Arthur Golden, Memoirs of a geisha
Published by Vintage in 1999
The story is about the lifes of geisha's in Japan in the beginning of the 20th century. The story is told by the main character, a succesfull geisha named Sayuri. She begins the story by telling how it all began, when she was just a little nine year old girl living in a poor fishing village, Yoroido. Her name was Chiyo, later on changed into Sayuri when she becomes a geisha. She lived in Yoroido together with her elder sister Satsu and her parents. Her mother is a young women with beautiful grey eyes, Chiyo has the same unusual eyes, but her mother dies when Chiyo is as little as nine years old. So she has to spend her life with only her sister and her father. Her father is already an old man, who earns very little money by fishing. Chiyo's father wants to give Chiyo and Satsu a chance for better lifes, and he sells them to a man, and he drops Chiyo by an Okiya in the Gion area in Kyoto. An okiya is a Japanese house where geisha's will be teached to become a good geisha. Satsu isn't as lucky as Chiyo, she has been sold to a jorou-ya, a brothel in the 'red light district' Miyagawa-cho, another area in Kyoto. Actually Chiyo isn't lucky either; in the Nitta-Okiya, the okiya where she lives, the three most important women are very strict and rigid. They are called Mother, Granny and Auntie. And the most awful person in the okiya, maybe the most awful person of whole Gion, is the geisha Hatsumomo. Hatsumomo is a real bitch, but she is so incredibly beautiful that nobody dares to say something or do something wrong to her. From the beginning Hatsumomo hates Chiyo, and she does everything to hurt Chiyo, physically but also mentally. The only person in the okiya Chiyo can get along with is a little girl called Pumpkin, she is called Pumpkin because of her round face. She has the same age as Chiyo, and they go together to the geisha-school to learn the art of dancing, making music on an instrument called Shamisen, and the art of pouring out sake and tea for the male Japanese customers. But then, when everything seems alright Chiyo makes a very big mistake. It is forbidden to leave the okiya without permission, and Chiyo tries to escape via the roof of the okiya, because she has an arrangement with her sister to return together to Yoroido. But when Chiyo is on top of the roof, she slides down and falls into the garden of another okiya. Mother, Auntie and Granny are curious at Chiyo, they see her as a wrong investment of their money by letting her visit expensive geisha schools, because she is always disobedient and this was her last chance and she ruined it. So they decide from this day forward to let her work as a maid. At one day when she is shopping in Kyoto everything has become too much for Chiyo. She throws herself onto the little stone wall at the edge of the Shirakawa river and cries. A man, a chairman, walking by , tries to console her and she will never forget that moment. A few months later, when Chiyo is still working as a maid in the Nitta-Okiya, a geisha knocks on the door and wants to talk to Auntie. The geisha is together with Hatsumomo one of the most famous and best geisha's of Gion, and everybody is suprised to see her in the Nitta-Okiya because she and Hatsumomo can't stand each other. The geisha, called Mameha, asks Auntie to give Chiyo one more chance to learn the art of being a geisha because she thinks Chiyo is a very beautiful and talented girl. Actually, the chairman who comforted Chiyo, asked Mameha to talk with Auntie. Every geisha needs an 'older sister', a geisha who takes her 'younger sister' along with her to tea ceremonies and party's in teahouses. And it's also the job of an older sister to introduce her younger sister to al her customers and give her a good reputation. The chairman wanted Chiyo to have another chance, so he asked Mameha to talk with Auntie from the Nitta-Okiya so Mameha could be Chiyo's older sister. It's very unusual to have a geisha from another okiya as an older sister, but Mameha and Auntie make a deal about it. If Chiyo becomes -with the help of Mameha- a succesfull geisha, Auntie has to pay Mameha, and if Chiyo fails as a geisha, Auntie will get money from Mameha. At that time, Pumpkin needs an older sister too, and Hatsumomo becomes her older sister. The hate between Hatsumomo and Mameha is bigger than ever, they both want their younger sister to be the most populair new geisha, and they do everything to destroy the reputation of each others' younger sister. Chiyo becomes a very succesfull geisha, and her name changes to Sayuri. Pumpkin becomes a succesfull geisha too, but not as succesful as Sayuri. Hatsumomo ends bad, she has an alcohol problem and drinks herself to death. When after a few years of succes in Gion the Japanese war starts, Sayuri has to move to somewhere far away from Gion. She stays in the house of Kimono maker Arashino, a friend of one of her customers, who is also a good friend of her. When the war is over , a few years later, she returns to Gion and starts her geisha-life again. She meets the chairman again after a few years, and can't help she is actually still in love with him, ever since he comforted her. But another man, a friend of the chairman called Nobu, wants to be Syauri's danna. A danna is man who takes care of a geisha, and he is more or less her boyfriend. But Sayuri doesn't want Nobu to be her danna, she wants the chairman. During a holiday at a Japanese Island, together with Nobu, the chairman and some other geisha's, she makes a plan. It seemed a bit complicated, but it turns out to something Nobu never forgives her and he never wants to see her again. So now she has the opportunety to have the chairman as her danna, and he turns out to be in love with Sayuri too. They move together to New York where Sayuri starts her own teahouse and they live happily together for a long time. The most touching parts of the book were where Hatsumomo does everything to hurt Chiyo. This is a fragment where hatsumomo tells a lie to Auntie, she says that Chiyo stole her jewelery and sold them for money, which isn't true. 'My jewelery !' Hatsumomo said. 'This stupid, stupid girl !'. And here she began to beat me. (...) 'Oh mother,' Hatsumomo said, 'on my way back to the okiya this evening, I thought I saw little Chiyo at the end of the alleyway talking to a man. I didn't think anything of it, because I knew it couldn't be her. She isn't supposed to be out of the okiya at all. But when I went up to my room, I found my jewelery box in disarray, and rushed back down just in time to see Chiyo handing something over to the man.' All this is lied by Hatsumomo, but Chiyo gets punished by some extra work and she has to pay the jewels back, which she actually didn't steal at all. Hatsumomo is really mean !
Published by Vintage in 1999
The story is about the lifes of geisha's in Japan in the beginning of the 20th century. The story is told by the main character, a succesfull geisha named Sayuri. She begins the story by telling how it all began, when she was just a little nine year old girl living in a poor fishing village, Yoroido. Her name was Chiyo, later on changed into Sayuri when she becomes a geisha. She lived in Yoroido together with her elder sister Satsu and her parents. Her mother is a young women with beautiful grey eyes, Chiyo has the same unusual eyes, but her mother dies when Chiyo is as little as nine years old. So she has to spend her life with only her sister and her father. Her father is already an old man, who earns very little money by fishing. Chiyo's father wants to give Chiyo and Satsu a chance for better lifes, and he sells them to a man, and he drops Chiyo by an Okiya in the Gion area in Kyoto. An okiya is a Japanese house where geisha's will be teached to become a good geisha. Satsu isn't as lucky as Chiyo, she has been sold to a jorou-ya, a brothel in the 'red light district' Miyagawa-cho, another area in Kyoto. Actually Chiyo isn't lucky either; in the Nitta-Okiya, the okiya where she lives, the three most important women are very strict and rigid. They are called Mother, Granny and Auntie. And the most awful person in the okiya, maybe the most awful person of whole Gion, is the geisha Hatsumomo. Hatsumomo is a real bitch, but she is so incredibly beautiful that nobody dares to say something or do something wrong to her. From the beginning Hatsumomo hates Chiyo, and she does everything to hurt Chiyo, physically but also mentally. The only person in the okiya Chiyo can get along with is a little girl called Pumpkin, she is called Pumpkin because of her round face. She has the same age as Chiyo, and they go together to the geisha-school to learn the art of dancing, making music on an instrument called Shamisen, and the art of pouring out sake and tea for the male Japanese customers. But then, when everything seems alright Chiyo makes a very big mistake. It is forbidden to leave the okiya without permission, and Chiyo tries to escape via the roof of the okiya, because she has an arrangement with her sister to return together to Yoroido. But when Chiyo is on top of the roof, she slides down and falls into the garden of another okiya. Mother, Auntie and Granny are curious at Chiyo, they see her as a wrong investment of their money by letting her visit expensive geisha schools, because she is always disobedient and this was her last chance and she ruined it. So they decide from this day forward to let her work as a maid. At one day when she is shopping in Kyoto everything has become too much for Chiyo. She throws herself onto the little stone wall at the edge of the Shirakawa river and cries. A man, a chairman, walking by , tries to console her and she will never forget that moment. A few months later, when Chiyo is still working as a maid in the Nitta-Okiya, a geisha knocks on the door and wants to talk to Auntie. The geisha is together with Hatsumomo one of the most famous and best geisha's of Gion, and everybody is suprised to see her in the Nitta-Okiya because she and Hatsumomo can't stand each other. The geisha, called Mameha, asks Auntie to give Chiyo one more chance to learn the art of being a geisha because she thinks Chiyo is a very beautiful and talented girl. Actually, the chairman who comforted Chiyo, asked Mameha to talk with Auntie. Every geisha needs an 'older sister', a geisha who takes her 'younger sister' along with her to tea ceremonies and party's in teahouses. And it's also the job of an older sister to introduce her younger sister to al her customers and give her a good reputation. The chairman wanted Chiyo to have another chance, so he asked Mameha to talk with Auntie from the Nitta-Okiya so Mameha could be Chiyo's older sister. It's very unusual to have a geisha from another okiya as an older sister, but Mameha and Auntie make a deal about it. If Chiyo becomes -with the help of Mameha- a succesfull geisha, Auntie has to pay Mameha, and if Chiyo fails as a geisha, Auntie will get money from Mameha. At that time, Pumpkin needs an older sister too, and Hatsumomo becomes her older sister. The hate between Hatsumomo and Mameha is bigger than ever, they both want their younger sister to be the most populair new geisha, and they do everything to destroy the reputation of each others' younger sister. Chiyo becomes a very succesfull geisha, and her name changes to Sayuri. Pumpkin becomes a succesfull geisha too, but not as succesful as Sayuri. Hatsumomo ends bad, she has an alcohol problem and drinks herself to death. When after a few years of succes in Gion the Japanese war starts, Sayuri has to move to somewhere far away from Gion. She stays in the house of Kimono maker Arashino, a friend of one of her customers, who is also a good friend of her. When the war is over , a few years later, she returns to Gion and starts her geisha-life again. She meets the chairman again after a few years, and can't help she is actually still in love with him, ever since he comforted her. But another man, a friend of the chairman called Nobu, wants to be Syauri's danna. A danna is man who takes care of a geisha, and he is more or less her boyfriend. But Sayuri doesn't want Nobu to be her danna, she wants the chairman. During a holiday at a Japanese Island, together with Nobu, the chairman and some other geisha's, she makes a plan. It seemed a bit complicated, but it turns out to something Nobu never forgives her and he never wants to see her again. So now she has the opportunety to have the chairman as her danna, and he turns out to be in love with Sayuri too. They move together to New York where Sayuri starts her own teahouse and they live happily together for a long time. The most touching parts of the book were where Hatsumomo does everything to hurt Chiyo. This is a fragment where hatsumomo tells a lie to Auntie, she says that Chiyo stole her jewelery and sold them for money, which isn't true. 'My jewelery !' Hatsumomo said. 'This stupid, stupid girl !'. And here she began to beat me. (...) 'Oh mother,' Hatsumomo said, 'on my way back to the okiya this evening, I thought I saw little Chiyo at the end of the alleyway talking to a man. I didn't think anything of it, because I knew it couldn't be her. She isn't supposed to be out of the okiya at all. But when I went up to my room, I found my jewelery box in disarray, and rushed back down just in time to see Chiyo handing something over to the man.' All this is lied by Hatsumomo, but Chiyo gets punished by some extra work and she has to pay the jewels back, which she actually didn't steal at all. Hatsumomo is really mean !
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