Memoirs of a Geisha

Memoirs of a Geisha

Author- Arthur Golden
Chiyo, Sayuri

Chiyo, the beautiful daughter of a very poor fishing family is taken from her home and sold as a slave in Kyoto. She is taken to a famous geisha house where she is given the new name of Sayuri. Sayuri, unwilling to come accustom to this new lifestyle has no choice but to change her image and create herself as a sophisticated geisha. Gion, the geisha district is where the book takes place and where the arts of a geisha are learned. The training and preparation that these young women have to go through is an intense and severe process. In Memoirs of a geisha you truly learn what it would be like in one of those girls’ positions. The competition between the girls is intense as they all long to be desired by the men and to please them. All of the young girl’s virginity is auctioned off to the highest bidder and throughout the process there is not one person you can trust. The girls are unhappy and feel as though they are trapped forever and destined to be unhappy. Sayuri, as a young girl met Chairman Ken Iwamua who kindly helped her one day on the streets, and since then he has been the love of her life. Eventually after many conflicts Sayuri finally confesses her true love for the Chairman after keeping it to herself for over fifteen years. Sayuri becomes the Chairman’s mistress and together they have a son. The story is told as a flashback of Sayuri’s life, looking back over her younger years as she tells the story as a seventy year old woman. Memoirs of a Geisha is the story of the fictional confessions of one of the most beautiful and famous of geishas.