Memoirs of a Geisha

Protagonists:
Sakamoto Chiyo (Nitta Sayuri): From fishing city of Yoroido. Sold to renowned Geisha House in Kyoto
along with sister, Satsu, by father to pay for mother’s cancer treatment. Later becomes most successful
geisha in Gion. Book told form her POV.
Sakamoto Satsu: Rejected from the geisha house and sold to brothel in neighbouring city but escapes.
Was supposed to take Chiyo but Chiyo got injured while trying to escape and does not make it.
Mameha: Sayuri’s older geisha sister; mentoring her to become the perfect geisha so Memeha could get
show Hatsumomo that she is the better Geisha.
Chairman Iwamura Ken: reminds Sayuri of her first love interest, Mr. Tanaka (the man who sold her to
the Geisha House). “We none of us find as much kindness in this world as we should” (9). Her second
love interest (becomes her danna– husband− in the end; shows her kindness when no one else would by
buying her an snow cone, giving her change and inspiring her to become a geisha.

Antagonists:
Pumpkin: Who started off as Sayuri’s best friend when she first came to the Geisha house, however,
became her enemy nearing the end of the book when she betrays Sayuri for being adopted by the geisha
house of her.
 Stands as a foil to Sayuri by also being sold from her family and wanting to become a member of
a geisha house for a reason. She wanted a family, something she had never had as she was always
seen as less of a woman for being less attractive, less smart and less graceful to those around her.
Hatsumomo: When Sayuri first came to the geisha house she was greeted by Hatsumomo, who she said
was one of the most beautiful people she had ever seen. Jealous of Sayuri’s beauty; she begins to bully
and manipulate young Chiyo, so she would get into trouble. She did so because she wanted the house to
remain ignorant to her own rebellion.
Toshikazu Nobu: believes in only “Sumo, business and war.” (17) Wants to become Sayuri’s danna, but
she loves chairman. Sometimes good (when he sends Sayuri to the countryside to protect her from the
war) and sometimes bad (forces Sayuri into an ultimatum to become his danna). He represents the lack of
principals that Sayuri possesses as principals are for those who are free, but since geisha are not free
people, she grew up not having the right to make her own choices, hence, her going to an extreme to
betray him.
The Baron (Matsunaga Tsuneyoshi): He is not only Mameha’s danna but also violates Sayuri when she
attends a party of his; in hopes of taking her virginity. But he simply undresses her and leaves.
 Foil to the Chairman: While both of them take possession to a different generation of geisha,
while the Chairman has many more morals than the Baron, both exemplify the lack of choice for
a geisha and the different ways that citizens viewed the geisha.

Other Characters:
Granny, Mother, Auntie: Heads of the geisha house. Auntie is kind and welcomes Sayuri to the geisha
house. Granny is the oldest and is known for being cranky and demanding while mother is known for her
selfishness and short temper.
 Are parallel to the three Fates in Greek Mythology in personality and age. They oversee the lives
of the geisha and are the final decision makers for their fate.
Dr. Crab: The man who both treated Sayuri when she got injured as a child and took her mizuage−
virginity− when she became a geisha.
 Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
- The book started with Chiyo describing her life in the little fishing village in Yoroido. Her
small, raggedy house is known as a “tipsy house” because much like her lopsided life, it
swayed in the ocean breeze.
o “Inside this tipsy house I lived something of a lopsided life.”
- Mother was dying of bone cancer, father was too old to continue working for long periods of
time.
- Being born in the year of the monkey and having strange blue eyes, Chiyo was always seen
as more beautiful than her sister, Satsu (year of the cow and plumper figure)
o Chiyo has water personality while Satsu was more wooden. Symbolism. For Chiyo’s
ability to mold into any situation and flow with society, while Satsu is unable to
morph to change and has less grace than Chiyo.
- Hinted that Chiyo loves Mr. Tanaka.
o Example age was nothing more than a number in Japan and the age of consent
continues to be disregarded in Japan. Chiyo is 9 when she first meets the middle-aged
Tanaka.
- Theme. The dehumanization of a geisha and the expectations of a woman to be beautiful and
graceful or are nothing more than prostitutes who will never achieve success. Women in
Japan during the 1920s and 1930s are to be seductive and graceful to avoid persecution.
o Chiyo caught between a rock and a hard place. If she joins the okiya then she is a tool
for them to make money an if not, she would have to go work in a brothel like
Hatsumomo.
- Theme. The difficulty one faces when one is trying to break away from tradition and the
heightened lack of free will for a woman as opposed to a man.
o When all of society expects X of you, it is difficult to do Y. Especially for women as
they have been seen as lesser people for many millennia, in fact, at the time, Japanese
women could be sold, unable to attend higher education institutions, vote among
other things.
o “[Satsu] acted like a dog around [Sugi]” even though he harassed Satsu. She allowed
him as she was seen as nothing more than a toy to men, even at a young age.
- Irony. The very word "geisha" means artist. While Memeha insists that Geisha are not meant
to seduce or entice, this is the reason that geisha is around. It is a type of euphemism to soften
the actual intention of a geisha.
o Although geisha, especially apprentice geisha, are supposed to cultivate an air of
innocence, in reality the apparent amicable relations between them can mask intense
rivalry. The rivalry between Mameha and Hatsumomo becomes so intense that the
competitors are ready to do everything possible to get rid of each other.
- Simile. Hatsumomo likens Chiyo to fish often to degrade her.
- Question: What happened to Satsu? She and Chiyo meet one last time but she leaves without
her in desperation to get away from the brothel.
- Metaphor. Sayuri considers herself a “puff of smoke” as opposed to Hatsumomo, a seasoned
geisha, which is why she cannot understand her hatred for the younger geisha.
- Imagery. “a brilliant blue with green grasses all around the hem and bright yellow flowers across
the sleeves and chest”. The author always emphasizes a role which a kimono plays in geisha’s
life, calling it “second skin” and saying that it should fit “like a sock fits a foot”.
- Rules of a Geisha
o They are not to have a danna (a rule that Sayuri broke)
 o They are not to develop sexual relations with men (Hatsumomo broke that rule by
falling in love with a man of the village)
o Must carry themselves with grace and beauty, play instruments, dance etc.
o Must give their money to okiya
- Alludes to the roaring 20s and the years following the first world war.
- Pumpkin is the unexpected anti-hero of the book. Having been that she is seen as second best
to Sayuri, she runs away from the okiya and integrates within the western culture; something
that Sayuri will soon do.
- Irony. Pumpkin understands that Sayuri essentially stole the adoptive daughter position she had
been led to believe she'd already earned. She therefore resents Sayuri: by helping Sayuri, she
harmed herself. Much later in the book, she has another opportunity to do a favor for Sayuri by
bringing Nobu by to witness Sayuri seducing somebody else. Instead, Pumpkin brings the
Chairman, proving herself to have broken away from her timid past.
- Motif. Endurance is one of the main qualities of the protagonist of the story. Being taken away
from home and forced to live with strangers, Sayuri finds enough strengths not to give up.
- 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 book is confused with the limitations imposed by the
society they lived in and the ability to break destiny is glossed over until the end.

Memoirs of a Geisha by Rob Marshall

- Difference. Beginning of book not included in the movie.
o May allude to how perhaps Sayuri’s life didn’t really begin until she arrived at the
geisha house. The true memoirs started when Chiyo was gone and Sayuri was
born.
- Connection. Spirited Away talks about a young girl names Chihiro who was taken from
her parents and forced to work in a bathhouse by an older witch who takes her name and
gives her another name until she can find a way to escape.
o Parallels the story of Memoirs of a Geisha wherein both main characters are taken
way from their regular lives and forced to work for another because it is in their
destiny.
- Symbol. Kimonos. While the book works hard to describe the kimonos worn by the
geisha as opposed to the apprentices, it truly takes the imagery to another level in the
film. The more beautiful the kimono, the higher your status as a geisha and the more men
that will choose you as the entertainer.
o We see Sayuri go from wearing plain, simple kimonos to wearing extravagant,
heavy, silk kimonos to show her rising the social ladder.
o In contrast, Hatsumomo goes from wearing such beautiful kimonos to being
expelled from the okiya wearing a plain, white kimono symbolizing her fall from
the social ladder.
- The ending. Sayuri does not completely break away from Japanese tradition and her fate
is left to guessing unlike in the book. It was meant to signify how one cannot completely
break away from their past.