In 1929, nine year-old Sakamoto Chiyo and her sister are sold by their father to work within the entertainment districts of Kyoto. They are taken from their home in a coastal fishing village known as Yoroido and travel to Kyoto by train. Chiyo is taken to the Nitta okiya (geisha boarding house) in Gion, but her sister is taken to a brothel within Kyoto's pleasure district.
Chiyo is introduced to Auntie, Mother, and Granny. Both Auntie and Mother are strict, though Auntie is kinder to Chiyo, whereas Mother is driven by money and business. Chiyo is also introduced to Hatsumomo, the premier geisha of the okiya, its primary earner, and one of the most famous geisha of Gion. Hatsumomo dislikes Chiyo and goes out of her way to torment her.
A few years later, Chiyo is given money and a handkerchief in the street by a kind stranger known to Chiyo as the Chairman. Soon afterwards, Pumpkin prepares to make her debut as a maiko and the "younger sister" of Hatsumomo, whilst Chiyo remains a maid. Mameha, another famous geisha in Gion, persuades a reluctant Mother to reinvest in Chiyo's training, with Mameha acting as Chiyo's mentor and "older sister".
Chiyo becomes an apprentice geisha with the given name of Sayuri, and is reacquainted with Chairman Iwamura, his closest friend and business partner Nobu, and a number of other prominent men. As Sayuri gains popularity, Hatsumomo tries to hurt Sayuri's reputation and career in the hopes of Mother adopting Pumpkin instead.
Mameha orchestrates a bidding war for Sayuri's mizuage and uses the record-breaking payment for Sayuri's mizuage to cover all of her debts. Mother adopts Sayuri, and Hatsumomo begins a downward spiral into alcoholism before being thrown out of the okiya.
In 1944, geisha districts are ordered to close, and Sayuri desperately asks Nobu for help to avoid being conscripted into factory work. He sends Sayuri far north to live with his old friend, Arashino, where she stays for much of the war.
At the end of the war, Nobu visits Sayuri, asking that she return to Gion. Sayuri finds Pumpkin working in a new okiya; despite hoping to rekindle their friendship, Pumpkin later sabotages Sayuri's plan to scare Nobu off from proposing to be her danna, as revenge for taking her place in the adoption so many years ago.
A few days after her plan fails, Sayuri is summoned to meet the Chairman at a teahouse. She confesses that she has worked for years to become close to the Chairman. The Chairman admits that he has always known she was the girl he met on the street, and confesses his feelings for her as well, but felt he owed Nobu – his oldest and closest friend – the chance to be with Sayuri out of kindness. He also admits to having asked Mameha to train Sayuri.
Sayuri peacefully retires from geisha work when the Chairman becomes her danna. Sayuri relocates to New York City and opens her own small tea house for entertaining Japanese men on business in the United States. The Chairman remains her danna until his death.
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 Waldorf towers in New York City.
Lawsuit
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 if she told him about her life as a geisha, due to the traditional code of silence about their clients. 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.[1] In his defense, Golden countered that he had tapes of his conversations with Iwasaki.[2][clarification needed] Eventually, in 2003, Golden's publisher settled with Iwasaki out of court for an undisclosed sum of money.
Iwasaki later went on to write an autobiography, which shows a very different picture of 20th century geisha life than the one shown in Golden's novel.[3] The book was published as Geisha, A Life[4][5] in the US and Geisha of Gion in the UK.
In 2005, film director Rob Marshall made a film version of the novel. It stars two Chinese actresses, Zhang Ziyi as Sayuri and Gong Li as Hatsumomo; Malaysian actress Michelle Yeoh as Mameha; and three Japanese actors, Ken Watanabe as the Chairman, Suzuka Ohgo as Sayuri's childhood incarnation Chiyo, and Youki Kudoh as the adult Pumpkin.
↑ A Geisha ScornedThe Rough Guide to Japan: The Rough Guide, by Jan Dodd, Simon Richmond. Published by Rough Guides, 2001. ISBN1-85828-699-9. Page 889.
Mizuage was a ceremony undergone by apprentice oiran and some maiko as part of their coming of age ceremony and graduation.
Gion (祇園) is a district of Higashiyama-ku, Kyoto, Japan, originating as an entertainment district in the Sengoku period, in front of Yasaka Shrine. The district was built to accommodate the needs of travellers and visitors to the shrine. It eventually evolved to become one of the most exclusive and well-known geisha districts in all of Japan. Gion is the Japanese translation of the Buddhist term Jetavana. Yasaka Shrine, located in this district is the center of the Gion faith.
Arthur Sulzberger Golden is an American writer. He is the author of the bestselling novel Memoirs of a Geisha (1997).
Mineko Iwasaki is a Japanese businesswoman, author and former geisha. Iwasaki was the most famous geisha in Japan until her sudden retirement at the age of 29. Known for her performances for celebrity and royalty during her geisha life, Iwasaki was the heir apparent to her geisha house while she was just a young apprentice.
A Geisha or Gion Festival Music is a 1953 Japanese drama film directed by Kenji Mizoguchi, centred on the geisha milieu in post-war Gion, Kyoto. It is based on a novel by Matsutarō Kawaguchi.
Suzuka Ohgo is a Japanese actress.
Onsen geisha (温泉芸者) is the Japanese term geisha working in onsen resorts or towns, known for their traditions of performance and entertainment style, which differ significantly to geisha working in other areas of Japan.
Memoirs of a Geisha is a 2005 American epic period drama film directed by Rob Marshall and adapted by Robin Swicord from the 1997 novel of the same name by Arthur Golden. It tells the story of a young Japanese girl, Chiyo Sakamoto, who is sold by her impoverished family to a geisha house to support them by training as and eventually becoming a geisha under the pseudonym "Sayuri Nitta." The film centers around the sacrifices and hardship faced by pre-World War II geisha, and the challenges posed by the war and a modernizing world to geisha society. It stars Zhang Ziyi in the lead role, with Ken Watanabe, Gong Li, Michelle Yeoh, Youki Kudoh, Suzuka Ohgo, and Samantha Futerman.
Chiyo is a feminine Japanese given name. Notable people with the name include:
Memoirs of a Geisha: Original Motion Picture Soundtrackis the film score to the 2005 film of the same name, composed and conducted by John Williams. The original score and songs were composed and conducted by Williams and feature Yo-Yo Ma and Itzhak Perlman as cellist and violinist, respectively. The soundtrack album was released by Sony Classical Records on November 22, 2005.
In Japan, an ochaya is an establishment where patrons are entertained by geisha. A now-archaic term that arose in the Edo period, ochaya in the modern day refers exclusively to the establishments within Kyoto in which geisha work and entertain their clients, though the term is sometimes used to describe all establishments used by geisha to entertain guests, irrespective of location.
The Ichiriki Teahouse, formerly Ichiriki Mansion, is an historic ochaya in Kyoto, Japan. It is located at the southeast corner of Shijō Street and Hanami Lane, its entrance right at the heart of the Gion Kobu district.
Sisters of the Gion or Sisters of Gion is a 1936 black and white Japanese drama film directed by Kenji Mizoguchi about two geisha sisters living in Kyoto's Gion district. It forms a diptych with Mizoguchi's Osaka Elegy which shares much of the same cast and production team.
Geisha in Rivalry, also translated under the title of Rivalry: A Geisha's Tale, is a novel written by Nagai Kafu about the Tokyo hanamachi of Shimbashi in the early 20th century. First published in Japanese in 1918, the book was first translated into English in 1963.
Autobiography of a Geisha is a book by Sayo Masuda. It was first published in Japan in 1957, and the English translation by G. G. Rowley was published in 2003. Masuda wrote her autobiography between the years of 1956 and 1957 in response to a magazine ad for a non-fiction women's writing competition. Having never learned to read kanji, Masuda wrote the entire book in hiragana, with her editors carefully working to convert her writing into standard kanji while preserving the feeling of her original writing.
Geisha (芸者), also known as geiko (芸子) or geigi (芸妓), are female Japanese performing artists and entertainers trained in traditional Japanese performing arts styles, such as dance, music and singing, as well as being proficient conversationalists and hosts. Their distinct appearance is characterised by long, trailing kimono, traditional hairstyles and oshiroi make-up. Geisha entertain at parties known as ozashiki, often for the entertainment of wealthy clientele, as well as performing on stage and at festivals.
Sayuri is a common feminine Japanese given name.
Yuki Kato (加藤ユキ), also known as Morgan O-Yuki (モルガンお雪), was a Japanese geisha who married George Denison Morgan, nephew of Pierpont Morgan of the Morgan banking dynasty.
The Makanai: Cooking for the Maiko House (舞妓さんちのまかないさん) is a Japanese television series about contemporary life in a geisha house in Kyoto, Japan. The series stars Nana Mori, Natsuki Deguchi, and Aju Makita, released by Netflix on January 12, 2023. Hirokazu Kore-eda served as director, writer, and showrunner, The Makanai being his first time directing a Netflix production.
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