Memoirs of a Geisha: An Analysis

Every writer uses unique ways to accentuate their book. Some accomplish an interesting read through the very theme of the book; adventure, sci-fi, fantasy. Arthur Golden, however, has made the very realistic life of Natti Sayuri interesting to read with the sheer eloquence of his writing. Golden uses a variety of literary devices throughout his novel, including metaphors, allegory, and imagery. 

The entire book is based on the metaphor of water versus wood. Throughout it, there are many references to how Sayuri, the main character, has an unusual amount of water in her personality, and that this makes her journey easier. "Water flows from place to place and always finds a crack to spill through. Wood, on the other hand, holds fast to the earth (Golden, 9.)" This is, essentially, foreshadowing for Sayuri's life; although she is often thrown from place to place, she always finds a way around her problems. Golden uses this metaphorical writing quite often to describe Sayuri's actions. "I pictured myself flowing up the stairs to the second-floor landing, and from there up the ladder, through the trapdoor, and onto the roof beside the gravity-feed tank (Golden, 93)." This excerpt is from when Chiyo is observing water and is attempting to escape the okiya. The writing here is metaphorical to water, as i when water finds itself with an obstacle, it can simply flow around it. 

Symbols are a very big part of the book as well. One example of symbolism here is Sayuri's process of changing from a young, frightened girl, to a strong geisha. This is symbolic to a butterfly emerging from a dark pod. Sayuri herself sees this, when she sheds the same 'Chiyo'. "The mistress of the teahouse asked me a question, and when I heard her call me “Sayuri,” I realized what was bothering me. It was as if the little girl named Chiyo, running barefoot from the pond to her tipsy house, no longer existed.  I felt that this new girl, Sayuri, with her gleaming white face and her red lips, had destroyed her (Golden, 167)." Another symbolic piece in Memoirs of a Geisha is the symbol for geishas' virginity. Apprentice geisha give men they are fond of rice cakes in a velvet box, as an offer for them to bid for their mizuage. "...they have a dimple in the top with a tiny red circle in the center; some people think they look very suggestive (Golden, 238)." 

 Sayuri goes through an incredible character development. To portray this to us, Golden not only writes it through her words and actions, but also through her descriptions of the world around her. In the beginning of the book, she's a small girl who is frightened of everything around her and describes all she sees as big and amazing. "I felt terrified as evening settled in around us; but I was never so astonished by anything in my life as by my first glimpse of city lights. (Golden, 36)." Chiyo is describing the world around her as as something astonishing. Sayuri, however, sees the world as a woman grown.Even her name symbolizes her character development; at the beginning, she's Chiyo Sakamoto. At the end however, she's Nitta Sayuri. 

Golden has used a variety of literary devices to strengthen his novel. The reader gets a really good sense of Sayuri's life through the metaphors, symbols, and descriptions he uses throughout the novel.

Works Cited 

Golden, Arthur. Memoirs of a Geisha. New York: Knopf, 1997.
"Significant Quotes." Memoirs of a Geisha: A Scholarly  Discussion. N.p., n.d. Web. 31 July 2014.
 "Memoirs of a Geisha." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 26 July 2014. Web. 31 July 2014.

The Gray Area Between Geisha and Prostitution

Many people unfamiliar with Japanese culture believe that Geisha is just another term for prostitute. However, Memoirs of a Geisha heavily defines the line between a Geisha and a prostitute. The main reason Arthur Golden wrote the book was to familiarize people with the Japanese culture surrounding Geisha, which is not something present in Western culture.

• Geisha are known as the physical embodiment of art
• There are many distinct differences made between Geisha and prostitutes, a big part of why many think that the art of Geisha is simply prostitution is because in many cities, prostitutes would pose as Geisha, but be unfamiliar with the art and practices of Geisha.
• Geisha are also strictly forbidden to have sexual relations of any kind, with the exception of their danna.

In Japanese culture, Geisha are known as the physical embodiment of ever practice of art. Potential Geisha start training in the arts from a very young age. They spend many hours per day practicing dance, music, and tea ceremony. Mameha, Sayuri’s older sister when she’s an apprentice, tries to explain the importance of the arts to Sayuri. “Dance has everything to do with it. If you look around at the most successful geisha in Gion, every one of them is a dancer (Golden, 150).” After many years as a Geisha, Sayuri herself tries to explan to the audience the importance of the arts. “You must remember that a geisha, above all, is an entertainer and a performer. We may pour sake or tea for a man, but we never go and fetch another serving of pickles (Golden, 143).” Although the main goal for Geisha is to attract the attention of and please men, it’s done in a more humble way that is not connected to prostitution. Their aim is to attract the men’s attention, and then keep them entranced with their artistic value.

There are many distinct differences made between Geisha and prostitutes throughout the book. One of the differences between the two is the way the obi is tied. On a prostitute, the obi is tied at the front, to make it easy for the women to take it on and off. On a Geisha, however, it’s tied in the back, so she can’t take it on and off herself. “They wore kimono and hair ornaments similar to Geisha, but their obi were tied in the front rather than the back. I’d never seen this before and didn’t understand it, but it’s the mark of a prostitute. A woman who must take her sash on and off all night can’t be bothered with tying it behind her again and again (Golden, 83).” Sayuri mentions many a time in the book how the Western view of Geisha is very skewed. “Since moving to New York I’ve learned what the word “geisha” really means to most Westerners. From time to time at elegant parties, I’ve been introduced to some young woman or other in a splendid dress and jewelry. When she learns I was once a geisha in Kyoto, she forms her mouth into a sort of smile, although the corners don’t turn up quite as they should. She has no idea what to say! …this woman is thinking, “My goodness... I’m talking with a prostitute..” A moment later she’s rescued by her escort, a wealthy man a good thirty or forty years older than she is. Well, I often find myself wondering why she can’t sense how much we really have in common. She is a kept woman, you see, and in my day, so was I (Golden, 291).” A big part of the reason there’s confusion in the gray area between a Geisha and a prostitute is because women would pose as Geisha, but actually be prostitutes who were not trained in any arts or practices. However, there are subtle differences in the way a Geisha looks.

Geisha are strictly forbidden to have any sexual relations. Although a Geisha sells her mizuage to the highest bidder to truly ‘become a woman’, from then on she is only permitted to have sexual relations with her danna, in exchange for financial care. Even a man’s presence in the okiya is strictly forbidden. “I haven’t even tried to make your life miserable yet. But if you ever mention that a man came here, or even that he stopped in before the end of the evening that will change (Golden, ).” Sayuri makes the cage that a geisha has to live in really clear when she talks of a man she met and desired. “I felt such a combination of anger at Mother and longing for Yasuda-san that I made up my mind right then to do the very thing Mother had ordered me most explicitly not to do. I asked him to meet me in that very teahouse at midnight, and I left him there alone (Golden, 307)." The life of a Geisha is so restricted in terms of sexual relations that it keeps it as far away from prostitution as possible. Much of a Geisha’s worth is based on how ‘unused’ she is.

There may be gray area between the terms ‘geisha’ and ‘prostitute’, but a geisha is very far from a prostitute. Geisha are not prostitutes, which is apparent in their ethics, their arts and practices, and even their appearance. The art of the Geisha is to attract the men, while prostitution is to please the men.  

"Full Text of "Memories of a Gheisa"" Full Text of "Memories of a Gheisa"N.p., n.d. Web. 31 July 2014.

Memoirs of a Geisha: Themes

There are many themes in Memoirs of a Geisha. For example:

• not everything is as it seems 
• Sayuri is a beautiful geisha from Gion, but she grew up in a small, 'dirty', fishing village. None of her clients believe she grew up there, as they think that's simply impossible. 
• Hatsumono is one of the most beautiful geisha, but her personality is terribly ugly.
• Nobu is deformed and is covered in burns, but turns out to be a very loyal and kind friend.
• hard work pays off
• Sayuri starts off as a maid/slave in an okiya, but she strives very hard toward success, despite her many obstacles, and succeeds in becoming one of them most famous geisha in Gion. 
• keeps your friends close but your enemies closer
• Hatsumono is the main antagonist in the book. She is terrified that Sayuri will be the death of her career, and tries constantly to ruin her reputation. However, Sayuri keeps that from happening by being in the same home with her and talking with her regularly. 
• influence
• Sayuri's career motivation is heavily influenced by others around her. For example, when she was a young girl, she had completely given up on her life. When she met the chairman, however, her outlook on life changed, and her feelings for him motivated her. 

Memoirs of a Geisha: Reader's Journals

I thought including the reader's journals I wrote throughout the course of reading the book would provide something of a first person perspective, so here they are. 

Reader Journal #1 

07/10/14

I'm really enjoying reading Memoirs of a Geisha so far, and I'm about a third of the way into the book. Essentially what's happened up to this point is Chiyo Sakamoto and her older sister, Satsu, were taken from their poor fishing village and sent to Kyoto. Chiyo is sold to an okiya, or a geisha boarding house, but her sister is sold into prostitution. Chiyo often talks about how scary it is to have been taken away from her parents and her small village to a big city like Kyoto.

I grew up in a big city, but I find I can still understand the fear that Chiyo talks about throughout the chapters. It's surely connected to common sense, but the writing itself is also done in a way that you can really understand the characters and empathize with them. Her grief over her life being thrown around has many different branches to it; for one, she's afraid for herself. Whenever she is met with new characters that are linked to her moving away from her home, she always describes them as intimidating and ugly. However, she also talks about how she's upset for her sister, and how she feels it's all her fault that this situation arose, which is visible when she thinks to herself 'Satsu's lips turned down like a baby's, and she began to cry. Even if she'd hit me and yelled at me, I wouldn't have ached as much as I did watching her whole face tremble. Everything was my fault (Golden, 34).' Lastly, her anger at herself is reflected when she explains that' she is also sad for her mother and father, when she narrates 'I had a sudden image in my mind of my poor, sick mother propping herself on one elbow upon her futon and looking around to see where we had gone (Golden, 44).'

I've noticed while reading that the writing has a certain air of foreshadowing to it. Before they're sent away, many people examine the girls and talk about their general health, and Satsu receives many negative comments. When Chiyo steps out of the car expecting to be followed by her sister but is instead told that they will be separated, the writing quickly turns cold and frightening, and Chiyo immediately thinks that her sister must be going someplace worse. I found that thanks to the writing, I had already guessed where they were sending Satsu before it was specifically explained.

The way that Chiyo describes the world around her gives me the impression that she's very small and timid; everything is depicted as big,frightening, and unfamiliar, and all the characters are drawn out to be very unwelcoming and unfriendly. I find it very easy to relate to her as a character in that manner. The fact that she describes everything as so big definitely makes the mental image I have somewhat similar.

I could predict a lot of things about this novel. For one thing, timid characters almost always go through a very big character development, and become confident. I would assume that Chiyo is going to go through a very big transformation. Considering all the passages that go towards Chiyo missing her sister, I would also assume that they're going to meet at one point and try to fix their lives. However, Chiyo is alone in the beginning of the book, and that leads me to think that her sister may even pass away near the end.

I get the feeling that she's also a sincere, empathetic person. She has a unique way of looking at people, in the way that she doesn't necessarily look at them aesthetically. Often the people that treat her badly are described as very ugly, and it's quite the opposite with people who are good to her. I find it easy to relate to her in this manner also.

Overall, I'm really enjoying this novel! It's all set in a very different time and culture, and it's certainly interesting to read about something so foreign to me. I'm interested to see if my predictions are true. I'm definitely looking forward to reading the rest of this book.

Reader's Journal #2 

07/18/14

I'm reading 'Memoirs of a Geisha', and I'm currently about two thirds of the way into it. Essentially what's happened since my last reader's journal is that Chiyo has been taken in as an apprentice Geisha by an older, very popular Geisha, Mameha. Mameha and Hatusumono, who Chiyo lives with, are rivals. Ever since the beginning of her apprenticeship, Hatsumono has been trying to destroy Chiyo's reputation. Chiyo's Geisha name is also Sayuri now.

Considering the book is based on real life events, I'm not really sure if this is intentional. Reading through it, I've noticed that there's a really strong underlying message of feminism. A lot of the book focuses on how a Geisha's main goal is to please men. It's their constant main focus, and none of the characters seems to question it. The female characters are also only shown as either Geisha, maids, or prostitutes, while the men are always important, corporate business men. Although the book is set in a different time when gender issues were far more prominent, I think that it's been heavily outlined so that the reader will notice it more. There's a lot of emphasis on how a Geisha's main goal in life is to receive a good reputation by pleasing the men she entertains, and seducing a few good danna, which are men who provide for them in exchange for sexual favours and intimacy. It's sort of life prostitution, but more 'elegant'.

Currently, the book is focusing on two men having a bidding war for Sayuri's mizuage, or her virginity. I think because there's been so much focus on this particular issue, the plot is going to go in a completely different direction and neither of them are going to win her. Sayuri met a man who changed her view on life two years before the current time in the book, and she talks a lot about how he changed her. She worries that she'll never get to be close to him, because one of the two men is a close friend of his, and two men who are close associates can never be close with the same Geisha. However, I think that she is going to be close with him in the future, instead of the other two men.

I've found that many of my predictions are somewhat coming true. Sayuri is evolving from a very timid character into a far more stable and intelligent one. She no longer describes things and places and big as scary, but usually as interesting and beautiful. She talks a lot about how she feels like she's lost the child in her, and she doesn't really know how she feels about it. I feel like by the end of the book, she'll have completely let go of the little girl in her and developed into a really accomplished Geisha.

Considering the topic of feminisn again, I've noticed that Sayuri's main role models are also only men. She fantasizes a lot about the chairman, and Mr. Tanaka (a man from when she was very young, who sold her to her okiya). She bears a lot of anger towards Mr. Tanaka, which makes me think that she's going to meet him in the future.

So far, I think that Memoirs of a Geisha has really great writing, and makes the reader feel like they're really reading something written by a Geisha. I'm really enjoying it so far and looking forward to reading the end of it. 

Reader's Journal #3 

07/28/14

I just finished it recently and I really, really enjoyed it. It was interesting to read a book that was based not only in a completely different time, but also a different culture.

A really big theme occurred to me near the end of the book, and it's the theme of 'Nothing is as it seems.' This theme presents itself numerous times throughout the book; for one, Sayuri is a beautiful Geisha, yet she came from a small fishing village. No one expects that of her, let alone believe her when she tells them. It's also apparent through the character Nobu; he has burns all over his face, and has quite a stern personality, yet he's loyal and kind. Lastly it shows through Hatsumono; she's known as one of the most beautiful geisha, yet she's a destructive person.

Another interesting thing that came up numerous times in the book, which I imagine is a popular superstition where Sayuri was from, was the thought that people had either more wood or more water in them. Sayuri talks about this earlier in the book, when she mentions that her mother told her they both had a lot of water in them. “My mother said it was because we were made just the same, she and I- and it was true we both had the same peculiar eyes of the sort you almost never see in
Japan. Instead of being dark brown like everyone else’s, my mother’s eyes were a translucent gray, and mine were just the same.” (Golden, 9)

I found many of my predictions from earlier in the book came true; for one thing, Sayuri's character development goes a very long way. At the beginning of the book, she's terrified of everything and tries her best to get out of the situation she's been forced into. Near the end, however, she's become a strong character who's accepted her fate. Her character development is actually evident from the very beginning of the book, in the preface, when she says “I long ago developed a very practiced smile, which I call my “Noh smile” because it resembles a Noh mask whose features are frozen. Its advantage is that men can interpret it however they want; you can imagine how
often I’ve relied on it.” (Golden, 8) Losing the little girl in her wasn't easy though; she often talks about how she misses that little girl, and she feels like a very big part of her was lost when she became a Geisha. For example: “The mistress of the teahouse asked me a question, and when I heard her call me“Sayuri,” I realized what was bothering me. It was as if the little girl named Chiyo, running barefoot from the pond to her tipsy house, no longer existed. I felt that this new girl, Sayuri, with her gleaming white face and her red lips, had destroyed her” (Golden, 167)

My predictions about the chairman were also true; she talks about him very much in the book, and in the end they do end up together.

I found that there was heavy focus in the book on how most of the main contributors to Sayuri's career are men; her emotional motivation always came from the chairman, Nobu is a great friend to her, Doctor Crab paid heavily for her mizuage, and the General is her danna for quite a few years. However, Mameha, who was her older sister for her apprenticeship, had probably the biggest impact on her career. I found their relationship very interesting, it was almost like a mother daughter type of dynamic.

The last line of the book really stuck with me. “But now I know that our world is no more permanent than a wave rising on the ocean. Whatever our struggles and triumphs, however we may suffer them, all too soon they bleed into wash, just like watery ink on paper” (Golden, 428). Here Chiyo is evaluating her life, and I think it's interesting because it's the last thing she shares with us.

Overall, I found this book incredibly interesting and well written. It was fascinating to read something from such a different culture! 

Memoirs of a Geisha: Characters

 Memoirs of a Geisha is a historical novel written by Arthur Golden, and published in 1997. The book tells the story of a fictional feisha, Chiyo Sakamoto (later known as Nitta Sayuri), living in Gion.

 Memoirs of a Geisha  follows mainly the story of Sayuri, who's also followed by four other main characters.

 Chiyo Sakamoto / Nitta Sayuri: 

This is Chiyo. As a young girl, she was taken away from her family along with her sister and sold to an okiya in Gion, a fairly large geisha district. For years, before becoming an apprentice geisha, Chiyo works as a slave in the okiya. 

This is also Chiyo. However, now that she's become an apprentice geisha, she's known as 'Sayuri.' 

Mameha:  

Mameha is a very famous geisha in Gion. Mameha decides to take on Chiyo as an apprentice, for reasons that she doesn't know for a long time. Mameha spends a great deal of time with Sayuri, and teaches her everything she knows about being a geisha.

Hatsumono: 

Hatsumono is another very famous geisha.  She lives in and provides for the okiya that Sayuri is sent to as a child. From the moment they meet, Hatsumono sees her as a threat, and does everything she can to prevent her from becoming a successful geisha. She is the main antagonist in the book. 

Chairman:

The chairman is a man that Sayuri meets as a very young girl, before becoming an apprentice geisha. When they met, Chiyo is crying and has lost all the hope in her life. The chairman, however, cheers her up and gives her a different view on life. Because of this, she develops very strong feelings for him, and he basically fuels the motivation for her career. 

Nobu: 

Nobu is a man who works with the chairman. Mameha makes is so that he and Sayuri are very well acquainted, as she believes it would be good for her career. This saddens Sayuri, however, because she knows that if she is close with Nobu, she can never be close with the chairman.