and committed relationship.
Memoirs of a Geisha, Arthur Golden’s debut novel, conjures the culture of the pre–World War II geisha society in rich detail and depicts the decline of that culture—and the changes in Sayuri’s life—as war hits Japan.
During his first formal meeting with Sayuri, the Minister, an occasional patron of the Ichiriki Teahouse, enjoys skewers of marinated beef. The scene takes place at the height of Gion’s vitality, when socially prominent patrons of the teahouse regularly enjoyed beer, sake, and delicacies like beef in the company of the geishas.
The Minister’s humorless personality fails to impress Sayuri. When he holds up a strip of beef with his chopsticks and wonders aloud what he is holding, Sayuri teases him: “‘Oh, that’s a strip of marinated leather,’ I said. ‘It’s a specialty of the house here! It’s made from the skin of elephants. So I guess I should have said “elephant leather.”’”
We offer our own version of teriyaki beef skewers, tender enough never to be confused with elephant leather.
About 25 bamboo skewers 1 pound round or sirloin steak |
2 cups Teriyaki Sauce (see below) Vegetable oil for the grill |
Soak the skewers in warm water for at least 20 minutes. Slice the steak across the grain into ¼-inch slices (slicing will be easier, especially for thicker cuts, if you place the steak in the freezer until firm, but not frozen). Thread the beef onto the skewers, then lay them in a large baking dish and coat generously with 1 cup of the teriyaki sauce. Marinate, refrigerated, for at least 45 minutes or up to 4 hours. Remove the meat from the refrigerator 20 minutes before grilling.
Heat the remaining cup of teriyaki sauce gently in a small saucepan and keep warm. Remove skewers from the marinade, reserving extra marinade for basting. Heat the grill on the highest setting and brush with oil. Place the skewers on the grill, leaving space between them (if broiling, use a rack set 4 inches from the heat source). Cook, turning once, until the meat loses its pinkness, usually no more than 2 minutes per side. Baste with the reserved marinade once on each side while cooking. Remove and serve warm, drizzling each skewer with a bit of warmed teriyaki sauce.
Yield: 6 to 8 servings as an appetizer
1 cup regular or low-sodium soy sauce ¼ cup brown sugar ½ cup mirin (sweet rice wine) |
1 cup sake 3 tablespoons grated fresh ginger 1 scallion (optional) |
Combine soy sauce, brown sugar, mirin, sake, and ginger in a saucepan. If using the scallion, discard the roots and dark green top, slice once lengthwise, then cut into 2-inch sections. Add the scallion to the saucepan. Heat gently, stirring frequently, until the sugar is dissolved, then simmer for 5 more minutes, continuing to stir. Remove from heat, and if you used the scallion, remove it now. Sauce will keep, refrigerated, for two weeks.
Yield: 2½ cups
NOVEL THOUGHTS
After the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, when sentiment against Arab-Americans was running high, Pages and Plates was born. The book club is sponsored by the Asian Professional Exchange (APEX), an organization with more than one thousand members of East Asian descent—Chinese, Koreans, Vietnamese, Japanese, Thai, and Filipinos. APEX seeks to promote professional development, community service, and cultural vitality in the Los Angeles Asian-American community.
“This period of time after 9/11, when we knew there might be a backlash against Arabs, reminded us of World War II, when Japanese Americans were harassed,” says Bonnie Lu, director of cultural affairs at APEX. “We understood why people might feel afraid, and we in the Asian-American community wanted to start talking about these issues.”
Pages and Plates convenes each month at an Asian restaurant appropriate to the book, and the traditional Japanese culture depicted in Memoirs of a Geisha captivated the five men and four women who met in downtown L.A.’s Little Tokyo for dinner and discussion. Over fish, noodles, and teriyaki, the group discussed how cultural traditions like geishas have supported a male-dominated workplace. “Traditionally, men have visited geishas in a group; it’s a way of building community among male workers,” says Charles Ferrari, APEX’s associate director of cultural affairs.
An aging population has forced the Japanese to refocus on the culture of families, according to Ferrari. “In Japan today, there are more people over sixty than under fifteen,” says Ferrari. “This is an old country. The Japanese have found that they need to encourage younger families in order to spur economic growth. As a result, the culture is becoming more family-oriented.”
Although the tradition of the geisha portrayed in Arthur Golden’s book endures to this day, group members agreed that Japan’s changing economy and culture threaten the traditional geisha roles. “Younger people are going to other types of clubs,” says Ferrari. “The geisha is disappearing. But it will take awhile.”
More Food for Thought
Erika Gardiner made sushi party balls for her Boston-area book club’s discussion of Memoirs of a Geisha. The recipe for the white rice balls, filled with carrots and scallions and rolled in black sesame seeds, came from Didi Emmons’s Vegetarian Planet: 350 Big-Flavor Recipes for Out-of-This-World Food Every Day (Harvard Common Press, 1997). “I made a soy-ginger wasabi for dipping, and the rice balls went quickly,” says Gardiner. The group capped their meal with green tea ice cream.