| Memoirs of a Geisha | |
|---|---|
 First edition cover
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| Author(s) | Arthur Golden |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Historical novel |
| Publisher | Alfred A. Knopf |
| Publication date | September 23, 1997 |
| Media type | Print (hardback & paperback) |
| Pages | 448 pp (hardcover edition) |
Memoirs of a Geisha is a novel written by author Arthur Golden, it was first published in 1997, the novel is told in first-person perspective and tells the fictional story/biography of a Geisha working in Kyoto, Japan, before and after World War II. The book itself contains many Japanese terms for various aspects of the geisha culture, occasionally using the Kyoto counterparts.
And eight years later in 2005, a film adaption of the novel was created. It stars the Chinese actress Zhang Ziyi as the main geisha, it was released on Monday, December 5th, 2005.
Plot Summary[]
The novel begins with an introductory note by the fictional translator, a New York University professor named Jakob Haarhuis, who is the fictional author of the novel and has interviewed the retired geisha Nitta Sayuri (Sayuri Nitta). She narrates in a flashback format with continuous references to the time between her career and the present.
Born Sakamoto Chiyo (Chiyo Sakamoto) into the poverty-stricken fishing village of Yoroido on the coast of the Sea of Japan, she is sold into an okiya (a geisha boarding house) in Gion, the most prominent hanamachi (geisha district) in Kyoto when she is nine years old. Her mother is dying of what she suspects is bone cancer, and her father is very old and also believes death is coming. To Chiyo's dismay, her older sister Satsu is not sold into the Nitta okiya with her. Determined to run away, Chiyo remains in the okiya to begin training as a geisha, along with another young girl her age living in the same okiya, whom she (and everyone else) has nicknamed Pumpkin.
The okiya is run by three women: the elderly and grumbling Granny, the money-obsessed Mother, the okiya's mistress, and Auntie, a failed geisha who trained alongside Mother as her "sister" and the only one of the three who is generally nice to Chiyo. It also houses just one geisha, the malicious Hatsumomo, who is also one of the most popular in Gion. Everyone is willing to overlook her cruelty (in particular towards Chiyo) because she serves as breadwinner for them, and Hatsumomo even uses Chiyo to her personal benefit, at one time blackmailing her by withholding her sister Satsu's whereabouts. She makes Chiyo swear her loyalty to her and letting her take the blame for a ruined kimono. Auntie warns Chiyo against trusting Hatsumomo because of her vile nature.
These add to Chiyo's debts considerably, on top of the fees paid for her acceptance into the okiya, her lessons and food among others. This only strengthens Chiyo's desire to leave, and she manages to find her sister, who has been sold as a prostitute and is also desperate to run away. Days before her escape, Chiyo is warned by Pumpkin not to run away as it's considered dishonorable and punishable with slavery. That night, she catches Hatsumomo has been hosting a boyfriend named Koichi in the okiya for some time and that he was married. This is very forbidden in the geisha code and their unattainability is crucial to their allure. Fearing that she would be kicked out for the deed, Hatsumomo desperately tries to hide the affair by blaming Chiyo for stealing an expensive brooch for money. Although she is blamed for stealing a brooch, Mother isn't fooled and finds out about Koichi from Chiyo. She and Auntie finds semen in Hatsumomo's body and she is slapped in the face for her dalliance. Mother reprimands her for her dalliance and embarrassing them. She reminds Hatsumomo that geishas aren't free to love and is banned from seeing Koichi again. As punishment for her disobedience to the okiya, the okiya doors are locked at night as a consequence. Mother decreed that no one is allowed to leave the okiya under any circumstances except for nightly meetings or late night deliveries. Despite Pumpkin's warning, Chiyo decides to escape via the roof, but fails and ends up breaking her arm. Angered over her dishonoring the okiya, Mother immediately cease her training to be a geisha and she is to pay back her debts every year, reduced to being a slave under her. A letter from Mr. Tanaka informs her that Satsu has escaped from the pleasure district and returned Yoroido, only to run away with Mr. Sugi's son. Upon hearing about Chiyo's downgrade to Mother's slave, Hatsumomo continues taking advantage of her situation by being cruel to her.
A few years after this, Chiyo, crying in the street, is noticed by a man whom she immediately never forgets, giving her his handkerchief and money to buy shave ice. Despite the change being enough to facilitate her escape once and for all, she donates it to the Gion Shrine, praying to become a geisha in the hopes of seeing him again. Several years pass and Pumpkin becomes a geisha on her own under Hatsumomo's tutelage, while Chiyo remains a maid under Mother. However, she is unexpectedly taken in as a protégé by Mameha, the owner of the kimono Hatsumomo previously made Chiyo ruin and one of the very top geisha in all of Japan. Mameha persuades Mother to reinvest into Chiyo's training, and Chiyo becomes the geisha Sayuri, with Mameha as her "older sister" (mentor).
While training Chiyo, Mamaeha explains why Hatsumomo has taken a severe disliking to Chiyo. She is viewed by the former to be very clever and striking with her rare blue-grey eyes. This puts Hatsumomo in a bind because it means Chiyo's popularity and success could mean a change to Mother's future dependence on her financial earnings. Hence, it's why she treats Chiyo so horribly in order to get rid of the competition early. Whereas Pumpkin is viewed as slow, simple minded and plain looking. Hatsumomo could see her as a means to hold on to her control as head geisha in the house. Despite her popularity and influence, she is viewed as a failed geisha by everyone there. After Hatsumomo angered the mistress of the Mizuki Teahouse(her principal one), she couldn't get a dāna to sponsor her independence and remained in the okiya. In spite of her financial earnings, Mother has refused to name Hatsumomo as her heiress to the okiya because she's aware the trouble the latter will cause her. Everyone knows that she'll likely throw Mother out, sell off the okiya's prized kimonos, retire and live on the money.
After Sayuri embarrasses Hatsumomo in a joke during an informal party, Hatsumomo uses her influence to sabotage Sayuri by spreading rumors and trailing her and Mameha from party to party. Mameha insists that she must create a plan to keep Hatsumomo out forever, lest Sayuri's career ultimately die, and so arranges for her mizuage (portrayed as a deflowering "ceremony" for maiko as a step to becoming full-fledged geisha) to be bidden upon by several influential men, namely Nobu Toshikazu, the president of the Iwamura Eletric Company in the novel; and reputed mizuage specialist "Dr. Crab", dubbed so by Sayuri due to his appearance.
From Sayuri's point of view, the Chairman does not recognize her, but treats her with kindness; and as he is Nobu's business partner with a relationship known across the country, he would never bid against him for her mizuage. Unfortunately, Hatsumomo somehow learns that Mameha has something going on (although Sayuri herself is still unaware at this point of the plan), and ruins the image Dr. Crab has of her. It takes some amount of convincing from Mameha and Sayuri's combined efforts to enlighten Dr. Crab on this matter. They convince him that Hatsumomo was a known liar and it's tricky to believe anything she says even while drunk. During the Miyako Odori, Sayuri is casted in the lead role and angering Hatsumomo who had been hoping for Pumpkin to get the lead. She impresses the audience with her dance of the Emperor and the Courtesan, ultimately causing the start of Hatsumomo's downward spiral. Dr. Crab reinvests in Sayuri's mizuage which unfortunately he goes up again, Mameha's dāna, the Baron. Ultimately, he wins the bid for Sayuri's mizuage, paying a record sum that is enough to more than repay all of Sayuri's debts to Mother. This leads Mother, who had already been considering adopting Pumpkin as her heiress, to adopt Sayuri instead, ultimately destroying the two girls' friendship. The change angers Pumpkin and Hatsumomo in different ways. Pumpkin had been looking forward to the adoption so that she could have some kind of security in her old age. Hatsumomo was looking forward to the adoption so she could secure her position as head geisha and drive the now more popular Sayuri out of Gion. Her behavior worsens past all excuses and she is thrown out of the okiya. Despite Sayuri's attempts to save Pumpkin by convincing Mother to adopt them both, she is seen leaving soon after.
Nobu, on the other hand, bids to become Sayuri's dana (principal patron with a role akin to a husband), but loses to an army general. This, Mother believes, is because of the current political climate (Japan is on the brink of entering World War II). When the war breaks out, many geisha are evacuated to other cities to work in the factories. This is as good as a death sentence, as the factories require hard labor and are targets for bombs. Also, subsequently, the General is demoted and is unable to use any influence to send Sayuri to a safer spot. However, help unexpectedly arrives in the form of Nobu, who sends her far north to an old friend of his, a kimono maker named Mr. Arashino. Nonetheless, Sayuri and those close to her must endure a life of hard labor during the war that follows. After the end of the war, Nobu visits Sayuri and asks that she return to Gion, whose doors have opened again, to help entertain the new Deputy Minister Sato, whose aid can be instrumental in saving Iwamura Electric, the company the Chairman founded and Nobu runs, which was all but destroyed during the war. Upon her return to Gion, Sayuri seeks out the one person who can help her, Mameha.
Sayuri helps clean up the okiya with Mother and Auntie and shows kindness to a young girl. When she notices Pumpkin wasn't invited back, she asks Auntie about it. She explains that Pumpkin came to them days ago and begging to be let back in to work as a maid. Auntie was willing to let her back in, but Mother refused, deeming her a financial failure and ordered her to leave. Upon seeing Pumpkin again in a ruined okiya, Sayuri noticed she bears a haunting resemblance to Hatsumomo with her baby fat in her round face gone and from the years of hardships she went through as a prostitute. At first, she refuses to help Sayuri out and wants her to leave. Upon hearing that she is entertaining Deputy Minister Sato, Pumpkin agrees to help out.
Sayuri, Mameha and Pumpkin entertain the Minister together regularly. Some time after, Nobu formally begins proposals to become Sayuri's dāna, leaving her in despair because this would mean the end of any hopes to a relationship with the Chairman. On a weekend trip to the Amami Islands with Iwamura Electric, Sayuri devises a plan to humiliate herself with the Minister in front of Nobu, who, she is sure, will never forgive her for being with the Minister (whom Nobu despises despite his need of help from him).
Upon finding out the plan, Mameha warns against it and reminding her about what Hatsumomo did to ruin her reputation with Koichi. She tells Sayuri to accept Nobu as her dāna and respect him. She refuses and arranges for Pumpkin to bring Nobu to a place where he will "stumble" upon Sayuri and the Minister making love. However, Pumpkin still harbors resentment towards Sayuri's adoption, and brings the Chairman to the theater instead of Nobu. Humiliated, Sayuri confronts Pumpkin for the betrayal. Angered, she coldly points out that Sayuri got what she deserved for stealing the adoption from her. Pumpkin mentions she did a lot of favors for Sayuri in the past, including how she made herself look bad in order to humiliate Hatsumomo. Upon realizing how fond she is with the Chairman, she intentionally brought him there so he can be disgusted by her behavior and she'll have to accept Nobu as her dana like Mameha wanted. In that moment, Sayuri is horrified that a part of Hatsumomo was living inside Pumpkin all this time and has finally gotten her revenge.
Upon retuning to the okiya, Sayuri tries to avoid dealing with the problems in her life. She is saddened to hear that she is to go to a meeting with a very important client at a teahouse of his choosing. Sayuri believes it's Nobu coming over to discuss the plans for him to be her dana and accepts that her dreams of being with the Chairman are over. She prepares to go to the teahouse and discuss the plans with him, but is surprised to see the Chairman there.
Sayuri reveals that her acts in Amami were for personal reasons. The Chairman, in turn, expands on his feelings of debt toward and friendship with Nobu, and how he was not able to take away the woman his friend showed so much interest in. When he learned through Pumpkin that Sayuri's intention was for Nobu to see her with the Minister, he decided to tell Nobu what he had seen. The latter refuses to ever see Sayuri again, therefore freeing the Chairman to advance. He admits he was still angry at Pumpkin for how she treated Sayuri and paid a huge sum for her to disappear. This allowed her to leave Gion for her own life away from everyone. She and the Chairman kiss, Sayuri's first kiss of true love.
The story ends with Sayuri recounting her subsequent life with the Chairman as her dana, and her eventual retirement as a geisha. She never freely admits that she has a son with the Chairman, but speaks of moving to New York City in order to avoid complications regarding inheritance of Iwamura Electric. The story concludes with a reflection on her life in New York and the important people in her life.
References To Actual Locations[]
Much of the novel is set in the popular geisha district of Gion in Kyoto, and contains references to actual places frequented by geisha and their patrons, such as the Ichiriki Ochaya. Part of the story is also set in the Amami Islands, and Sayuri narrates the story from her suite in the The Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City.
Controversy[]
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. The plaintiff asserted that Golden had agreed to protect her anonymity, due to the traditional code of silence about their clients, if she told him about her life as a geisha.
However, Golden listed Iwasaki as a source in his acknowledgments for the novel, causing her to face a serious backlash, to the point of death threats. In his behalf, Arthur Golden countered that he had tapes of his conversations with Iwasaki. Eventually, in 2003, Golden's publisher settled with Iwasaki out of court for an undisclosed sum of money.
Iwasaki later went on to write her own autobiography, which shows a very different picture of twentieth-century geisha life than the one shown in Golden's novel. The book was published as Geisha, a Life in the U.S. and Geisha of Gion in the United Kingdom.