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Memoirs of a Geisha
by Arthur Golden

When the book was made into a movie I was very seriously tempted to go and see it yet something held me back. Despite the rave reviews of the book and movie not to mention holding high rankings for weeks something about the movie and book said wait, give it time. This past weekend I finally read Golden’s Memoirs of a Geisha and I find myself sitting here with a very funny taste in my mouth that I just can’t quite place. In an attempt to put a name to this peculiar taste we’re going to go over this book piece by piece.

Memoirs is told from the point of view of a young Japanese girl named Sakamoto Chiyo who was born in the small fishing village of Yoroido and was later sold to an okiya (Geisha house) while her sister Satsu was sold to a pleasure house. Chiyo is trained to become a geisha during the early years of World War ll. She is fortunate enough to be mentored by the most popular geisha of the time, Mameha. After she succeeds in becoming a geisha herself she becomes known as Sayuri and eventually becomes the next most popular and sought after geisha. During the final years of the war the geisha districts of Gion are shut down and Sayuri, with the help of a long devoted admirer, finds refuge in a former kimono maker’s household until the war comes to it’s end and Gion is opened back up.

As someone who has a great interest in and a deep love of Japanese culture I was truly interested in reading this book since it was supposed to have been told from the point of view of a geisha, who have their own code of silence. First off, contrary to popular public opinion Sayuri is not a real geisha, and if there was a geisha by that name it is not the Sayuri of this tale. I have heard several people call Memoirs a biography and a memoir and I was even rather shocked to find it shelved at Barnes and Noble as such. News flash, it’s not. Memoirs is the historical fiction written by Arthur Golden who took the information he gathered from a geisha named Iwasaki Mineko. In Golden’s own credits he states this:

Memoirs of a Geisha is a novel and the character of Sayuri and her story are my own inventions. (p433)

Of course that little bit about Sayuri and her tale being his own invention is a bit of a stretch according to the geisha that Golden interviewed and who he was not supposed to mention. Iwasaki contests that the majority of the events that occur in Sayuri’s life are based upon or directly lifted from events in her own life. In an attempt to rectify the negative portrayal of herself and the geisha lifestyle Iwasaki released her own book entitled Geisha of Gion.

That aside, I did find myself easily captivated by Golden’s flowing style and the story itself never once faltered but kept itself moving at a steady pace that forced the reader to stay up late into the night just to see what would happen next. And yet the cultural inaccuracies were glaring to someone with a familiarity with Japanese culture and I found myself hard pressed to sympathize with Sayuri towards the later half of the book. The girl never truly wanted to leave her family behind and she certainly didn’t want to become a geisha at first either. She was confused and was being tormented by the head geisha of her okiya, Hatsumomo, who saw the potential in Sayuri and sought to drive her away in order to secure her own position.

And yet the strength of her character and the sweet naiveté that drew you in initially becomes a repellent that serves to confuse and push the reader away. Allow me to explain, Sayuri spends a good amount of time unaware of where exactly she is at and how she came to be there and naively thinks of running away with her sister. The cruel tyranny of Hatsumomo is incomprehensible to her and time after time she foolishly walks into Hatsumomo’s traps one after the other because she can’t see a way out of them when there were always at least two different ways to have better handled the situation. Even when she becomes Mameha’s apprentice and later a geisha in her own right she retains that naivety. But naivety and innocence are only appealing to a certain point, once you pass that point it becomes apparent that you are dealing with someone who is immature and refuses to learn from their mistakes. That is Sayuri’s character in a nutshell.

Few geisha have the chance to be truly cared for and loved by someone who appreciates them for themselves and not the perfect doll-like persona they put on. Sayuri has this and time after time passes it by and each time it’s for a man, the same one in fact, whom she met once when she was younger and for whom she has developed a childish infatuation. This infatuation becomes the driving force behind all of her actions. It is what goads her into taking the geisha life seriously and it is what drives her to hurt those who care for her. Initially the reader spends their time hoping to see Sayuri end up with her “prince charming” but when the true hero of the story is revealed, well then the reader spends most of their time fervently praying that Sayuri gets a little common sense knocked into her.

On one hand you have prince charming, Chairman Iwamura, who didn’t recognize who she was when they later met again and who was more taken with Mameha and other geisha than with her. Then there is Nobu, a badly scarred and deformed man with an ill temper but who is quickly captivated by Sayuri’s personality and beauty. Contrary to his normal nature, Nobu spends a good deal of time showering her with gifts and attempting to curb his sharp tongue in order to gain her attentions. When Gion is closed down and the geisha are forced to seek employment elsewhere it is Nobu, who at the time she had passed over and not spoken to in four years, who comes to her with a place to stay.

Those who want to see the “princess” end up with her “prince charming” will be happy to know that Sayuri does eventually end up with Chairman Iwamura. It comes at a great price and at the end of a treacherous path. In the end one can’t help but to shake their heads at the result. You reap what you sow is the closest phrase I can think of to sum up the end results. What is probably the saddest thing is that as Sayuri recounts her tale and sounds displeased with it she still has no idea what went wrong.

A character that flounders about and fizzles out, a disappointing ending and a plethora of cultural errors make up the sum of this book. Golden’s patronizing view of the geisha lifestyle is readily apparent despite passages where “Sayuri” states that geisha are not whores and that the two are wolds apart. The author’s tone and views color the actions and thoughts of the characters to a point where one has to attempt to ignore them in order to keep them from spoiling the tale.

Iwasaki sued Golden for defamation of character and after reading this book and seeing the rather negative portrayal of geisha I’d have to say she was certainly right in doing so.

Joana’s rating: