Resistance against the subjugation in Sayo Masuda's autobiography of a Geisha

Abstract

The research on Sayo Masuda's Autobiography of a Geisha entitled "Resistance against the Subjugation in Sayo Masuda's Autobiography of a Geisha" has not only unveiled the subjugated position of the geisha in bourgeois patriarchal Japanese society, but also explored the subtle but powerful resistance against such patriarchal and bourgeois culture. The unjust and discriminatory socio-economic and cultural system is the most responsible factor for the commodification, exploitation, alienation and subjugation of the geisha who are compelled to become a geisha for being a female from an economically poor family. The geisha have attempted to resist against the existing socio-economic and cultural system in one way or another. However, these attempts of resistance seem to be insufficient and not working until and unless they replace the false consciousness of the capitalist patriarchal ideologies with gender and class consciousness which is necessary to dismantle the capitalist socio-economic system with patriarchal underpinnings.