A Woman of Pleasure (Yūjokō)

An unforgettable novel of fearless women banding together to pursue the lives they want, inspired by the real-life historic Japanese courtesan strike

In 1903, a fifteen-year-old girl named Aoi Ichi is sold to the most exclusive brothel in Kumamoto, Japan. Despite her modest beginnings in a southern fishing village, she becomes the protégée of an oiran, the highest-ranking courtesan at the brothel. Through the teachings of her oiran, Shinonome, Ichi begins to understand the intertwined power of sex & money. And in her mandatory school lessons, her writing instructor, Tetsuko, encourages Ichi & the others to think clearly & express themselves. By banding together, the women organize a strike & walk away from the brothel & into the possibility of new lives.

Based on real-life events in Meiji-era Japan, award-winning & critically acclaimed veteran writer Kiyoko Murata re-creates in stunning detail the brutal yet vibrant lives of women in the red-light district at the turn of the 20th century —the bond they share, the survival skills they pass down, & the power of one's language.

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Juliet Winters Carpenter was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan in 1948. She is a veteran translator & double recipient of the Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission for the Translation of Japanese Literature, in 1980 for Abe Kōbō’s Secret Rendezvous & in 2014 for Minae Mizumura’s A True Novel. In addition to numerous works on Japanese culture & religion, she has translated fiction by authors such as Enchi Fumiko, Tawara Machi, Watanabe Shin’ichi, Miyabe Miyuki, Shiba Ryōtarō, Miura Shion, & Hirano Keiichirō. With Aotani Yüko, she edited the bilingual book Gems of Japanese Literature/ Eigo rōdoku de tanoshimu Nihon bungaku.