...To understand the duality of Japanese society - the strait-laced conformity, on the one hand, combined with what we might consider almost reckless abandonment - it is necessary to get to grips with two Japanese concepts: honne and tatemae. Honne means your true feelings, which you normally keep to yourself. Tatemae is the face you present to society, the way society expects you to behave. Japanese people always understand, when someone says or does something, that they may be merely expressing tatemae. It may well not be what they really think or feel.

Lesley Downer is the author of 'Geisha: The Secret History of a Vanishing World' (Headline 1999) and 'Madame Sadayakko: The Geisha Who Seduced the West (Headline 2002)