Characters
Hatsumomo: antagonist (Kaleasha)
When Chiyo arrives to the Okiya for the first time Hatsumomo’s true jealous nature comes out when she must fight to remain the top geisha. “Mr.Beku could you take out the garbage later. There was no garbage in the entryway; she was talking about me… You may not mind being so close to her but when I see filth on one side of the street, I cross to the other.” (37) Hatsumomo thinks Chiyo is only a nuisance to her and will do anything to put Chiyo down and try to ruin her chances of becoming more popular. Hatsumomo is also very pretty, she is able to mask her cruelness with a smile and wave to any man who passes by. “Even then amid all my fears, I couldn’t help noticing how extraordinary Hatsumomo’s beauty was. She may have been as cruel as a spider, but she was more lovely chewing on her nail than most geisha looked posing for a photograph.” (74) Hatsumomo was able to be sneaky and have no one suspect her, that is if they didn’t know her well she could have charmed a beggar out of his last coin. Though the longer you knew her you could really see how clever she was. Hatsumomo was able to bribe Chiyo into doing work for her, she did this by telling her she knew where her sister was. She was also able to get Chiyo to ruin another famous geisha’s kimono by putting ink all over it and then delivering it back to that okiya. One of her greatest feats though was when she was able to follow then now Sayuri and Mameha to all of their engagements where Sayuri had to watch Mameha and learn. Once there Hatsumomo would spread vicious rumors that everyone believed. “Thank heavens she was blown onto the hood her legs flew up and then if you can picture this the wind blew right up her kimono and well I don’t need to tell you what happened.” (177) Hatsumomo says this as part of her story to make people think Sayuri was already seen and later on if that was true Sayuri would not have made as much money from her mizuage. Dr.Crab heard the lies too so he actually had a doctor sent to the house to make sure that Sayuri was still “clean”. In the end of Hatsumomo’s temper got the better of her and let loose on her client and ruined herself. “Hatsumomo threw herself at Shojiro and began hitting him everywhere. I do think that in a way she went crazy.”(330) Afterwards she left for a night and returned feeling terrible. After spending hours with mother she was kicked out of the Okiya for good. “She didn’t leave voluntarily; Mother had thrown her out.”(331)
Character- Sayuri/Chiyo Protagonist (Laura)
Sayuri, the beautiful and famous geisha started her life as Chiyo-chan in a house along the sea shore in a poor fishing community. In a twist of fate young Chiyo’s life would change forever when her mother grew ill and a man named Mr.Tanaka would meet with her family and take her away from the life she had always known. From this point on Chiyo begins her endless struggle with a balance between her fate and freewill, but it is this struggle to find where she fits in life and how she should reach her destiny that shapes and develops Chiyo as a character throughout the book.
The first example of this is after being sold to an okiya, a home where geisha live, Chiyo had to work for the family until they decided if she would become a geisha. For a long time Chiyo struggled in her new life and seemed to be fighting her fate and living her life in the past. For Chiyo this this was not the balance she would need to reach her destiny as she realized when she found a dead moth she had bundled up years before, “ It struck me that we- the moth and I - were two opposite extremes. My existence was as unstable as a stream, changing in every way; but the moth was like a piece of stone, changing not at all. While thinking this thought, I reached out a finder to feel the moth’s velvety surface; but when I brushed it with my fingertip, it turned all at once into a pile of ash without even a sound, without even a moment in which I could see it crumbling...The stale air had washed away. The past was gone. My mother and father were dead . But I suppose that for the past year I’d been dead in a way too. And my sister...yes, she was gone; but I wasn’t gone.” (107-108) This quote shows character development because for Chiyo her future was ever changing yet she had been stuck living in the past, which was symbolised by the moth, and as she realised when she tried to touch the moth it crumbled, meaning to her that there was nothing she could do to change her past. Chiyo develops in this quote because she realizes she can’t change the past and that she needs to live out the future she has.
However, this realization leads into the next change in Chiyo’s life, “ She wrapped them up to give them to me, so that they looked just like the bundled-up moth I’d been holding only a few minutes earlier. Of course, a sign doesn’t mean anything unless you know how to interpret it.” (108) Before Chiyo had been been fighting her fate by hanging on to her past and trying to remember the life she use to have, but as this quote shows now not only has Chiyo let go of her past she also has started to look for signs and symbols to tell her her fate. This change in thinking was a huge development for Chiyo’s character because this belief in following fate and not using one’s free will allowed her to handle the environment of living in a okiya where everyone is telling you what to do, and also it allowed her to become a successful apprentice geisha and eventually a geisha. This is because she allowed others around her to make huge life decisions for her, such as Mother and Mameha’s decision to sell her virginity to Dr. Crab, which in return gave her her start as a successful geisha.
While believing that she had little control over her destiny allowed Chiyo to become successful it also held her back from her dreams and caused conflict with Nobu as seen in their conversation after word that the geisha district in Gion would be closed due to the war, “‘ You can't pretend you have no influence at all. It’s your duty to use what influence you have, unless you want to drift through life like a fish belly-up on the stream.’ (Nobu)
‘ I wish I could believe that life really is something more than a stream that carries us along, belly up.’ (Chiyo)
‘ All right, if it’s a stream, you’re still free to be in this part of it or that part aren’t you? The water divides again and again. If you bump, tussle, and fight, and make use of whatever advantages you might have… I expect you to go through life with your eyes open! If you keep your destiny in mind, every moment in life becomes an opportunity for moving closer to it.’ (Nobu) (314-315). Before this Chiyo had acted on her own to choose the General as her danna over Nobu, but she did this more so by suggestion than actual action and she would soon find out Nobu was right in that she wouldn’t always be able to act on others orders. This quote does not show clear change in Chiyo’s character because what this situation truly functions as is a confrontation point where Chiyo’s actions to allow other people around her to control her fate meet opposition for the first time.
Following this quote Chiyo would change little in her actions and character until finally as the pressure of Nobu becoming her danna and her dreams of the Chairman seem out of reach does she change once again. For most of her life now Chiyo has lived her life embracing her fate by allowing the people around her to make her decisions for her. This changes when she decides to take the future into her own hands and use her free will to shape her future: “And in that instant, while I peered at him in the hot sun, I made up my mind that I would do this thing I had feared. I would betray Nobu, even though he stood there looking at me with kindness.” (398). It is after this realization that Chiyo had to act on her own free will that she slept with the Minister in an attempt to avoid her fate of Nobu becoming her danna. Chiyo’s change in character with the choice she made would eventually lead to Nobu wanting nothing to do with her but also the Chairman coming forward and becoming Chiyo’s danna for the rest of her life. This quote shows character development for Chiyo because it shows her once again changing her perspective on fate and free will by taking her fate into her own hands in whatever way she could. By the end of the story Chiyo would look back at this point in her life and say, “Now, nearly forty years later, I sit here looking back on that evening with the Chairman as the moment when all the grieving voices within me fell silent.”(419) This quote further supports Chiyo’s character development because it validates that she made the right choice in her decision to act on her own free will to change her fate and also highlights the fact that this was a struggle throughout her life.
So to conclude, Chiyo/Sayuri as a character developed in three ways throughout the book. First, she realized that she can not fight her fate by living in the past; second, she realized that much of her fate is out of her control and that she must adapt to the life the world around her provides; but finally Chiyo realizes that while much of her fate is controlled by her environment, she also has the power to act on her own free will and changer her destiny.
When Chiyo arrives to the Okiya for the first time Hatsumomo’s true jealous nature comes out when she must fight to remain the top geisha. “Mr.Beku could you take out the garbage later. There was no garbage in the entryway; she was talking about me… You may not mind being so close to her but when I see filth on one side of the street, I cross to the other.” (37) Hatsumomo thinks Chiyo is only a nuisance to her and will do anything to put Chiyo down and try to ruin her chances of becoming more popular. Hatsumomo is also very pretty, she is able to mask her cruelness with a smile and wave to any man who passes by. “Even then amid all my fears, I couldn’t help noticing how extraordinary Hatsumomo’s beauty was. She may have been as cruel as a spider, but she was more lovely chewing on her nail than most geisha looked posing for a photograph.” (74) Hatsumomo was able to be sneaky and have no one suspect her, that is if they didn’t know her well she could have charmed a beggar out of his last coin. Though the longer you knew her you could really see how clever she was. Hatsumomo was able to bribe Chiyo into doing work for her, she did this by telling her she knew where her sister was. She was also able to get Chiyo to ruin another famous geisha’s kimono by putting ink all over it and then delivering it back to that okiya. One of her greatest feats though was when she was able to follow then now Sayuri and Mameha to all of their engagements where Sayuri had to watch Mameha and learn. Once there Hatsumomo would spread vicious rumors that everyone believed. “Thank heavens she was blown onto the hood her legs flew up and then if you can picture this the wind blew right up her kimono and well I don’t need to tell you what happened.” (177) Hatsumomo says this as part of her story to make people think Sayuri was already seen and later on if that was true Sayuri would not have made as much money from her mizuage. Dr.Crab heard the lies too so he actually had a doctor sent to the house to make sure that Sayuri was still “clean”. In the end of Hatsumomo’s temper got the better of her and let loose on her client and ruined herself. “Hatsumomo threw herself at Shojiro and began hitting him everywhere. I do think that in a way she went crazy.”(330) Afterwards she left for a night and returned feeling terrible. After spending hours with mother she was kicked out of the Okiya for good. “She didn’t leave voluntarily; Mother had thrown her out.”(331)
Character- Sayuri/Chiyo Protagonist (Laura)
Sayuri, the beautiful and famous geisha started her life as Chiyo-chan in a house along the sea shore in a poor fishing community. In a twist of fate young Chiyo’s life would change forever when her mother grew ill and a man named Mr.Tanaka would meet with her family and take her away from the life she had always known. From this point on Chiyo begins her endless struggle with a balance between her fate and freewill, but it is this struggle to find where she fits in life and how she should reach her destiny that shapes and develops Chiyo as a character throughout the book.
The first example of this is after being sold to an okiya, a home where geisha live, Chiyo had to work for the family until they decided if she would become a geisha. For a long time Chiyo struggled in her new life and seemed to be fighting her fate and living her life in the past. For Chiyo this this was not the balance she would need to reach her destiny as she realized when she found a dead moth she had bundled up years before, “ It struck me that we- the moth and I - were two opposite extremes. My existence was as unstable as a stream, changing in every way; but the moth was like a piece of stone, changing not at all. While thinking this thought, I reached out a finder to feel the moth’s velvety surface; but when I brushed it with my fingertip, it turned all at once into a pile of ash without even a sound, without even a moment in which I could see it crumbling...The stale air had washed away. The past was gone. My mother and father were dead . But I suppose that for the past year I’d been dead in a way too. And my sister...yes, she was gone; but I wasn’t gone.” (107-108) This quote shows character development because for Chiyo her future was ever changing yet she had been stuck living in the past, which was symbolised by the moth, and as she realised when she tried to touch the moth it crumbled, meaning to her that there was nothing she could do to change her past. Chiyo develops in this quote because she realizes she can’t change the past and that she needs to live out the future she has.
However, this realization leads into the next change in Chiyo’s life, “ She wrapped them up to give them to me, so that they looked just like the bundled-up moth I’d been holding only a few minutes earlier. Of course, a sign doesn’t mean anything unless you know how to interpret it.” (108) Before Chiyo had been been fighting her fate by hanging on to her past and trying to remember the life she use to have, but as this quote shows now not only has Chiyo let go of her past she also has started to look for signs and symbols to tell her her fate. This change in thinking was a huge development for Chiyo’s character because this belief in following fate and not using one’s free will allowed her to handle the environment of living in a okiya where everyone is telling you what to do, and also it allowed her to become a successful apprentice geisha and eventually a geisha. This is because she allowed others around her to make huge life decisions for her, such as Mother and Mameha’s decision to sell her virginity to Dr. Crab, which in return gave her her start as a successful geisha.
While believing that she had little control over her destiny allowed Chiyo to become successful it also held her back from her dreams and caused conflict with Nobu as seen in their conversation after word that the geisha district in Gion would be closed due to the war, “‘ You can't pretend you have no influence at all. It’s your duty to use what influence you have, unless you want to drift through life like a fish belly-up on the stream.’ (Nobu)
‘ I wish I could believe that life really is something more than a stream that carries us along, belly up.’ (Chiyo)
‘ All right, if it’s a stream, you’re still free to be in this part of it or that part aren’t you? The water divides again and again. If you bump, tussle, and fight, and make use of whatever advantages you might have… I expect you to go through life with your eyes open! If you keep your destiny in mind, every moment in life becomes an opportunity for moving closer to it.’ (Nobu) (314-315). Before this Chiyo had acted on her own to choose the General as her danna over Nobu, but she did this more so by suggestion than actual action and she would soon find out Nobu was right in that she wouldn’t always be able to act on others orders. This quote does not show clear change in Chiyo’s character because what this situation truly functions as is a confrontation point where Chiyo’s actions to allow other people around her to control her fate meet opposition for the first time.
Following this quote Chiyo would change little in her actions and character until finally as the pressure of Nobu becoming her danna and her dreams of the Chairman seem out of reach does she change once again. For most of her life now Chiyo has lived her life embracing her fate by allowing the people around her to make her decisions for her. This changes when she decides to take the future into her own hands and use her free will to shape her future: “And in that instant, while I peered at him in the hot sun, I made up my mind that I would do this thing I had feared. I would betray Nobu, even though he stood there looking at me with kindness.” (398). It is after this realization that Chiyo had to act on her own free will that she slept with the Minister in an attempt to avoid her fate of Nobu becoming her danna. Chiyo’s change in character with the choice she made would eventually lead to Nobu wanting nothing to do with her but also the Chairman coming forward and becoming Chiyo’s danna for the rest of her life. This quote shows character development for Chiyo because it shows her once again changing her perspective on fate and free will by taking her fate into her own hands in whatever way she could. By the end of the story Chiyo would look back at this point in her life and say, “Now, nearly forty years later, I sit here looking back on that evening with the Chairman as the moment when all the grieving voices within me fell silent.”(419) This quote further supports Chiyo’s character development because it validates that she made the right choice in her decision to act on her own free will to change her fate and also highlights the fact that this was a struggle throughout her life.
So to conclude, Chiyo/Sayuri as a character developed in three ways throughout the book. First, she realized that she can not fight her fate by living in the past; second, she realized that much of her fate is out of her control and that she must adapt to the life the world around her provides; but finally Chiyo realizes that while much of her fate is controlled by her environment, she also has the power to act on her own free will and changer her destiny.