Character Analysis
Throwing It Back
If it weren't for Mr. Tanaka, the fish salesman, Chiyo would never have become a geisha. He is the "him" in one of the book's opening lines:
That afternoon when I met [him] was the very best afternoon of my life, and also the very worst afternoon. (1.1)
Mr. Tanaka is pretty cruel. You'd have to be, to sell one sister to geisha and another to prostitution. But he initially seems so nice. And he has a daughter, Kuniko, leading Chiyo to believe she will be adopted for real, not sold into indentured servitude. He deceives her, showing us that the life of a geisha is fraught with deception from the start.
But it's not all bad. Where would Chiyo be if she hadn't become a geisha? Would her father fail to take care of her? Would she starve to death? In this way, Mr. Tanaka serves as a proto-Chairman. As a girl, Chiyo "began to have fantasies that Mr. Tanaka would adopt me" (2.22). As a young woman, she has fantasies that the Chairman will be her danna. Both events would have similar results—an upgrade in Sayuri's quality of life.