I have a whole bunch of books in my bookcase that I have never read. It’s like having my own private Barnes & Noble in my own house. It’s great. So one day I finally decided to pick up Memoirs of a Geisha, and it was a marvelous choice.
In short, it’s the story of a girl, Chiyo, who was ripped from her elderly parents at age 9 and sold to a Geisha house (an okiya) in Kyoto, where she would spend the rest of her youth learning the art of entertaining. This included learning to dance, play the shamisen and have interesting conversations with uninteresting men. Now, it wasn’t as simple as that. This girl had to endure being separated from her family for no apparent reason, being “checked” by doctors without her consent, being treated like a maid and being emotionally harassed by Hatsumomo, a beautiful yet cruel Geisha who was the main breadwinner in her okiya.
Even through years of hardship, Chiyo (Geisha name “Sayuri”) managed to keep her soft spoken mannerism and kind attitude. But many times throughout the story I kept wondering whether someone could really live her life like a delicate rose petal on a rocky brook: letting the current take it adrift without any way to steer clear of obstacles. When was she ever going to stand up for herself and make her own destiny? Was that an option? Did she ever think she had a choice?
You can say it is my impressionable nature that allows my mind to be completely enthralled in a story, but I felt like I was learning with her about how to entertain Japanese businessmen. There was something about the objectification of these women that made life seem so simple. If you have no depth, there are no expectations of you. Seems so simple. You can’t piss people off if they just expect you to smile and tell silly stories. None of the businessmen ever wondered what these girls were made of, what they thought of their own lives, who they wanted to be with, what they wanted. Like Sayuri’s mentor, Mameha, once said “we don’t become Geisha because it’s easy, we do it because we have no choice.” That is quite telling of their life. They just have no choice.
I encourage others to read this book. It truly takes you to a different world and into the mind of someone in completely different circumstances from your own. What a great novel.
ina
Photo Credit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:MemoirsOfAGeisha.jpg