Characters in the "Memoirs of a Geisha"

 Chiyo Sakamoto '’Sayuri’’

Chyo is the main character in the book, the story being told from her perspective. She is
taken from her family and separated from her sister at a young age and is sold to a
geisha house where Mother hops that she will become a successful geisha. She is a
stubborn character, insisting on running away and on disobeying the house rules, which
results in Mother refusing to send her to the geisha school anymore. A successful geisha
takes an interest in Chyo because of her interesting eyes and manages to make her a
successful geisha. Sayuri ends up falling in love with a wealthy man and, from that point
on, everything she does is in the hope that one day she will meet that person again.

 Hatsumomo

She is the only geisha in the Nitta okyia when Chyo arrives there. She is extremely
beautiful and quite successful but is proud and hateful towards those who have more
success than her. From the day Chyo enters the okyia, Hatsumomo hates her because
she sees her as a possible competitor and does everything she can to throw Chyo out.
When the time comes, Hatsumomo becomes Pumpkin’s older sister and helps her.

 Pumpkin

Pumpkin is a girl the same age as Chyo brought to the okyia in order to become a geisha.
Even if she is not exceptionally beautiful or talented, she succeeds for a short period of
time with Hatsumomo’s help. In the beginning, she and Chyo are good friends but are
made rivals when Hatsumomo takes Pumpkin as her younger sister. During the war,
Pumpkin ends up working in the pleasure district, and she sees Chyo responsible for
that. When Pumpkin became a geisha, she receives the name Hatsumiyo but she
remained known as Pumpkin even in her geisha days.

 Mameha

Mameha is a very respectable geisha in the Gion district. She is considered as being a
successful geisha because of her independence and because she had a danna who paid
all her expenses instead of an okiya. Mameha takes an interest in Chyo and manages to
convince Mother to let her continue her geisha training. Unlike Hasumomo, Mameha is
kind hearted and guides Chyo in her journey of becoming a successful geisha.

 Iwamura Ken ''The Chairman’’

The Chariman is the one who meets Chyo one day on a bridge and who is the reason
behind her desire to become a geisha. He is the founder of Iwamura Electric and a close
friend of Mameha’s. He confesses that he was the reason behind Mameha’s decision to
take Chyo as her younger sister and ends up being Chyo’s danna.

 Nobu Toshikazu

Nobu is one of Chyo’s admirers. He is disfigured from and accident that happened in the
war and because of that many geishas nickname him Mr. Lizard. His affections towards
Chyo are sincere and he competes for her virginity and then to become her danna.
During the war, he makes sure that Chyo is safe by sending her outside the city.

 General Tottori
The general becomes Sayuri’s first danna even if Nobu competed for the right to be her
danna too. Even he is not as generous with gifts as other dannas, he provides to be
useful when the war starts and he manages to get the okyia things that are not found
elsewhere in the Gion district. He is however unable to protect Sayuri when she needs it
as he uses the influence he has to protect onother girl.

 Sakamoto Minoru

Chyo’s father, Sakamoto was a fisherman who lives in a small fishing village. He is
married with Chyo’s mother but she is his second wife and thus, much younger than he
is. Chyo describes him as loving the sea above all and being a calm man.

 Tanaka Ichiro

Tanaka was a business man who owned a business in Yoroido where Chyo’s father
worked. He has a girl the same age as Chyo and he is the one who arranged for Chyo and
her sister to be sent away.

 Natsu

The first wife of Sakamoto Minoru who died when she was twenty four.

 Jinichiro

One of Sakamoto Minoru and Natsu’s children who died at the age of six.

 Masao

Onother child resulting from the marriage betwen Natsu and Sakamoto Minoru who
died at the age of three.

 Dr. Miura

The doctor in Yoroido that treated Chyo’s mother.

 Satsu

Satsu is Chyo’s older sister who resembles her father both in manner and is appearance.
While Chyo is sent to a geisha house, she is sent to a pleasure house and becomes a
prostitute. She eventually runs away.

 Chyo’s mother

Though her name is not given, it is said that Chyo resembles her mother, both having
unusual grey eyes. When Chyo was seven, her mother grew terribly ill and eventually
died shortly after Chyo and her sister were sent away.

 Mrs. Suigi

A rob maker in Yoroido

 Sugi

Mr. Tanaka’s assistant.

 Kuniko

Mr. Tanaka’s younger daughter who has the same age as Chyo.
  Bekku

Bekku is the one who takes Chyo and her sister away. He also assists geishas when they
dress because of the complexity of the Japanese traditional clothes.

 Korin

A geisha in the Gion district and a friend of Hatsumomo’s.

 Onoe Shikan

A name used as a code by Hatsumomo when referring to her boyfriend.

 Awaji

A former sumo wrestler working at the Gion Registry Office

 Teacher Mizumi

She is the teacher that teaches shamisen at the geisha school. Because of her
appearance, she receives the nickname, Teacher Mouse.

 Umeko

The name of the cook in the Nitta okyia.

 Tatsumi

Mameha’s maid.

 Hatsuoki

A geisha that was forced to leave Gion after Hatsumomo spread lies about her.

 Auntie

Auntie is a former unsuccessful geisha that lives in the Nitta okyia. She is kind hearted
and advices Chyo not to trust Hatsumomo.

 Kayoko Nitta ’'Mother’’

Mrs. Nitta is the head of the Nitta okyia and in charge of everything that passes through
it. She is known as being very greedy and about not making any deals unless it’s in her
advantage. Even after the war forces the geisha district to close down, Mother continues
to make good profit through multiple business, showing her true character.

 Grandmother

Grandmother is another former successful geisha who lives in the Nitta okyia. She is
cruel and her appearance is disfigured because of the make-up used in her geisha days.

 Teacher Rump

A teacher at the geisha school who teaches dance.

 Waza

Mameha’s fortune teller.

 Baron Matunaga Tsuneyoshi

The Baron is Mameha’s danna and also a wealthy aristocrat. During the war, he remains
without his fortune so he ends up committing suicide.

 Miyagiyama

A sumo wrestler

 Saiho

A sumo wrestler

 Dr. Crab

Dr. Crab is the name given by Chyo to well-known doctor that bought her virginity. He
also bought Mmeha’s virginity and Hatsumomo’s.

 Uchida Kosaburo

A well-known artist that becomes intrigues by Chyo’s looks and paints her a portrait that
makes her famous.

 Mr. Itchoda

Mameha’s dresser

 Yasuda Akira

A designer that became famous and that Sayuri found interesting.

 Takazuru

A geisha that Nobu found interesting after the war. She comes to Sayuri and asks for
advice on how to please him and make him like her more.

 Michizono

A geisha in the Gion district after the war.

 Bando Shojiro

A Kabuki actor

 Tachibana

An old koto player

 Basil Rathbone

An English actor

 Arashino Isamu

A well-known kimono maker that was famous before the war but after it started him and
his family had to sew parachutes. Sayuri is sent to him by Nobu when it becomes too
dangerous to remain in the city.

 Juntaro

Mr. Arashino’s grandson

  Inoue

A young tami maker that Sayuri got involved with while she was with the Arashino’s
family.

 Etsuko

A young girl that became maid in the Nitta okyia when it was open again after the war.

 Shizue

An old geisha that accompanied Mameha, Sayuri and Pumpkin to the Amami Island.

 Izuko

The geisha who accompanied the Chairman the first time he meets Chyo.

 Ichiwari

The director of the Minamiza Theater

What is the theme of the movie?

Love

Love is the predominant theme found in the book. In fact, love is what motives Sayuri to
eventually become a geisha. However, considering Sayuri’s status as a geisha, loving
someone is not profitable and usually the relationships that geishas have with their
danna’s is seen as simply a business contract that doesn’t involve the geisha to be in love
with her protector. Even if a geisha falls in love with someone, she is still bound to her
danna and has to relay on his money and status to survive. Sayuri is aware of the
complications that come with loving someone so that is why, her love or the Chairman
remains for a while an ideal, Sayuri keeping her feelings to herself. She is content to just
see the Chairman and be in his presence to be happy. This changes however when signs
that the Chairman might be interested in her become present. Sayuri’s love for the
Chairman evolves starting from that point on: instead on just waiting to be noticed, she
makes efforts in order to get close to him. She even destroys her chances with Nobu and
the prospect of having him as her danna just so she could pursue her love for the
Chairman.

Destiny

In Memoirs of a Geisha, destiny is seen as something that can’t be changed and every
character has to accept its own destiny. In most of the times, destiny in the movie is
confused with the limitations imposed by the society they lived in. For Sayuri, destiny
seemed to dictate that she had no other choice than becoming a geisha which is
partially true considering that during those times, the only way a woman could make
money without getting married was either to be a prostitute or work as a servant. At the
end of the movie, Sayuri realizes that destiny is not as powerful as she believed it to be
and that she could influence it slightly. Starting from that point, she starts to take
matters into her own hands and try to make deliberate choices about her life, rather
than letting things be decided for her.

Death and loneliness

These two themes are related and could be easily traced through the whole story. The
protagonist find out quickly that lifer itself is a rather fragile thing and people can’t avoid
the inevitable. She sees how her father gets old, how her mother gets sick and her older
sister transforms from a little girl to an adult woman. When her parents pass and sister
escapes, she feels emptiness and loneliness. Being too familiar with these feelings, she is
afraid to be left alone after the Chairman’s death.

Parents’ love

The theme of parent’s love is not widely revealed, but it is of no less importance than
any other in the story. One of the most touching moments is when Sayuri’s sees her
father crying for the very first time in her life. Grief of a parent who is no longer capable
of taking care about his/her children is overwhelming and strong.

Betrayal and loyalty

These themes are inseparable in the story. One the one hand a reader can see how
Sayuri stays loyal to her heart and how the Chairman sacrifices his happiness for a friend
willingly, but on the other hand we also see a lot examples of betrayal. For instance,
Pumpkin’s betrayal of Sayuri shows how easily envy can destroy friendship.

What is the summary of the story?

The movie opens by presenting the geisha’s life and family before coming to Gion. She
was a young girl, belonging to a fisherman, who grew up in a fishing village called
Yoroido. She grew up as being the youngest one and often being compared to her
mother with whom she shared the same unusual eye color, a light grey, not common
among Japanese people. Her father’s name was Sakamoto Minoru and he was married
before but his wife and also his two children, a boy and a girl, died.

After that Sakamoto Minoru married again and together with his new wife had two
daughters, Chyo and Satsu. The older daughter resembled her father both in manner
and physical appearance while Chyo was more like her mother.

When Chyo was seven, her mother became ill. Despite that the village doctor, Miura,
tried to help her, it seemed that there was no more hope for her. Chyo overheard her
father and the doctor talk about her mother and she started fearing what would happen
if her mother were to die.

When her father sent Chyo into the village to bring incense for the altar, she felt down
and was rescued by Tanaka Ichiro, the owner of the Japan Costal Seafood Company. He
took care of her and recognized her as being Sakamoto’s daughter. Chyo then started to
look up to Mr., Tanaka because she saw him as being more mannered than the others.

The very next day, Chyo meets Mr. Tanaka again as she spies on her sister making out
with one of the village boys. Mr. Tanaka invites Chyo and her sister to come to his house
the next day and they agree.

The next day, they are first taken to Mr. Tanaka’s office where the two girls meet old
women that Chyo calls Ms. Fidget, and examines them. After that, they are taken to Mr.
Tanaka’s house. Chyo meets Tanaka’s daughter who is the same age as she is and the
idea that Mr. Tanaka wants to adopt her and her sister grows inside of her.
A few days pass until one day, Mr. Tanaka sends after the two girls. Instead of adopting
them, they are taken to the train station where a man awaits for them and the two girls
are taken to Kyoto. There, Chyo is taken to a geisha house in the Gion district and is
separated from her sister.

In the house lives only another geisha named Hatsumomo who immediately dislikes
Chyo because she sees her as a potential threat. The house is also inhabited by Granny,
an old geisha, Mother, a person who only cares about money, Auntie, a failed geisha,
and Pumpkin, another girl the same age as Chyo brought to become a geisha.

Chyo starts as a servant, doing chores and whatever she is put up to, but after a while,
she is sent to be trained as a geisha together with Pumpkin. Hatsumomo tries to get rid
of Chyo by making her life miserable, withholding information about her sister’s
whereabouts and blaming the destruction of Mameha’s kimono, a rival of Hatsumomo’s,
on Chyo. Auntie, knowing Hatsumomo’s character, warns Chyo not to trust her.

Chyo’s sister tries to get in touch with her but Hatsumomo doesn’t let her. Because she
wants to torment Chyo, Hatsumomo lets her know that her sister searched her but
refused to tell her where she is and where she works.

One day, Chyo is sent to go and give Hatsumomo an instrument at a tea house and she
uses the opportunity to go and find Satsu. Chyo finds her sister in the pleasure district
and they set the date when they would run away, Satsu refusing to run away that night
because they had no money.

When Chyo arrives at the okyia, Hatsumomo reveals that Chyo went to see her sister to
Mother. Because of this, Chyo tells Mother that Hatsumomo has a boyfriend, a peasant
named Koichi, fact that could endanger Hatsumomo’s career and the okyia’s revenue.
Mother punishes Hatsumomo and forbids her from seeing her lover again, which only
makes Hatsumomo hate Chyo more.

Despite Auntie and Pumpkin’s warnings, Chyo tries to run so she could meet with her
sister. She goes up on the roof believing that she can escape that way but ends up falling
and breaking her arm. Mother gets angry with her and decides that she will no longer
pay for Chyo’s training to be a geisha and that from that day on, Chyo will pay her debts
by being a slave to the okyia. That day, Chyo also finds that her sister had run away from
the pleasure house and is nowhere to be found.

A few years passed and while Pumpkin continues her training as a geisha, Chyo remains
a servant in the okyia. One day, when Chyio returned home from running errands, she
stops on a bridge and reflects on how miserable her life has been. A man passing by
accompanied by another geisha stops to comfort her, telling her kind words and buying
her shaved ice and giving her some money and his handkerchief. Chyo knows him only as
the Chairman, since that was what the geisha called him, and it is then when she decides
that she wants to become a geisha too, just to have the chance to meet him again. Chyo
keeps the handkerchief but donates the money to a temple hoping that that way she will
be closer to becoming a geisha.

Grandmother dies in an accident and at her funeral, Mameha comes to pay her respects.
Mameha takes an interest in Chyo and manages to convince Mother to let Chyo begin
her training as a geisha again under her tutelage and they set a bet concerning Chyo’s
ability to pay all her debts by the age of 20.

When Chyo starts her training as a geisha again, Pumpkin is already an apprentice geisha
who has taken the name Hatsumiyo and has Hatsumomo as her older sister.
Chyo becomes close to Mameha who tells her more about Hatsumomo and why she is
considered as being a failed geisha. Despite her fame and steady income, Hatsumomo is
unable to get a danna, or a man who will pay for what she needs and make her
financially independent. Because of this, Hatsumomo has to remain in the okyia and
under Mother’s authority because she needs the okyia’s kimono collection. Mameha
suspects that the reason why Hatsumomo hates Chyo is because she is more beautiful
than she is and that she suspects that one day Mother will chose to adopt her as a
daughter and thus making Hatsumomo loose her power in the okyia.

With Mameha’s help, Chyo soon becomes a geisha and adopts the name Sayuri.
Mameha begins to introduce Sayuri through the district but her efforts are in vain
because Hatsumomo starts spreading rumors about Sayuri and how she is no longer a
virgin. Because of this, Mameha is more determined to make everything she can to
throw Hatsumomo out of Gion.

Mameha arranges that Sayuri’s virginity or mizuage to be bided between two influential
men: a doctor that is known for buying the virginity of a large number of geishas
including Mameha and the president of Iwamura Electric, Toshikazu Nobu. Sayuri meet
Nobu at a summon match where she was taken by Mameha and it was there when she
also meet, the Chairman again, Ken Iwamura who happened to be a close friend and
business partner with Nobu.

The doctor is ready to give up bidding for Sayuri’s virginity when he hears that she may
not be intact but is convinced not to do it by Mameha.

Before the bidding is done, Sayuri attends a party at the villa owned by Mameha’s
danna, the Barron. There, the Barron tries to sexually assault Sayuri , undressing her. As
a result, the Barron also bids for Sayuri’s virginity but loses against the Doctor.

After Sayuri is no longer a virgin, Mother decides to officially adopt Sayuri and make her
heiress to the okyia. Hatsumomo and Pumpkin get angry but they can’t convince Mother
to change her mind.

Hatsumomo starts to behave reckless and is eventually thrown out of the okyia by
Mother, and is never seen again.

Nobu manifests his wish to become Sayuri’s danna but loses when Mother chooses
General Tottori instead. Even is The General doesn’t lavish Sayuri with gifts, he proves to
be useful when Japan is on the brick of war in the World War II, providing necessities
and not only and protecting the okyia from being seized and searched by the military.

The general falls from his position and is no longer able to help them just when the
geisha district is closed. Many geishas are sent to work in factories and lose their lives
because the factories were frequently bombed. Sayuri goes to the General to ask him to
send her somewhere safe but he is unable to as he used his influence to protect another
girl.

Sayuri is helped by Nobu and she ends up sent to a kimono maker that now made
parachutes, outside the city and safe from the bombing.

At the end of the war, Nobu goes back to Sayuri and asks for her help. Because of the
war, many factories were destroyed, including a few belonging to Iwamura Electric.
Nobu and the Chairman needed Sayuri to entertain the new Deputy Minister Sato who
could help them rebuilt and save the company.
Sayuri agrees and goes back to Gion where the okyia is opened again. Together with
Mameha and Pumpkin, they start to entertain the Minister on a regular basis, and the
Minister ends up getting attached to Sayuri to the point where he proposes himself to be
her danna. The minister is however made to drop his proposal by Nobu who also wanted
to become Sayuri’s danna.

Sayuri dreads the idea of Nobu becoming her danna because of her feeling for the
Chairman. Sayuri starts to form a plan to make Nobu give up the idea of becoming her
danna by staging to be caught while having sexual relationships with the Minister on a
trip she took together with Nobu, The Chairman, Pumpkin and Mameha to an island.

Sayuri asks Pumpkin to bring Nobu to the place where she and the Minister will be, but
she brings the Chairman instead to get revenge on Sayuri.

They return to Gion and Sayuri realizes that she lost the trust Nobu had in her but also
that she ruined whatever chance she had with the Chairman.

After a while, Sayuri meets with the Chairman again and they confess their feelings. The
Chairman reveals that he didn’t pursued Sayuri because he saw how much Nobu got
attached to her and didn’t wanted to ruin the relationship that may form between them.

The Chairman and Sayuri kiss and for Sayuri, that was the first time she felt loved.

Where did the story happened?

Kyoto, Japan in the 1930s and 40s

Well, if you want the best geisha in the world, you have to go to Kyoto, Japan. And travel
back in time a few decades, when geisha were at the height of their popularity. That's
not to say that they aren't still popular today—people even travel to Kyoto to
photograph them. But the height of geisha culture (or the low point, depending on your
perspective on geisha) is the time period written about in the book.

Besides cellphones, what changed? World War II, that's what. Although the Second
World War gets only a handful of paragraphs in the book, its effects on geisha culture
were catastrophic. Sayuri says, "Our country wasn't simply defeated, it was destroyed".
We see the geisha district of Gion get temporarily shut down, and it can barely recover.
After all, geisha are like products. Would you return to a store if it kept going out of
business?

Also, the war brings white Americans to Japan, which changes the culture and the
methods geisha need to use to attract business. Americans don't understand the culture,
and Pumpkin alludes to the parties being different.

Our setting within a setting is the Nitta okiya, which is basically a boarding house for
geisha. It reminds us of a modern-day sorority house. It's run by a house mother, they go
to parties, and there are hazing rituals. Girls must first work their way up the ranks,
starting as a maid, before they end up a geisha.

Also, like the geisha, the house itself needs to be maintained. Sayuri realizes this after
the geisha district is shut down during the war: "The house itself was punishing us for
our years of neglect". The house, like geisha culture, has fallen into disrepair. It can be
fixed, but it will take time, and it will never be the same.
 Questions for Discussion
1. Many people in the West think of geisha simply as prostitutes. After reading
Memoirs of a Geisha, (a) do you see the geisha of Gion as prostitutes? (b) What are the
similarities, and what are the differences? (c) What is the difference between being a
prostitute and being a "kept woman,"?

(a) Geisha are not prostitutes. They have no training about sex.'' The geisha's job is to
entertain groups of men with drinking games and witty remarks, so they can ''avoid
being a bunch of bleary-eyed guys.

(b) The similarities between a geisha and a prostitute is that they are both entertainers
and both trained in many arts. The differences are, a geisha satifying men through
classical musics, dance, games, conversations and sexual manners while a prostitute
satisfying men through sex (to gain money) and also degrades her talents for money.

(c) A "kept" woman is usually interested in living with a man for him to take care of her
needs. She is housed, wined and dined, is given money or other considerations such as
gifts, and usually is true to the guy paying her bills. A prostitute just goes for the money
and doesn't care how many different guys it comes from or how often she needs to have
sex to make the money, and has it anywhere, anytime.

2. In Memoirs of a Geisha, Arthur Golden has done a very daring thing: he, an
American man, has written in the voice of a Japanese woman. How successfully does
he disguise his own voice? While reading the novel, did you feel that you were hearing
the genuine voice of a woman?

I think Golden easily disguises his own voice. At times there were
passages that felt a little like a lecture or reading an encyclopedia. For
example, the passage where Chiyo watches Hatsumomo dress and put
her makeup on for the first time sounded a little like a “How To ” guide.
Because he was supposed to be an elderly lady recounting her past, he
could’ve used more tools to make it sound like a narrative. Including
more things like, “I was in awe when…” could’ve broken up the
monotony of simply describing it as a third-person encounter.

3. How do Japanese ideas about eroticism and sexuality differ from Western ones?
Does the Japanese ideal of femininity differ from ours? Which parts of the female
body are fetishized in Japan, which in the West? The geisha’s ritual of preparing herself
for the teahouse is a very elaborate affair; how essentially does it differ from a
Western women’s preparation for a date?

Western men love boobs and butts. Oh sure, they might like other
parts of the body too, like legs or stomach or lips. But I don ’t think
Western men would find the underside of the forearm or the nape of
the neck to be very sexual parts of the body. “I must tell you
something about necks in Japan, if you don ’t know it; namely, that
Japanese men, as a rule, feel about a woman ’s neck and throat the
same way that men in the West might feel about a woman ’s legs. This
is why geisha wear the collars of their kimono so low in the back that
the first few bumps of the spine were visible …When a man sits beside
her and sees her makeup like a mask, he becomes that much more
aware of the bare skin beneath.”
I think the major difference in the preparations of a geisha and a
regular Western woman is that of tradition. It takes a geisha longer,
also. But the ritual of preparing for the teahouse just has much more
of a tradition. Japanese women might not have always had the same
kind of makeup, but the tradition of getting ready was deeply
entrenched in the geisha culture. And they wear more traditional
clothes, whereas a Western woman’s style continually changes. I could
look at women in clothes from 1900 to 1990 and place her in a
decade, based on her clothes. Not so with a geisha, at least to the
Western eye.

4. Do you find that the relationship between a geisha and her danna is very different
from that between a Western man and his mistress? What has led Sayuri to think that
"a geisha who expects understanding from her danna is like a mouse expecting
sympathy from a snake"?

No, I don’t think there is a difference. Sayuri’s first danna, the General,
did not understand her. The Baron didn’t understand Mameha. A
geisha was lucky to have a danna who was understanding —Sayuri
would’ve got this from Nobu, I think, and she did get it from the
Chairman. It was more or less her experience that led her to believe it
was a rare thing.
5. We must use whatever methods we can to understand the movement of the
universe around us and time our actions so that we are not fighting the currents, but
moving with them". How does this attitude differ from the Western notion of seizing
control of one’s destiny? Which is the more valid? What are Sayuri’s feelings and
beliefs about "free will"?

I thought this idea of destiny was really interesting throughout the

book. It’s quite obvious that Sayuri believed the Chairman was
somehow involved in her destiny—maybe even destined to be with
him—even though she had nothing to back it up. Sayuri said, “If you
keep your destiny in mind, every moment in life becomes an
opportunity for moving closer to it.” But this quote confuses me,
because Sayuri doesn’t know exactly what her destiny is. How can you
move towards something in your life when you have no idea what
what that something is? Sayuri continually referenced her life was like
a river and she floated along it, not knowing where it would take her.
So how does she know what actions will take one or the other of a fork
in the river?
By seizing one’s destiny, I think in a Westernized world, that means we
choose our own destinies. I decided I was destined to become a
teacher, so I seized that destiny and took certain steps to get closer to
it, such as going to college and taking certain classes, much like
Sayuri’s quote I wrote above. Sayuri definitely seized her destiny when
she tried to sabotage her relationship with Nobu to get closer to the
Chairman. But I think free will is involved in seizing your destiny,
which Sayuri did—even if she didn’t believe in free will …I don ’t know if
Golden knew what he was doing when he started including all the
destiny stuff.

1. Many people in the West think of geisha simply as prostitutes. After reading
Memoirs of a Geisha, (a) do you see the geisha of Gion as prostitutes? (b) What are the
similarities, and what are the differences? (c) What is the difference between being a
prostitute and being a "kept woman,"?

No, I don’t think the geisha of Gion are the same as prostitutes. I think
that the basic difference between the two are that men are ready and
willing to pay geisha to keep them company, without expecting an
sexual favors in return. If a man wanted sex from a geisha, he would
have to go through a lengthy process in order to do so. Whereas
prostitutes are essentially paid for sexual favors —I doubt a man would
pay a prostitute simply for their company. Golden sort of backs this
theory up. Pumpkin was a geisha before WWII, but Golden mentions
that she became a prostitute during the hardships during/after the
war. Why would he make the distinction of Pumpkin being both a
geisha and a prostitute at different times if his research didn ’t indicate
that the two roles were different. A “kept woman”, such as a geisha is
when she has a danna, is expected to have sex with that male partner,
but she may still entertain others. As a prostitute can become a “kept
woman” (we’d call her a mistress here), they would be the same. A
geisha is not a prostitute. But a “kept woman ” in either culture is
essentially the same. (Although a geisha with a danna doesn ’t receive
all of what he pays—the okiya receives some of her income. I ’m not
sure how this would be in a more “Western” sense. I don ’t know if a
mistress has a pimp (for lack of a better word).

2. In Memoirs of a Geisha, Arthur Golden has done a very daring thing: he, an
American man, has written in the voice of a Japanese woman. How successfully does
he disguise his own voice? While reading the novel, did you feel that you were hearing
the genuine voice of a woman?

I think Golden successfully disguises his own voice. But I did often feel
like the narrator was a woman and hardly ever a man. He must have
taken particular care to listen to Mineko Iwasaki when he interviewed
her and not only what she said, but how she said things. While this
isn’t a story of Mineko Iwasaki, she was a geisha and a woman, so the
way she put things could easily transfer into a more general narration,
such as Golden used.

3. How do Japanese ideas about eroticism and sexuality differ from Western ones?
Does the Japanese ideal of femininity differ from ours? Which parts of the female
body are fetishized in Japan, which in the West? The geisha’s ritual of preparing herself
for the teahouse is a very elaborate affair; how essentially does it differ from a
Western women’s preparation for a date?

The Japanese men love to see the neck and back of the women
compare to the western men who love to see tha overall body parts of
a woman.
When in terms of women's preparation for date, the geisha takes a longer time to prepare
herself because she applies thick make-ups and wear more traditional clothes while a western
woman prepares for a short period of time because she doesn't applies thick make-ups and her
clothing is just simple.

4. Do you find that the relationship between a geisha and her danna is very different
from that between a Western man and his mistress? What has led Sayuri to think that
"a geisha who expects understanding from her danna is like a mouse expecting
sympathy from a snake"?

No, because how the western man treated his mistress is just the
same way how a danna treated his geisha. Sayuri thinks that it is
difficult to find a danna who understands her because all the man that
she encounter is not that patient, except from Chairman.

5. We must use whatever methods we can to understand the movement of the

universe around us and time our actions so that we are not fighting the currents, but
moving with them". How does this attitude differ from the Western notion of seizing
control of one’s
 Sayuri said, “If you keep your destiny in mind, every moment in life
becomes an opportunity for moving closer to it.” But this quote
confuses me, because Sayuri doesn’t know exactly what her destiny is.
How can you move towards something in your life when you have no
idea what what that something is? Sayuri continually referenced her
life was like a river and she floated along it, not knowing where it
would take her. So how does she know what actions will take one or
the other of a fork in the river?
Memoirs of a
Geisha

Submitted to:
Mrs. Mary Jane Q. Obongen

Submitted by:
Gio M. Padilla
BSE III English
 Memoirs of a
Geisha

Submitted to:
Mrs. Mary Jane Q. Obongen

Submitted by:
Queruine S. Ocampo
BSE III English