Decrypt geisha memoir

Because I was so sick and tired of reading for the 40th time how something is LIKE a bird or a snake or whatever, I made a list. Enjoy, people. This is how Sayuri narrates the story. Please notice and enjoy how natural this way of thinking sounds : "I felt as a dam must feel when it's holding back an entire river.

I was hoping you'd say that. Here you go! And yet somehow I hadn't imagined a great wave might come and strike me there, and wash everything away. Just because of that, it can't get more than 2 stars for me. It just can't. It's awful to read. And the characters. They didn't feel real. None of them did. Sayuri on top. So I'm supposed to feel something for her, right? Relate to her somehow. That was impossible. I don't know why, but somehow I was able to relate to Chiyo - but not to Sayuri.

Even though they're the same person, I couldn't bring myself to care for Sayuri. As soon as she "grows up" even though she keeps telling her story with the skills of a freakin' 4 year old so around the time when she becomes a geisha, that is, she becomes insufferable.

And she has this sort of weird fascination for adult men, first M. Tanaka and after The Chairman, and it's just so annoying. Why does she like them? And, yeah, she was also such a victim. She never made anything to change her condition, she was just this kind of submissive woman who, well, blinks and, I dunno, bows. I know it's the way she's supposed to behave, but still, it's infuriatingly boring to read about such a character. The only thing she ever does for herself is view spoiler [ sleeping with The Minister so she doesn't have to undergo Nabu-whathisname as a danna hide spoiler ] but even that is done in the purpose of eventually being with The Chairman.

And who was he, that Chairman? Who was that man we hear about, again and again and again? What's he like? Have they ever had a real conversation? I don't think so. She idealizes him, she never sees him as who he really is, she just keeps wetting holding that stupid handkerchief every night and that annoyed me. It felt childish and weird.

The only character I liked was Mameha, and she's the angel of the story, meaning that you're just supposed to like her because she's, well, perfect, kind, loyal and beautiful, the way Agnes is in David Copperfield or Melanie in Gone With The Wind. The informations about Geishas were nice, I suppose, but I don't know how much of it is true. The war was awfully, awfully boring, and very badly executed.

I think you can see it was written by an American just by the way the United States are depicted. They atomically bombarded Japan and two of greatest its cities and yet, Sayuri doesn't even blink and say "The American troups were very kind to us and gave candy to the children.

The plot dragged on and on, and I had to struggle to finish the book. The ending felt rushed. I hate, hate it when authors do that. He wrote a whole book about someone's life, and the final chapter is soo rushed and it goes like "So that was forty years ago, now I'm seventy and I'm old and I'm gonna tell you what happened in my life between then and now in like, two sentences. And then he died, and.. Ah yes.. Did we have a kid? Oh, but wouldn't you like to know!.. Well you won't, cause I'm not telling you, neener- neener.

I swear, the book probably deserves an award, for like Worst Ending Chapter Ever or something. It made no sense, it gave no real closure. Everything in this book was just so It tried to be epic and it tried to be a classic but it failed so badly.

The characters weren't well fleshed-out, it was obvious that the Good people Sayuri, Mahema would triumph over the Bad Hatsumomo , it was obvious that Sayuri would get her happy ending after all.. See, all throughout the book, I was completely disconnected, I didn't feel anything. I didn't smile, or laugh, I certainly didn't cry. I can't even say I'm angry or that I hate the book - because hatred requires that I care, and I don't.

I'm just And isn't it the worst state of mind you can possibly be in after you finish a book? Ultimately, it didn't leave a mark. So the book as a whole was a major disappointment and I'm glad it's over. I just hope the movie might be better - I kept thinking it would be better to watch it, seeing how graphic the descriptions were of the kimonos, for example. View all 90 comments. Like eating fancy dessert at a gourmet restaurant, Memoirs of a Geisha is beautiful, melts lightly off the tongue and will be forgotten shortly after it's done.

The language is strikingly lovely, and Golden paints a remarkable picture of a time and place. If you're looking to learn something deep about the psychology of Japanese culture, or meet nuanced characters, then I'd steer you elsewhere. The story only skims the top of the more complicated aspects of a Japan in decline, focusing mostly on Like eating fancy dessert at a gourmet restaurant, Memoirs of a Geisha is beautiful, melts lightly off the tongue and will be forgotten shortly after it's done.

The story only skims the top of the more complicated aspects of a Japan in decline, focusing mostly on a genteel lifestyle that probably seems more appealing from the outside. There's a way in which the book, written by a man and a westerner, is slightly fetishistic, but less so than you might imagine. Another reader suggested that perhaps the superficiality of the story is intentional, and that the book, in a way, resembles a geisha.

Beautiful and eager to please, yet too distant to really learn much from and ultimately little more than a beautiful, well-crafted object to be appreciated.

If that's the case, Arthur Golden is remarkably clever, and I applaud him. If it's not the case, the book remains very pretty and an easy read. View all 21 comments. Chiyo, with her sister Satsu, and her mother and father live in a shack by the sea on the coast of Japan. The shack leans, and has to be propped up to keep from total collapse. Her mother is sick and on the verge of death. He was wrong. Or was he? Without a crystal ball or access to a series of timelines showing the variations created by changing key decisions at critical junctures how can we know?

Satsu, who is fifteen, is promptly placed with a brothel. Not exactly what her father had in mind. Chiyo, who is nine, is deemed young enough to be trained to be a geisha. Those Blue Eyes are what set her apart. The Mother of her geisha house is equally startling in appearance.

They were rimmed with the raw lip of her lids, in which a cloudy moisture was pooled, and all around them the skin was sagging. The colors of her face were all mixed up: the rims of her eyelids were red like meat, and her gums and tongue were gray. And to make things more horrible, each of her lower teeth seemed to be anchored in a little pool of blood at the gums.

She starts out her new life in trouble. She is quickly considered a threat to the lovely and vindictive Hatsumomo who is the only fully trained geisha working for the house.

Chiyo is accused of stealing not true. She is accused of ruining an expensive kimono with ink true but under duress. She is caught trying to escape she broke her arm in the process so try and give the kid a break. Well, all of this ends up costing her two years working as a housemaid when she could have been training as a geisha.

She receives an unexpected benefactress, a mortal enemy of Hatsumomo named Mameha decides to take Chiyo under her wing and insure that she has another opportunity to become a geisha. Chiyo, tired of scrubbing floors and being the do-this and do-that girl of the household realizes her best chance at some form of freedom is to elevate herself. The Movie based on this book was released in and directed by Rob Marshall.

At age 15 her virginity or mizuage is put up for auction. It is hard not to think of this as a barbaric custom, but for a geisha, if a bidding war erupts, she can earn enough money to pay off all the debts that have accumulated for her training. Chiyo, now called Sayuri, is fortunate to have two prominent men wanting to harvest her flower. The winner is Dr. Crab who paid a record amount for the privilege.

He even led with one shoulder when he walked, just like a crab moving along sideways. After the deed is done, the eel spit in the cave , Dr. Crab brought out a kit filled with bottles that would have made Dexter jealous.

Each bottle has a blood sample, soaked in a cotton ball or a piece of towel of every geisha he has ever treated including the blood from his couplings for their virginity. He cuts a piece of blood soaked towel that was under Sayori and added it to the bottle with her name.

The cultural obsession, every country seems to have one, with female virginity is simply pathological. Not strapped to a table by a serial killer type fear, but still there has to be that underlying hum as the man prepares to enter her.

I wonder if men, especially those who avidly pursue the deflowering of maidens, are getting off on that fear? Sayori is on her way to a successful career.

She is in love with a man called The Chairman and wishes that he will become her danna, a patron, who can afford to keep a geisha as a mistress. At that moment, beauty itself struck me as a kind of painful melancholy. One misstep, one bit of scandal, and many geishas found themselves ostracized by the community. They could very easily find themselves in a brothel.

During WW2 the geisha community was disbanded, and the girls had to find work elsewhere. Sayori was fortunate. Despite all the hardships I know she was enduring, Arthur Golden chose not to dwell on them in great detail. I was surprised by this because authors usually want and need to press home those poignant moments, so that when the character emerges from the depths of despair the reader can have a heady emotional response to triumph over tragedy.

I really did feel like I was sitting down for tea with Sayori, many years later, and she, as a way of entertaining me, was telling me her life story.

Golden interviewed a retired geisha by the name of Mineko Iwasaki who later sued him for using too much of her life story to produce this book. I wonder if Iwasaki was still the perfect geisha, keeping her story uplifting, and glossing over the aspects that could make her company uncomfortable. I notice some reviewers take issue with Sayori. They feel she did not assert herself, and take control of her life. She does in the end, but she is patient, and waits for a moment when she can predict the outcome.

I feel that she did what she needed to do to survive. Most of the time she enjoyed being a geisha. It takes a long time to learn not only the ways to entertain, but also all the rigid traditions that must be understood to be a successful geisha. As she gets older, and can clearly define the pitfalls of her actions, we see her manipulating the system in her favor.

View all 84 comments. The novel, told in first person perspective, tells the story of a fictional geisha working in Kyoto, Japan, before and after World War II. In , nine year-old Chiyo Sakamoto and her 15 year-old sister, Satsu, are sold by their father to work within the entertainment districts of Kyoto. They are taken from their home, the coastal fishing village of Yoroido along the Sea of Japan, and travel to Kyoto by train; upon arrival, Chiyo is taken to the Nitta okiya geisha boarding house in Gion, whereas Satsu - deemed less attractive and therefore a poor investment - is instead taken to a brothel within Kyoto's pleasure district.

Chiyo is taken inside, and is introduced to Auntie, Mother Auntie's adoptive older sister and the matriarch of the house and Granny, their elderly and poor-natured adoptive mother and the okiya's former "mother".

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, beautiful and ill-mannered geisha of Gion. Hatsumomo takes an instant disliking to Chiyo, and goes out of her way to torment her. Auntie warns Chiyo against both angering and trusting Hatsumomo, knowing the ill-mannered geisha's true nature very well.

View all 9 comments. May 13, T. Damn if you aren't one of the most problematic things I've ever read, Memoirs of a Geisha. Like much of non-Asian America, I was swept up in the delight of reading this book in I was fifteen and precocious, and the narrative was arresting. I couldn't put the book down.

I wrote this in "Golden has hit pay dirt with this masterpiece. An insightful, curious, and caring look into the mysterious world of geisha, Arthur Golden peels away the ignorance and labeling that westerners have covere Damn if you aren't one of the most problematic things I've ever read, Memoirs of a Geisha.

An insightful, curious, and caring look into the mysterious world of geisha, Arthur Golden peels away the ignorance and labeling that westerners have covered the secretive Japanese profession. Although it sinks at times into a near melodramatic prose, the book's protagonist is interesting, insightful, and enjoyable.

Her witty anecdotes and thoughtful mannerisms in speaking make Memoirs of a Geisha a delightful and unstoppable read. And I'm mad at myself. God, I was naive. This novel, while entertaining is so problematic I rarely have time to descend into my criticism. It continues the Orientalism that Edward Said loathed so very much; rather than "skillfully entering" the world of a Japanese woman, it apes her identity, and ultimately deprives her of a voice, creating a sort of Orientalist imagination for us to enjoy without ever really seeing her.

The book is still engaging as a narrative, but the sappy ending, the frankly sexist portrayals at some points, and Sayuri's outright inability to identify outside of her Chairman is rather frightening. It serves to objectify fetishism at its worst. Yet I can only give you three stars, because I'm still partly under your spell, Golden. View all 12 comments. Mar 07, Mario the lone bookwolf rated it it was amazing Shelves: eschbach-andreas.

A timeless genre picture of a strong woman making the best out of terrible circumstances. The Asian way Sexist male dominance manifested in many different forms and how the Japanese cultur A timeless genre picture of a strong woman making the best out of terrible circumstances. The Asian way Sexist male dominance manifested in many different forms and how the Japanese culture arranged prostitution has hardly ever been described in such memorable words, metaphors, and pictures.

The faithful creating hell on Earth for multi k years since the neolithic, first agricultural revolution to install bloody dictatorships, what a slogan. Subjective insecurity This is absolutely not my genre, so my impression and subjective review might be more than incompetent regarding established rating standards, but I definitively like this different, character focused style of storytelling that teaches much about foreign cultures.

View all 8 comments. There are resemblances with Ms. In the book, the fortunetellers talk about how her eyes indicate that she has a lot of water in their personalities, indicating that she has a fluid and flexible personality that helps her adapt to various circumstances. According to an interview with CNN, Arthur Golden was fascinated when he met someone whose mother was a geisha during his time living in Japan.

The loincloth of a sumo wrestler is made out if silk and is about 7-meters. The sash of the maiko is made out of silk a. However, other services the company provides such as the geisha t. You can also learn a lot more about the geisha by choosing one of the geisha experiences at our geisha museum in GION by reservation. Many travelers wander around Gion Hanamikoji Street not knowing where they are going or what they are looking at. Although we are a museum that provides paid tours we are more than happy to share a free Gion Walking Tour Map as we invite you to come to our museum only if you want to learn more.

Geisha Kyoto Events Calendar Throughout the year, there are several events, that happen every year and have a significant meaning. Some of these events may be delayed or cancelled because of the pandemic prevention measures. Our Teacher Edition on Memoirs of a Geisha can help. Themes All Themes.

Symbols All Symbols. Theme Wheel. Everything you need for every book you read. The way the content is organized and presented is seamlessly smooth, innovative, and comprehensive. Memoirs of a Geisha Study Guide Next. A concise biography of Arthur Golden plus historical and literary context for Memoirs of a Geisha. In-depth summary and analysis of every chapter of Memoirs of a Geisha.

Visual theme-tracking, too. Explanations, analysis, and visualizations of Memoirs of a Geisha 's themes. Memoirs of a Geisha 's important quotes, sortable by theme, character, or chapter. What was the significance of the handkerchief? What was the white stuff that the geishas had to sleep on? Details Edit.

Release date December 23, United States. France Japan United States. Sony Pictures United States. English Japanese. Box office Edit. Technical specs Edit. Runtime 2 hours 25 minutes. Related news. Dec 14 WeAreMovieGeeks. Contribute to this page Suggest an edit or add missing content. Top Gap. What is the Hindi language plot outline for Memoirs of a Geisha ? See more gaps Learn more about contributing.

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