History Literature / MemoirsOfAGeisha

* ScrewTheRulesImBeautiful: Deconstructed. Hatsumomo is able to get away with her rotten behavior for a while because of her beauty and status as the top geisha. However, once Sayuri supplants her in this role, everyone no longer has any reason to put up with her.

** A maiko often did sell her virginity to the highest bidder as a coming-of-age ritual, though this was done very discreetly and tastefully, not like an auction. This was not necessarily required, as Iwasaki (who the book is based on) did not, which is why she got irritated when Golden made it seem inevitable.

* TriangRelations: Nobu is in love with Sayuri, who is in love with the Chairman, who owes his life and livelihood to Nobu.

* WhatBeautifulEyes: One of the most striking features about Sayuri is her gray eyes. The colour is unnatural gray, her eyes are commented on several times and overall they make her stand out.

* ButtMonkey: Pumpkin. Clumsy, a bit dim, and struggling in almost every skill that geisha are supposed to know. Even her best friend Sayuri can't deny that Pumpkin is just a very unfortunate girl overall.

* AdaptationalAttractiveness

* EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep: The Chairman, the Baron, the General. The Chairman is an odd case, because Mameha ''does'' refer to him by his real name (Iwamura Ken) at one point but Sayuri, who's in love with him, does not. Pumpkin too. Though her geisha name is Hatsumiyo, everyone just calls her Pumpkin.

* ArtisticLicenseHistory: Something which has gathered the book [[Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment much controversy.]] There are some minor inaccuracies in the dress and makeup used by geisha, and the order of an okiya (for example, Pumpkin and Sayuri are beaten several times for their misbehavior, but in RealLife, beating an apprentice geisha was a big no-no.) Goldman's major liberties are that of ''mizuage'' and ''danna.'' To put it as simply as possible, mizuage--the true nature of which ranges from one geisha's testimony to the next's, though hair-cutting was a common practice--very, ''very'' rarely involved selling a geisha's virginity to the highest bidder. In any case, it certainly was never a "must" for every geisha, and would be a very discreet matter. As for danna, they did (and to a certain degree, still do) exist as "patrons" of a geisha that provided funding. However, this relationship was almost always professional, and not the "sex-for-money" connection shown in the book.

* VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory: [[Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment Let's just say that]] Golden took a ''lot'' of [[RuleOfDrama creative]] [[HollywoodHistory liberties]] with the story to turn it part-fairy tale, part-historical fiction. He based the story off interviews with famed geisha Mineko Iwasaki, though Iwasaki herself was never abused and willingly became a geisha out of true passion (her required separation from her doting parents, though voluntary, was still [[TearJerker no less heartbreaking]] - but at least took months of preparation and testing out living in the okiya before making things official), and unlike other maiko, never had to sell her virginity, her mizuage a purely symbolic ritual. She was also involved with an older, married man, but he ultimately passed away from cancer and she married a man her own age. Golden's artistic liberties caused an infamous amount of flak from Iwasaki, who was angered by the story's alleged preoccupation of sex that, being supposedly based on her life, inaccurately made her look like a prostitute.

* AdaptationalHeroism: Hatsumomo is still a bitch to Sayuri in the film but far less so than in the novel, especially at the beginning of the film. For instance, in the film when she and Pumpkin are talking about Satsu in her room Hatsumomo simply tells her to leave the room. In the book, Hatsumomo violently slapped her. Hatsumomo is also made a little more sympathetic and clearly is made NotSoDifferent from Sayuri.

* NotSoDifferent: Hatsumomo and Sayuri. Hatsumomo is what Sayuri could have been if she had not been able to have a relationship with the Chairman. In the films, Sayuri says "I could be her. Were we so different? She loved once. She hoped once. I might be looking into my own future." However as Sayuri said, the real future fell from the air (World War Two).

* CinderellaCircumstances: Sayuri's life wasn't lavish, but she had her family and was generally at peace in her fishing village. Once sold to the okiya, however, she not only has to do menial chores, she not only is never allowed to see her sister, but she has to take everything Hatsumomo does for her simply because Hatsumomo is the okiya's breadwinner.

** In real life, Mineko Iwasaki was five when she entered the okiya. The book portrays Chiyo as nine.

* FirstPeriodPanic: Sayuri briefly mentions when she first got her periods being like if she had sneezed and parts of her brain came out. Auntie clears this up and tells her it's a perfectly natural part of being a woman.

* AbortionFalloutDrama: Sayuri's mentor Mameha aborts all of the children she conceived by her client, the Baron. While most of the characters treat it as normal if a bit embarrassing, Mameha has graves for her aborted children which she visits regularly.

* GoodGirlsAvoidAbortion: [[spoiler:Averted. Mameha has aborted three children she conceived with the Baron. Dialogue among characters implies that this is common with ''danna'' and their geisha. In this book, at least--see HollywoodHistory below.]]

* InstantExpert: Deconstructed in the book: What looked like instant expertise to others is really a combination of Chiyo being resourceful and incredibly determined.

* TheCollectorOfTheStrange: Doctor Crab. Not only does he spend all of his money on teenage girls' virginities, he likes to keep a sample of their blood from when the hymen breaks.

* CompositeCharacter: With regards to Mineko Iwasaki, who was the basis for Chiyo, her family was much larger and she had two older sisters who were sold to okiyas before she was even born. Chiyo just has one sister Satsu, who becomes a prostitute.

* AdaptationalWealth: The book does a lot of tweaking with Mineko Iwasaki's family's financial situation. While her family were struggling and sold two of their daughters to the okiyas because of it, they were doing quite well in terms of income but were stuck taking care of her father's parents - {{Impoverished Patrician}}s who didn't know how to make a living on their own. They had separated from the grandparents by the time Mineko made the decision to join the okiya. The book and film depicts them as dirt poor from a fishing village; her father was an acclaimed kimono designer.

* YourCheatingHeart:
** The Chairman is already married when he meets Sayuri. In Japanese culture at the time (and somewhat today) this wasn't remotely a big deal. Most of their clientele were married with families, due to the prevalence of arranged marriages back then. In the present day scenes, Sayuri actually keeps some facts quiet out of respect for the Chairman's family.
** Sayuri relates an anecdote about a party she and Mameha attended at a man's house. On their way out, the man's wife paid each of the geisha, and asked Mameha the favor of passing along another geisha's share, since she had "gone home earlier with a headache." Sayuri explains that the geisha in question was actually the man's mistress and was keeping him company in another wing of the house, and the man's wife knew it just as well as they did.