Nitta Sayuri (Sakamoto Chiyo)

Character Analysis

The Name Game

First things first: last name first. In Japanese culture, the family name goes before the given name. Americans would know our protagonist as a young girl as Chiyo Sakamoto, and as a geisha as Sayuri Nitta.

We know what Sayuri means, because it's a geisha name chosen for her by her "big sister," Mameha:

My new name came from "sa," meaning "together," "yu," from the zodiac sign for the Hen—in order to balance other elements in my personality—and "ri," meaning "understanding. (14.20)

But what about Chiyo?

No Google required. There is a clue in the book as to what "Chiyo" means in Japanese. One of the dances Sayuri learns is called the Chi-yo no Tomo, which she translates as "Friends Everlasting" (14.51) Which part is Chiyo, the friends or the everlasting? It doesn't matter, because both of these are ironic for poor Chiyo, a girl whose identity is temporary and who has no friends.

Sayuri is a slightly more accurate name. She achieves understanding as a geisha, even if that understanding is about how tragic the life of a geisha is. But what does she bring "together"? She ends up together with the Chairman. And she joins East and West by moving to New York and revealing geisha culture to American audiences. Finally, she now has the zodiac animal of the Hen as part of her name, but she's no chicken.

Hope in the Time of Geisha

As Chiyo matures into Sayuri, her story is one of the great coming-of-age stories, like Scout Finch or a female Huck Finn in Japan. Except Sayuri has it a lot harder than these two, who lead relatively cushy lives in comparison.

Sayuri has no doting father, she's trapped in one tiny neighborhood in Kyoto, and she faces seemingly insurmountable odds, like an insane debt she must pay back. A geisha is like an indentured servant, so if we were to make a Huckleberry Finn comparison, Sayuri is more like Jim than Huck.

We root for Chiyo. She pulls pranks in an Amelie-like manner—like how she gets back Granny by wiping the toilet rag on her robe and puts pigeon poo in Hatsumomo's makeup. She takes small steps to triumph over diversity, and she holds onto her inner strength and hope. In the end, she recognizes this about herself, saying, "I'd lived through adversity once before" (29.7). "Adversity" is her one word for World War II. For Sayuri, a global conflict is just one more day in the life of a geisha.

A Flaw in the Makeup

Hatsumomo calls her "Little Miss Stupid," but we'd call her Little Miss Almost-Perfect. Even the Chairman tells her, "You, Sayuri, aren't exactly like all the others" (32.68), which is a huge compliment for a geisha, who strives for conformity with geisha customs.

Sayuri has a terrible life, but she writes that off as a bad hand dealt to her by fate. After a few missteps as a child (including a literal one off the okiya roof), each action she performs as a geisha works out splendidly. She is perfect at dance, never missing a step. She sets a record for a mizuage (an infamous achievement in a wider context). And she rakes in the most money in Gion.

But it's important to remember that this is Sayuri's story. Her memoirs. Of course she wants to make herself look good, which is why she minimizes the way she treats Hatsumomo. Yes, Hatsumomo is terrible for trying to run Sayuri out of Gion, but Sayuri and Mameha turn around and do the same thing to her.

If Sayuri can be said to have any flaws, it is that she is willing to manipulate people for her own personal gain, and to spin it as though she had no other choice. But isn't that the life of a geisha in a nutshell?