Dr. Gaye Rowley

Gaye Rowley first came to Japan in 1978 as a high school exchange student. Following her return to Australia, she studied Japanese language and literature at the Australian National University in Canberra, graduating from the Faculty of Asian Studies with a B.A. (Hons.) in 1984. She has also studied at Tsuda College (1982), Japan Women's University (M.A., 1987), the University of Venice, Ca' Foscari, and at Newnham College and the Faculty of Oriental Studies at the University of Cambridge (Ph.D., 1995). She has taught Japanese language and literature at the University of Wales, Cardiff, and the University of London, SOAS. Currently she teaches English and Japanese literature in the School of Law and the new School of International Liberal Studies at Waseda University. Her publications include: Yosano Akiko and The Tale of Genji (Ann Arbor: Center for Japanese Studies, University of Michigan, 2000); and a translation, with an introduction, notes, and bibliography, of Masuda Sayo, Autobiography of a Geisha (New York: Columbia University Press, 2003).

The UK paperback edition of her translation of Masuda Sayo's Autobiography of a Geisha was published by Vintage in 2004 and has sold more than 36,000 copies.