The life of a geisha is shown to be difficult when Auntie, a failed geisha is shown to have a crippled hip. This tells us that a successful geisha must be beautiful otherwise she won’t be preferred by anyone else. Both Hatsumomo and Mameha are successful geishas because of their attractiveness and beauty. Mameha is beloved for her lovely oval face and elegant supremacy in arts while Hatsumomo is the most renowned, most beautiful geisha in Gion. However, there are many ways that shows beauty does demand suffering for Sayuri. Because of her astonishing gray eyes, she is lost in the geisha house while she could have been in her own ‘tipsy-house’ with her parents and her sister. ‘But to learn in a single moment that both my mother and father had died and left me, and that my sister too was lost to me forever…at once my mind felt like a broken vase that would not stand.’ This quote is significant because it shows that she feels upset of not being with her parents in their difficult moments and, being separated with her sister forever due to being taken to Gion.
Later in the novel, it could be argued that Sayuri doesn’t experience a totally difficult way of life as she brings the highest profits to the geisha house. This is because she gets the highest bid for her mizuage and also a rich danna. ‘¥11,500 was the highest ever paid for a mizuage in Gion…the fee for my mizuage is more than enough to repay all my debts to the okiya.’ This shows that money has a powerful effect on the geisha’s life as it supports the geisha system, which also supports an entire network of people. As Sayuri is already a pretty girl, she is not struggling to bring a large amount of money for the geisha house she’s in and thus she is easily respected by others. This again, shows the life of a geisha doesn’t necessarily have to be a difficult way of life.
The concept of beauty and elegance can create a successful geisha, illustrates the idea of competition in the novel, where some geishas become rivals and competing with each other to be the most desirable geisha. For instance, Hatsumomo is ‘like a cat, happy to bask in the sun so long as no other cats get in its way’. The problem for her is that new cats keep showing up. Sayuri lives in where Hatsumomo also lives and bringing up even more jealousy in Hatsumomo. She tends to manipulate, plot and manoeuvre to crush Sayuri. ‘Hatsumomo’s little trick with that kimono is going to cost you more money than you’ve ever imagined in your life.’ This quote reveals that Hatsumomo is trying to sabotage Sayuri’s career by lying, accusing her of stealing and making up stories so that she had a bad reputation.
It is important in that time in the novel, for a maid like Sayuri to become a geisha, after being taken to the house. This is because when she was a maid, she spent a large amount of money for the fee of her school and daily needs, thus she must pay back what she owes to the geisha house soon after she becomes a geisha. This shows a way of presenting the geisha’s life as difficult because the money she obtains go straight towards the geisha house without even falling to her own hand. This is especially hard for Sayuri because Mother adopts her as the ‘daughter of the okiya’. This means that all her money will go to the okiya. It could be argued that her title of ‘the daughter of the okiya’ helps her to get more respect from the others in the house including Hatsumomo, who had been bullying her for a long time. It also means that her future is assured and secured.
On the other hand, this adoption breaks the friendship between Sayuri and Pumpkin because Pumpkin had wanted to be the daughter of the okiya so long, but Sayuri grabs the title from her without difficulty. Again, the life of a geisha is shown to be hard seeing that Sayuri has lost her friendship with Pumpkin, adding to her pressure as a geisha. Pumpkin also has to face the depression and seek revenge due to her title being taken from her. Her disappointment once more shows the difficulty of being a geisha because the title of ‘the daughter of the okiya’ is what every young geisha hopes for besides rank and respect.
Mameha also adopts Sayuri as her little sister to help her become a good geisha and provide her with an extra support and lesson. This shows that she also thinks that becoming a geisha is hard and someone have to show Sayuri the way to success. However, it could be argued that Hatsumomo is taking advantage over Sayuri because she is Hatsumomo’s arch-rival. She realizes that Hatsumomo is jealous of Sayuri’s natural beauty and by taking Sayuri as her little sister, Sayuri has the chance to become a better geisha than Hatsumomo. This means that she could also become more popular than Hatsumomo. The novel reveals that there are two very successful geishas still competing with each other. All this competition furthermore makes Pumpkin’s life terrible because she has the awful Hatsumomo as her big sister.
Sayuri tells us that it’s not her choice to become what she is now. She believes that it’s her fate and she has to continue to survive. ‘Many people seem to believe their lives are entirely a matter of choice, but in my day we viewed ourselves as pieces of clay that forever shows the fingerprint of everyone who has touched them.’ This tells us that geisha’s life is entirely dependant on the person who met her and made her, his mistress and providing her money and richness which actually goes in the geisha house. Sayuri feels that she hasn’t got the choice to be whoever she wanted to be and that life has been unfair.
Love is another aspect of showing that life of a geisha is difficult. Sayuri struggles in the geisha world as her fall in love with the Chairman, but this goes against the rule of being a geisha. Geishas are supposed to entertain men for a living regardless if they are in love or not. This is shown when Hatsumomo have to face with Mother’s anger when she is caught having a boyfriend. Sayuri have to accept the rule to live on, not considering her feelings toward him. She also wants the Chairman to be her danna but someone else has already taken the offer, without her agreement. This makes her feel upset again because she doesn’t even have the chance to choose for her own pleasure. Yet again, life of a geisha is shown to be difficult and unjust.
The geisha system supports an entire network of people in addition to the geisha is the okiya owners, the teachers, dressers, kimono designers, and the maids. In the World War II, the government will shut down the geisha districts. What happened to these people is that they have to work hard just to be alive. For example in the novel, Sayuri has to work with a kimono designer and has given a rough task, which makes the skin of her hands hurts. Some geishas might not survive and died from the war, telling us that the geisha’s life will be worse if the district is closed. This shows that their lives also depend on how the government take action, which is sometimes isn’t expected.
In the time the novel was produced, the other women besides the geisha might have live in an easy way of life. They get to choose what they want for their lives. They can fall in love with any man they want and be married with him as well. For example the wives of the men whom the geisha entertains might as well get a happy life and also children. This is different from the geishas because they don’t have such happy lives and are not allowed to fall in love. It is a world in which the desire for wealth and status determines even the smallest of action, motivates even the slightest of details.
In conclusion, the geisha truly lives a dichotomous life which surrounded by aesthetic beauty and opulence, but is offered no autonomy of choice. But, as Mameha tells Sayuri earlier on, ‘We don’t become geisha so our lives will be satisfying. We become geisha because we have no other choice’.
