Word: sayuri
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Chiyo's career as Sayuri begins when her elderly father, distraught over his ailing wife, permits her to be placed in okiya, or training houses for geisha, at the urging of a rather dubious local entrepreneur...
Golden's new book is a sort of makeup remover. Memoirs of a Geisha starts at that bare rim of skin and gradually dissolves the entire facade of Gion, Kyoto's geisha district, during the 1930s and 1940s. The story of young Chiyo's transformation into the geisha Nitta Sayuri is not merely the tale of one woman but the chronicle of a particular place...
...dominant geisha, Hatsumomo, who sees the beautiful Chiyo as a threat. A failed runaway attempt cuts short her training, but then the famous geisha Mameha takes a sudden and surprising interest in Chiyo and her unusual blue-gray eyes. Chiyo is permitted to resume her training, becoming the geisha Sayuri and beginning her slow ascent to the heights of Gion...
...Sayuri once notes that "the point wasn't to become a geisha, but to be one," but Golden wisely devotes the bulk of the book to the becoming. Golden has done an exquisite job of research. His comprehensive knowledge of the world of a geisha adds verisimilitude as Sayuri describes her reactions to her increasing knowledge of a geisha's life. Her descriptions of how to wear a kimono, or what a geisha's daily lessons are like, or how a geisha is expected to behave in the presence of men are among the best passages in the book: educational...
...they are kept immaculately clean, the buildings are spare and functional, and the machinery is always the most up-to-date. Occasionally workers will try to add some local color. At Nissan's body assembly plant in Zama, near Yokohama, workers have pasted pictures of movie stars like Sayuri Yoshinaga and Kaori Momoi on the new robots that make the cars...