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Article: Secrets of an exotic chancer; review.(Review)
- Article from:
- The Mail on Sunday (London, England)
- Article date:
- April 20, 2003
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 Solo Syndication Limited. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Byline: KATHRYN HUGHES
***** Madame Sadayakko: The Geisha Who Seduced The West by Lesley Downer Review pound sterling20 *pound sterling16 (0870 165 0870)
At the end of the 19th Century a tiny girl from Tokyo took America and Europe by storm. Wherever she went - Boston, London, Paris - crowds flocked to see Sada Yakko, a young actress who, bundled into her kimono and lacquered wig, resembled nothing so much as a porcelain doll.
Inscrutable and exotic, with one eye Oriental and the other lidded in the Western way, she satisfied the hunger of fashionable Westerners for a glimpse of a culture that remained mired in the Middle Ages. Until well ...