My initial reading of this book took place about 2003, about 6 years after the book was originally published. I chose to reread it with my wife because we had both loved it when we read it the first time. On second reading, the book is just as great as I had viewed it over 20 years ago. It is written by the author, Arthur Golden, as a memoir in the first person with the narrator being the protagonist, Sayuri, a poor young Japanese girl who has been sold, along with her older sister, by her father after the death of her mother to a leading man in their poor seaside fishing village in rural Japan. The buyer immediately sells her to the owner of an okiya in the large city of Gion to be used as a maid initially, but ultimately to be trained as a geisha. The dictionary definition of a geisa is
"A Japanese girl or woman who is trained to entertain professional or social gatherings of men with conversation, dancing, and singing". That simplistic definition is a bit short of reality. The girls who are being trained to become geisha are nothing short of slaves, property, belonging to the female owners of the okiyas into which they have been placed. An okiya is a house which is run by an older woman, sometimes a retired former geisha, In the house, this owner will have at least one and sometimes more geisha whose work supports the entire household which is composed of the owner, perhaps an assistant or two who may also be former retired geisha, one or sometimes more young apprentice geisha, and several support staff who function primarly as maids, cooks, and errand girls. Often the maids are young girls who are being considered for training as geisha when they are older. There is a complete culture represented by the geisha, the other members of their okiyas, and their customers who are usually well to do men some of whom may even be among the richest in the country. This culture is thoroughly represented by Arthur Golden in the book and he actually trained in college to become an expert on Japanese culture and language. Incidentally, this is his only published book so far as I know, and that is a tragedy. This novel is classic and was a massive best seller when it was first published.
In the okiya to which Sayuri has been sold, the primary geisha is a woman named Hatsumomo who is one of the best known and highest earning geisha in Japan. But she is a foul tempered, manipulative, and totally unlikeable woman who is the villian of the book. She does all she can to prevent Sayuri from ever becoming a geisha by lying, manipulating all those around her, and working on a daily basis to destroy the life, hopes, and dreams of Sayuri. But since she is the primary wage earner in the okiya,she is the one person on whom all the others in the house are dependent. Sayuri manages to meet and become befriended by another geisha, Mameha, who takes her under her protection and assists her in succeeding to become a full fledged geisha. Very early in the book, Sayuri meets only briefly a man referred to as The Chairman, who owns one of the largest companies in Japan, and she falls in love with him. But due to the strict social protocols of Japanese culture,she cannot make her feelings about him known. She does find steady work entertaining the Chairman over time along with his right hand man who is a former war hero who has lost an arm and been severely burned during the war. But he is compassionate despite being gruff, brusque, and overly honest in his criticisms of those around him. He and Sayuri become close friends and he wishes to become her danna, a Japanese expression for a man who provides for a geisha without ever marrying her. That relationship never happens and Sayuri near the end of the book takes actions to ensure that she doesn't ever become the beneficiary of his assitance.
This is a powerful novel which provides a lenghthy ongoing portrait of live in Japan both for geisha and all those around them in the years leading up to War War II and beyond. Sayuri suffers hardships both as a child and as a geisha especialy during the war. But in the end she has become an independent woman in control of her own life and circumstances. It is one of the finest novels I have ever read about life in Asia in general and in Japan in particular. It can be found on any used book page on the internet and is still in print. Read it! You will love it!
