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.
She entertained numerous celebrities and foreign dignitaries including United Kingdom's Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Charles.
Mineko Iwasaki | Shigeru Iwasaki | Iwasaki Tsunemasa | Hiromi Iwasaki |
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.