Sacrifices of the Artist

The audience see only beauty but for the artist to be able to produce a work of beauty, she has to make many sacrifices. Art involves discipline, courage, faith, pure heart, and love. Dance is poetry being written by the body. Above (behind) is Sayuri as a young geisha being trained by her mentor Mameha, in the film adaptation of Arthur Golden's Memoirs of a Geisha.

The Artist

Hwang Jin Yi, later called by Gisaeng name Myong Wol, famous 16th century dancer, musician, and poet; embodiment of true artist; towards the end, she worked to make the ordinary people appreciate the liberating power of the dance as an art form.

Rare public domain work

Genji Monogatari or The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu can be a public domain work having been written in the 11th century, but it is hard to find for downloading. Yet it does exist on the Net. It is the world's first novel, about the beauty, pain and transitory nature of existence.