She had ten siblings: brothers Seiichiro, Ryozo, Kozo, Fumio, and sisters Yaeko, Kikuko, Kuniko, Yoshiko, Tomiko, Yukiko.

She left home at the age of four to begin studying traditional Japanese dance at the Iwasaki okiya (geisha house) in the Gion district of Kyoto.

According to her autobiography, Iwasaki worked herself to her physical and mental limits, developing at one point a near-fatal kidney condition from which she eventually recovered.

Iwasaki entertained numerous celebrities and foreign dignitaries, including the United Kingdom's Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Charles.

After the death of one of her most significant mentors in 1980, Iwasaki became increasingly frustrated with the tradition-bound world of the geisha community, especially inadequacies in the education system.

After Memoirs was published, Iwasaki received criticism and even death threats for violating the traditional, unspoken code of silence within the geisha profession.

[citation needed] Furthermore, Iwasaki stated that she had lost friends and relationships due to the scandal of being associated with the book, along with certain inconsistencies and fallacies about Gion.