The Name Game In Japanese culture, the family name goes before the given name. Americans would know our protagonist as a young girl as Chiyo Sakamoto, and as a geisha as Sayuri Nitta.
When she was 19, her virginity was sold for a record price at the time, around $850,000 in today's dollars. Ms. Iwasaki was able to give Mr. Golden crucial details about the daily rituals of geisha, though he did not base the character of Sayuri on her, he added.
The chairman met Sayuri when he was 45 years old and she was 9. The age gap is 36 years.
One of the reasons that the two sisters never reconnect is because Sayuri never again tries to escape the bonds of being a geisha. Even in the end, when she moves to New York, she's still the Chairman's mistress.
Sayuri's first plane trip occurs when she goes to a party on an island with Nobu, the Chairman, and a greasy old Minister. Here, Sayuri sleeps with the Minister to stop Nobu from being interested in her. For her whole career, she has been the object of sex at the expense of others.
The Baron, her danna (a patron who pays a geisha to be his mistress), invites Sayuri to a party Mameha cannot attend. Mameha warns Sayuri to be careful to protect her virginity. Although Sayuri tries to avoid being alone with the Baron, she fails. The Baron undresses her but does not take any liberties with her.
Pumpkin vehemently out of anger (cool, but still upset in the movie) told her she took away her rightful place as Mother's daughter and heir of the Nitta Okiya. A heart-broken Sayuri threw away the cherished handkerchief, and gave in to her fate.
Sayuri's eyes symbolically relate to the old saying that “eyes are the windows to the soul.” Sayuri's translucent blue-grey eyes lead many characters to believe that she has a lot of water in her personality.
As Dr. Crab rapes Sayuri, Sayuri tries to mentally flee from herself and her body. In essence, the rape forces Sayuri to distance and alienate her mind from her body.
Jealous of any geisha who might be prettier than her, Hatsumomo fears that Sayuri will replace her as the most popular geisha in Kyoto. As a result, Hatsumomo tries to ruin Sayuri's career by spreading malicious rumors about her.
An honorable and loyal man, the Chairman at first sacrifices a relationship with Sayuri in order to let his friend and business partner Nobu pursue a relationship with her. But when the Chairman realizes that Sayuri feels as much love for him as he does for her, his love for Sayuri outstrips his loyalty to Nobu.
A man in love with Sayuri, Nobu spends much of the novel trying to get Sayuri to become his personal geisha.
The story ends with Sayuri recounting her subsequent life with the Chairman as her dana, and her eventual retirement as a geisha. She never freely admits that she has a son with the Chairman, but speaks of moving to New York City in order to avoid complications regarding inheritance of Iwamura Electric.
Some geisha would sleep with their customers, whereas others would not, leading to distinctions such as kuruwa geisha – a geisha who slept with customers as well as entertaining them through performing arts – yujō ("prostitute") and jorō ("whore") geisha, whose only entertainment for male customers was sex, and machi ...
In the modern day, mizuage is a contentious issue, both within the geisha communities of Japan and elsewhere. The practice was outlawed following the introduction of the Anti-Prostitution Law in 1956, categorised under the "traffic in human flesh".
In May 2009, it was reported that 18-year-old Romanian Alina Percea had successfully auctioned her virginity for 10,000 euros to a 45-year-old Italian man, advertising the offer on a German dating site.
Sayuri's beloved older sister. Since Satsu is not as pretty or as clever as Sayuri, Mr. Tanaka sells her to a brothel instead of an okiya. Satsu despises life as a prostitute, so she runs away to her home village where she reunites with her boyfriend.
To inflame a doctor's lust for Sayuri (for the impending bidding war for her virginity), Mameha intentionally cuts Sayuri's leg high on her thigh (off camera).
The Chairman pays Mother a considerable amount of money each month so that Sayuri can end her career. Sayuri also learns that since the Chairman is married, she can't move in with him.
Sayuri's Early Life. The renowned geisha Sayuri started life as Chiyo Sakamoto, the daughter of a poor, elderly fisherman and his sickly wife. She also has an older sister named Satsu; the family lives in what Chiyo calls her "tipsy house", since it leans.
Ultimately, Sayuri retires and relocates to New York City, where she operates a tea room. The novel states Sayuri was nine years old in 1929, and made her first of several trips to New York in 1952. Therefore, we know the narration of the novel takes place when Sayuri is at least 32 years old.
Chiyo is taken to the Nitta okiya (geisha boarding house) in Gion, but her sister is taken to a brothel within Kyoto's pleasure district.
This is because a long time ago, Hatsumomo made the terrible mistake of being rude and angering the owner of the Mizuki Teahouse. As a result of her bad behavior, she could never find a Danna as she was banned.
Because dad can't raise two girls alone, he sells them to a local businessman, Mr. Tanaka. Chiyo thinks she is being adopted, but she ends up with a family she never expected—a family of geisha in Kyoto, a long way from Yoroido.
He's the object of Sayuri's love, a man who is nice to her as a girl—giving her a bit of spare change and saying, "We none of us find as much kindness in this world as we should" (9.48)—and eventually marries her.