Afterword

A FLOWER BLOSSOMS . . .

Close your eyes and let your thoughts wander. Take a deep, cleansing breath. Feels good. You have discovered the secrets to the art of seduction and made them your own. Yet, your path to enlightenment is not over. As the fourteenth-century author Urabe Kenko wrote in Idle Hours, “Pleasure . . . loving someone and becoming attached to someone; an endless quest.”¹

What does this mean? Simply that every love affair is different, and requires all the skills you have learned in this book to make it sensual and extraordinary. Think of yourself as a geisha who has studied the art of dance for years with her sensei. She learns every pattern, every technique, but when she goes out on stage, unfolds her fan, and begins to dance, she is on her own.

You have studied geisha, courtesans, and Heian ladies and learned their secrets in the art of seduction, but the dance you perform is yours alone.

Dance it well.