Memoirs of a Geisha Chapter 32 Summary

How It All Goes Down

  • The geisha continue entertaining the men once or twice a week.
  • One night, Pumpkin is sick, and the Chairman excuses himself from the party. Sayuri wonders if the Minister likes Pumpkin more than he likes her.
  • Dances of the Old Capital begins again, and Mameha and Sayuri prepare for the dance.
  • Because of rehearsals, Sayuri is late to the teahouse, where she encounters an angry Nobu and the Minister.
  • Nobu sends the drunk-as-usual Minister home early, leaving himself alone with Sayuri.
  • She tries to cheer him up, and she finds out why he's upset:
  • The Minister wants to be her danna.
  • It seems the Minister kept Iwamura Electric from closing during the war, and Nobu owes him.
  • But he's going to turn the Minister down, because he doesn't want him to have her.
  • She says that, if he asked, she would let the Minister become her danna.
  • This offends him, because he doesn't think she should be the type of woman who would do that. (Um, does he not know what a geisha does?)
  • Even though he's angry, he still wants to be her danna. Angry is his default setting.
  • He tells her to go and fetch her chunk of concrete, so she does.
  • He will soon be her danna, and she doesn't want that.