Wednesday, April 24, 2013

U: Uchida Kosaburo

Uchida Kosaburo is an artist to whom Mameha, introduces her protégé Sayuri. Memoirs of a Geisha. An extremely well written book by Arthur Golden, you'll never guess that the author of the work is not a Japanese Geisha from the early twentieth century. Uchida-san is an angry artist, patron of geishas, with a mole on the corner of his mouth that he often chews on as he's thinking. What a picture. At the end of the first meeting as Mameha and Sayuri step out of Uchida's house, Sayuri stops a bit.

MemoirsOfAGeisha.jpg
pic: from Wikepedia
I couldn't help stopping a moment to take in the sunset which painted the sky behind the distant hills in rusts and pinks as striking as as the loveliest kimono -- even more so, because no matter how magnificent a kimono is, your hands will never glow orange in its light.
...
If you've ever seen Uchida Kosaburo's famous ink painting of the young woman in a kimono standing in a state and with her eyes aglow...well, from the very beginning he insisted the idea came from what he saw that afternoon. rapturous 
I can't imagine that such a beautiful painting could be really be based on just a girl staring foolishly at her hands in the sunset.

Its funny that there are internet searches for the ink painting and even several sites which tell people that this is a work of fiction, guys, don't go searching for the painting! If my writing was half as beautiful and convincing, I would consider myself successful.

7 comments:

  1. Never got a chance to read Arthur Golden's book. It's on my TBR list!

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  2. Read it and loved it. Thanks Sangita for writing about one of my favorite books; much enjoyed your blog-post!

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  3. I have not watched it's movie version for I did not want to ruin that sweet taste that book has left after I have read it...

    I am sure that there are as well people who go search for the "middle earth" :) Human brain is a strong believer :)

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    1. So true, Ozlem! I was disappointed with the movie as well, especially with their choice of actors.

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  4. I've only watched the movie, but its my general observation that mu vs on famous books cann't catch the spirit of the book. They say , a picture can say what thousand words cann't, but i prefer reading thousand words than watching a mu v. Thanx, will read the original book, and the list of "to be read" is growing with every post. :) Oh, there is just so much more to read, and if u add goodreads from Marathi , then two eyes and 24 hrs/day ..... just not enough.

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