Dalby is considered an expert in the study of the Japanese geisha community and has acted as consultant to novelist Arthur Golden and film-maker Rob Marshall for the novel Memoirs of a Geisha and the film of the same name.
Mineko Iwasaki, a geisha that Arthur Golden met while writing Memoirs of a Geisha described mizuage in her autobiography as being an initiation party, symbolized on the geisha-to-be by a change in hairstyle rather than the loss of virginity.
The most notable and famous ochaya is Ichiriki Chaya, in the Gion district of Kyoto, which is considered the height of exclusivity, and features as a major setting in Arthur Golden’s fictional portrayal of a Gion Geisha's life, Memoirs of a Geisha.
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After the Japanese edition of the novel was published, Arthur Golden was sued for breach of contract and defamation of character by Mineko Iwasaki, a retired geisha he had interviewed for background information while writing the novel.