Golden, Arthur. Memoirs of a Geisha. Vintage: New York, 1997. 428 pages.
Memoirs of a Geisha tell the true life story of a young Japanese girl, Chiyo Sakamoto, taken from her home and forced into the profession of a geisha. She is taken to the Nitta okiya (geisha house) and begins training to be a geisha in order to pay off the huge amount of debt she owes the Nitta house, Chiyo faces many hardships, such as her elder geisha Hatsumomo’s attempts to ruin her career before it even starts, and a desperate search for the family she was torn from. The meets the chairman of a Japanese company and falls in love, more like a crush, though. But this crush gives her something to strive for, and all of her efforts in her training pay off when she becomes one of the most famous geisha in Japan and eventually inherits the Nitta house. As corny as this sounds, all of her dreams come true. This story details culture of Japan not too long ago, around the time of World War II. It shows many of the female objectifying things the Japanese world do to make a woman an object of beauty. The Japanese standard of beauty is much different from out western ideas of beauty, so the process of becoming a geisha may seem weird to most people reading this book. The idea of being a geisha also seems similar to prostitution, but people must realize the definite distinction. Prostitutes have sex for money, Geisha entertain men for money, whether it involve sex or not. This book gives much insight and knowledge about a side of Japanese culture that most people over look and gives it in a way that one can relate. It covers a coming of age theme, an overcoming hardships theme, and does so as if you were listening to Chiyo/Sayuri telling you her story herself.
What if…
What if this story was westernized, told from the perspective of an American or English girl sold to a brothel, so the story would make more sense to a western audience. How would the story be different and in what ways would the story be the same.
Haiku
(Ironically appropriate.)
Young girl bought and sold
She had to learn to be bold
Story to be told
