Memoirs of a Geisha

by Arthur Golden

During those first few days in that strange place, I don’t think I could have felt worse if I’d lost my arms and legs, rather than my family and my home.

she seemed to regard her hair the way a train regards its smokestack: it was just the thing that happened to be on top.

shamisen

But a geisha must study a great many arts besides shamisen. And in fact, the “gei” of “geisha” means “arts,” so the word “geisha” really means “artisan” or “artist.”

But basically, a tea ceremony is conducted by one or two people who sit before their guests and prepare tea in a very traditional manner, using beautiful cups, and whisks made from bamboo, and so forth.

My danna is a generous man and bought me most of these robes. That’s why I’m more successful than Hatsumomo. I have a wealthy danna. She hasn’t had one in years.”

But a geisha who refers to her danna isn’t talking about a husband. Geisha never marry. Or at least those who do no longer continue as geisha.

A true geisha will never soil her reputation by making herself available to men on a nightly basis.

It would be an understatement to say that Mameha became famous.

Dance is the most revered of the geisha’s arts.

I had never in my life been so close to another human being before, though we hadn’t spoken a word.

And of course, Mother had been quite wrong about the war ending within six months. We couldn’t have believed it at the time, but we’d scarcely seen the beginning of the dark years just yet.

What was more, without Nobu’s patronage, I was no longer invited to Iwamura Electric’s parties, which meant I hardly stood any chance at all of seeing the Chairman.

I was quite taken aback when Mother called me into her room one afternoon and told me I’d earned more in the past six months than both Hatsumomo and Pumpkin combined. “Which means,” she said, “that it’s time for you to exchange rooms with them.”

Hatsumomo and I had managed to live side by side these past few years by keeping away from each other.

This is why the real turning point, as I’ve since come to see it, occurred the day when Hatsumomo read my journal, and I discovered the obi brooch she’d accused me of stealing.

“I never seek to defeat the man I am fighting,” he explained. “I seek to defeat his confidence. A mind troubled by doubt cannot focus on the course to victory. Two men are equals—true equals—only when they both have equal confidence.”

I don’t know for sure what ever became of Hatsumomo. A few years after the war, I heard she was making a living as a prostitute in the Miyagawa-cho district.