A Geisha's Memoirs

There are very few books which I have enjoyed so much as Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden, and I must add that it is not right there, near the top of my list.

The book, written in an autobiographical note, tells the story of Sayuri, a fisherman's daughter who grows up to be one of the formost geishas in the District of Gion in Japan and subsequently in New York. The novel is acclaimed to be "one of those novel-lovers yearn for", and it is indeed the case. It is one of those novels which can captivate you and keep you turning the pages even though there is hardly a murder, and no suspense. The language is most unpretentious - there were no "big" words, and I rather felt the lucidity the language and the simplicity of expression only strengthens the author's delivery.

The novel starts with Choyo, the swan-child of a fisherman and his ailing wife, growing up amongst the fish-laden beaches fo Yoriodo in Japan. Her stars predict behaviour akin to Water, and we see very much in the rest of the book how Choyo is able to adjust herself to her surroundings. The mother is dying and the father has no money; Choyo ultimately is sold to a Geisha okiya [geisha house], while her sister is sold to a brothel. The child's innocence, her gulliblity is very well represented when she actually thinks that the person who sold her off, had actually been thinking of adopting her. It really is very moving when Choyo is separated from her sister Satsu, and left in the patronage of the okiya.

After that the story meanders in a long and exciting tale of hard work, despondency, jealosy, villification, back-stabbing, treachery and finally jubilation describing Choyo's struggles to become a geisha, Sayuri. The story also describes her days as a geisha, the trials she has to face, the hardships during World War II, and finally ends with her coming to stay in New York. I would not like to give away the plot, but would definitely add in the same breath that I am sure no body could be disappointed with it.

The pace of the story is just ideal, it never seems to sag, and never seems to rush past. I believe the hallmark of good writing is that the words seem to flow into words, words into paragraphs, and paragraphs into chapters, and they form one solid plot, which never lets the reader put down the book. Somehow, in this book I enjoyed all of this and more.

The description of Gion and the geisha district is absolutely fascinating. You almost fell as if you are walking along the alleys, the tea-houses, the geisha school, the bridges, the okiyas. You feel geishas are walking around you, bowing to you, asking of your permission to entertain you. You imagine them with the atypical white make-up on their faces, dressed in multi-hued kimonos, apprentice geishas even more so. It really seems an idyllic surrounding.

However, the one reason I really liked the novel was because of the intricate examination of Sayuri's mind as a girl, an apprentice, a geisha, a woman and more importanly as a human being. Many people in western society mistake a geisha to be just another prostitute. This book however, explodes that myth. Geishas are artists - they dance, sing and entertain their guests. Even though they are also adept in the art of seducing people, there is definitely another side to their life. Sayuri has her own likes and dislikes. In many cases, they abhors the very people she has to entertain, even people living in her own okiya. And at the same time, she has her own fascinations, her own yearnings, her own idea of love.

Life as a geisha can be pretty tough. The elaborate hair-dos ensure that you have to learn to sleep in a very complicated bed called a futon, which has a kind of a stand for your head rather than a pillow. They are expected to look their elegant best, with an excess of make-up, and clumsy dresses. And with that they have to entertain all the guests, behave demurely, like the princess who finds a pea under the mattresses uncomfortable. However, the training they have to go through, prepares them for quite a rough life. As children, they not only go to the geisha school, but also have to work like a donkey in the okiya, because they are ultimately bought from the market, and become slaves if they don't turn out to be a swan they are expected to be. Sayuri got so calloused in their early lives, that there was a certain maturity in the way she looked at everything. She writes, "Adversity is like a strong wind. I don't mean just that it holds us back from places we might otherwise go. It also tears away from us all but the things that cannot be torn, so that afterward we see outselves as we really are, and not merely as we might like to be."

The book shows how even in selling her body for the money, there is a certain acceptance of fate - which I really found intriguing. She longes for the Chairman, but still continues serving her danna, her patron, just as she would, just as she should, for it is her vocation. However, unlike the other geishas, she jeopardizes her future to reach to the Chairman, whose was the one thought which motivated her all through her formative years. And this further raises her in my eyes, since even though she is brought up to be a meek and docile, she still has the spark of rebellion alive in her, and she wants to carve her destiny, flow into another vessel whose shape is more in agreement with her.

At the same time, reading about Japan and its culture was interesting, for it is so much like our own Indian culture. There is a strong sense of hierarchy, and you rise only by giving due respect to your seniors, and the people who helped you reach thus far, and you continue to do that even though you might be more successful than them. Geishas are adopted by their okiya, and call their seniors as Mother, or Aunty, or Granny. There is a sense of belonging, even in case of Geishas and their patrons. Even though Geishas might be in the business of beauty, sex was mostly unspoken and only alluded to, very much the way it is in India. I accept, Japan must have changed a lot by now, just like India is beginning to change, but still reading about the past which may never exist ever again was an unparalleled experience.

In the book while talking about the World War II, the ensuing destruction, while she talks of laughter having drained from their lives, and their living "onion lives", it keeps peeling layer after layer and crying all the while, she talks of rebuilding. It is surprising how adversity can bring together the entire community, even somebody as cocooned as a geisha. The same happened in Germany. I just hope one day we might feel the same way towards our country and try to revive its former glory!