It is New York, in 1985. A Professor of Japanese History has persuaded an old Japanese woman to tell him the story of her life. In this story you will follow Nitta Sayuri on an unbelievable journey, from her early years as a child in a small fishing village, through her time as a great geisha in the golden age of Gion, the geisha area of Kyoto, to her old age in New York.
It’s one woman’s story of survival in a hard world where men have all the power and woman are expected to be nothing more than beautiful toys. Sayuri suffers greatly at the hands of Hatsumomo, a beautiful but evil geisha who is determined that Sayuri will spend the rest of her life as a humble maid. Sayuri is ruelly and unjustly treated until one day another geisha Mameha, mysteriously enters her llife and helps her in her war against Hatsumomo.
This is not only a story of a woman’s survival. It is also the story of her refusal to give up her secret lofe for a man who once offered her a small sighn of kindness. This man is one of the most important men in Kyoto, and seems completely out of reach, but Sayuri never loses her love for him, and is determined never to betray her hear. This determination leads to a complex moral and emotional problem. If she wishes to become a geisha, Sayuri needs somehow to defeat Hatsumomo. But what happens if the only way to defeat Hatsumomo involves osing, forever, the chance of being with the man she loves? This struggle between the need to survive and the need for love is the entral issue in Sayuri’s life and provides the dramatic heart of her fascinating story. It leads to many heart-breaking situations, which Sayuri learns to handle with a calm bravery. As her power in the geisha world gradually increases, the object of her heart’s desire still remains as out of reach as ever. She becomes desperate, but never loses hope, and we see another, more calculating, side of her character.
In a cruel, unforgiving world, survival is considered the only success and ove is thought of as an unobtainable luxury. Sayuri disagrees, and it is the description of her search for both that gives this story its power and beauty, and makes “Memoirs of a Geisha” one of the great stories of our time.
