Memoirs of a Geisha (Themes)

Themes

Deception

From the time Tanaka brokers Sayuri and her sister away from their home, the theme of deception guides the course of events in the novel. While Tanaka's deception is indirect (after all, he never actually tells young Sayuri what her future holds), Hatsumomo's deception is overt. Hatsumomo not only lies about Sayuri, but she goes so far as to set her up to look guilty when she is innocent, as when she puts money into Sayuri's obi before telling Mother that Sayuri sold some of her jewelry. Hatsumomo also makes empty promises so she can manipulate and dominate the young apprentice geisha.

As much as Sayuri resents so much deception in her life, the irony is that she takes on the profession of a geisha, which relies on deception. As a geisha, Sayuri assumes an identity other than her true one, she laughs at jokes that are not funny, and she learns to make a certain kind of blank face that men can believe means whatever they like. Her success depends on her ability to appear not as herself but as whomever her clients want her to be.

Deception is also depicted in the novel is in the way Sayuri outgrows her propensity for self-deception. As an innocent young girl in Yoroido, she absolutely convinces herself that Tanaka will adopt her, her sister, and her father after her mother dies. It is an idea she embraces and then persuades herself is the truth, which only makes the heartbreak worse when it is not true. In Kyoto, she convinces herself that her sister has been taken to another okiya and that they will reunite at geisha school and escape together. She does not consider any other possibility, which again makes the reality all the harder to endure. As she ages, however, Sayuri learns the cynical ways of Gion as she learns more about herself. Although her fantasies about the Chairman seem like a regression to her childish ways of thinking, in the end, her dream comes true.

Metamorphosis

There are two levels of Sayuri's metamorphosis depicted in Memoirs of a Geisha. The broader level is her journey from the fishing village of Yoroido to the heights of geisha success in Gion. Sayuri recalls, "I may have been no more than fourteen, but it seemed to me I'd lived two lives already. My new life was still beginning, though my old life had come to an end some time ago." She also remarks, "I've heard it said that the week in which a young girl prepares for her debut as an apprentice geisha is like when a caterpillar turns into a butterfly." Golden symbolizes her metamorphosis from the lowly fisherman's daughter to a glamorous geisha with the changing of her name from Chiyo to Sayuri. Among the most basic elements of a person's identity is her name, and to become a geisha, Chiyo must become Sayuri.

The narrower level is her daily transformation from an ordinary beautiful woman into a fully painted, tucked, and adorned geisha. The metamorphosis that she undergoes with makeup and kimonos is a sort of microcosm of the broader level of her complete transformation over the course of the book. Remembering the first time she saw herself in makeup, she says, "I knew that the person kneeling before the makeup stand was me, but so was the unfamiliar girl gazing back. I actually reached out to touch her." As she applies her makeup and has her obi tied, she also puts on her geisha self. In chapter 5, Sayuri explains, "Only when she sits before her mirror to apply her makeup with care does she become a geisha. And I don't mean that this is when she begins to look like one. This is when she begins to think like one too."

Beauty

As Sayuri slowly enters the world of the geisha, she becomes more and more aware of the role of beauty in her society. She realizes the importance of beauty immediately upon arriving in Gion, when she sees Hatsumomo at the okiya. Her beauty leaves Sayuri speechless, having never seen anything like her. Sayuri's lavish descriptions of the patterns and colors in kimonos attest to her appreciation of beauty, especially given the fact that she is recalling them from many years before. As she herself progresses through her studies and the levels of geisha standing, she is amazed at her own beauty when she is in full makeup and dressed in Mameha's kimonos. To others, Sayuri is beautiful, but she does not come to accept this as part of her identity until much later. She recalls as a child that Tanaka was the first to compliment her beauty, and she almost believed it was true.

Most pointed, however, is how Golden depicts beauty in Hatsumomo. In her character, he demonstrates the stark differences between superficial beauty and true beauty. As stunningly beautiful as Hatsumomo is in appearance, she is ugly in character. After she forces Sayuri to deface Mameha's kimono, Sayuri recalls, "Even then, amid all my fears, I couldn't help noticing how extraordinary Hatsumomo's beauty was." The more she is subject to Hatsumomo's cruelty, however, the less she is distracted by her beauty. While describing the tricks Hatsumomo used to undermine her apprenticeship, Sayuri recounts a time a military officer showed her his pistol:

I remember being struck by its beauty. The metal had a dull gray sheen; its curves were perfect and smooth. The oiled wood handle was richly grained. But when I thought of its real purpose as I listened to his stories, it ceased to be beautiful at all and became something monstrous instead.

This is exactly what happened to Hatsumomo in my eyes after she brought my debut to a standstill.

When Sayuri sees Hatsumomo among the men in teahouses and at parties, she wonders "if men were so blinded by beauty that they would feel privileged to live their lives with an actual demon, so long as it was a beautiful demon." As Sayuri's understanding of false and true beauty evolves, and as she sees how beauty can be as much a weapon as a comfort, the reader comes to understand the same truths.

Topics for Further Study

1. Much is made of Sayuri's having a lot of water in her, as her mother did. Her father had a lot of wood in him. Research the meaning of the elements of water, wood, fire, metal, and earth in Japanese thought. How did they describe people, and were they used to describe anything else? Are they still used today? Finally, what insights into the characters and their fates do you gain from this research?
2. Hatsumomo hates Sayuri from the moment she arrives at the okiya, but the reader is never told directly why. How do you explain her deep, malicious hate? Write an Afterword containing excerpts from Hatsumomo's memoirs that shed light on this issue.
3. The dynamics between male and female power are unusual in the geisha-client relationship. What kind of power does each person hold? Research women's roles in modern Japan and prepare a binder in which you trace the history of women in Japanese society throughout the twentieth century. You may complement your text with drawings, charts, photographs, diagrams, or any other visuals that will enhance your research.
4. Golden refers to the practice of Shinto in the okiya, but Sayuri is also aware of Buddhist practices. Read about these two traditional religions in Japan and compose a comparison of the two. Based on what you know about the okiya, its function, and the women in it, does it make sense that Shinto would be the religion of the house?
5. To become a geisha, Sayuri works very hard to learn to play the shamisen, dance, sing, and perform tea ceremonies. Japanese arts are traditionally precise and expressive. Choose three forms of Japanese cultural expression or art, and prepare a presentation for westerners to help them understand and appreciate this culture. (You may choose a recording of shamisen music, an explanation of a tea ceremony, a video of a traditional dance, diagrams and examples of Japanese calligraphy, examples of art, a collection of haikus, etc.) To conclude your presentation, offer comments on how your work has affected your understanding of Sayuri's experience.