Characters / Memoirs of a Geisha

Characters in Memoirs of a Geisha:

Chiyo/Sayuri

Sayuri f.k.a Chiyo:

Played by: Zhang Ziyi, Suzuka Ohgo (as a child), Shizuko Hoshi (elderly voiceover)

The narrator and main protagonist. She is sold to the okiya along with her sister Satsu, who is not taken in and sent to a pleasure house instead. After an attempted escape, she is demoted to a servant in the okiya, until she receives training from an anonymous benefactor. Her mission is to become a brilliant geisha and win the heart of the Chairman.

• Adaptational Wealth: Mineko Iwasaki, who she was based on, was from a middle class family, whose grandparents were Impoverished Patricians. Chiyo's family is dirt poor.
• Age-Gap Romance: The Chairman is already in his forties when Chiyo takes a fancy to him, and she is just a teenager. They don't get together however until she is in her thirties.
• Age Lift: Mineko Iwasaki was five when she went to the okiya. Chiyo is nine.
• Babies Ever After: It's hinted that she and the Chairman may have had a son together: Sayuri's narration states that she can't confirm or deny the possibility, since said son would be considered illegitimate, and if she said too much, she'd run the risk of his identity becoming public.
  Sayuri: The best course, I feel, is for me to say nothing at all; I'm sure you will understand.
• Conveniently an Orphan: Her mother dies of an illness six weeks after she leaves home, and her father follows her shortly after, meaning the character is free to go on the plot without worrying about them.
• Determinator: She is determined to become a geisha and win the Chairman. Doubly so since Mother gives her even more chores to do (motivated by the wager that she gets more from Mameha if she fails) and she practices even harder to perfect her skills.
• Elemental Motifs: Water. Fortune tellers note throughout the book that, of the classical Chinese elements used in horoscopes, Sayuri has a great deal of water in her personality, which is said to contribute to her resourcefulness and creativity in dealing with tough situations, as well as her slight impatience. It's also signified by her unusual blue-grey eyes.
• Head-Turning Beauty: She grows up to be an impressive beauty on the same level as Mameha and Hatsumomo, which (combined with her charm and intelligence) makes her a rather popular geisha.
• Made a Slave: After her failed escape attempt, she is demoted to a servant in the okiya until Mameha decides to train her.
• Meaningful Rename: Once she becomes a maiko, she's renamed from Chiyo to Sayuri.
• Mouthy Kid: She's extremely outspoken as a child, but this is beaten out of her.
• Protagonist-Centered Morality: Her actions do end up ruining Pumpkin's life, but we are expected to side with her.
• Rich Sibling, Poor Sibling: Double subverted. She is taken in by the okiya to become a geisha, while Satsu is sold to a brothel instead. Chiyo becomes a servant after the botched escape attempt, but then becomes a successful geisha anyway.
• Second Love: The Chairman was married before, and she becomes his new love.
• Talks Like a Simile: This is what she is known for, and it's used to show her as a great conversationalist.
• What Beautiful Eyes!: She has unusual blue-grey eyes that are very distinctive, and which become one of her most famous features. Played with in the sense that Mother doesn't like them at first, and Auntie has to convince her.
• Yamato Nadeshiko: While as a geisha, she isn't a wife, she does become the Chairman's by the end. And she learns to become Silk Hiding Steel so that she definitely is this.
• Youngest Child Wins: She's the younger sister and is the protagonist who becomes a renowned geisha. She's also said to be much prettier than Satsu as well, which is why the latter isn't taken in by the okiya as well.

Hatsumomo

Hatsumomo:

Played by: Gong Li

The most beautiful and popular geisha in Gion, and the main money-maker in the okiya. Jealous of Chiyo instantly, she stops at nothing to sabotage her.

• Adaptational Nice Guy: Downplayed, as she's still pretty awful in the film, but she doesn't slap Chiyo when she finds her in her room as she does in the book, and she's given a few sympathetic moments. Sayuri's narration even states that they weren't too different.
• Adaptational Ugliness: Mildly in the film. She's still gorgeous, but it's said in the book that Sayuri never sees her dressed casually, and her vanity would never allow for anybody to see her that way, with the former never even seeing her with her hair down until she leaves the okiya. In the film, she's seen in various states of undress, including walking around in public to find the poster advertising Sayuri's dance.
• Alpha Bitch: Beautiful and popular, and a rotten bully to everyone.
• Arch-Enemy: She is initially Mameha's and then becomes Sayuri's.
• Beauty Is Bad: She's the most beautiful character in the story but an awful human being.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: She showers Sayuri with Sugary Malice when out in public, but physically assaults her once they're in private.
• Brainless Beauty: She's extremely beautiful and, while charismatic enough to supplement her looks, and able to manipulate people, she has no wisdom at all and alienates everyone because of it.
• Break the Haughty: When Sayuri comes of age and wins the wager, Mother chooses her to inherit the okiya, and outright says it won't be Pumpkin because she knows full well that Hatsumomo will use her as a puppet to do what she wants. Hatsumomo then loses her popularity, as well as her looks beginning to fade, and has to leave the okiya. Sayuri hears rumours that she became a prostitute but they're never confirmed, so she believes Hatsumomo just died of alcoholism.
• Christmas Cake: Mother taunts her that she's "getting old" and her looks are beginning to fade, even though she is still quite beautiful.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: This is what she thinks she's invoking when she challenges Mother for naming Sayuri her successor rather than Pumpkin, trying to remind her that she has "given you my life" and made more money for the okiya than anyone. Mother is having none of it and retorts about "your impudence and foul temper".
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: She was genuinely in love with Koichi and heartbroken that she couldn't be with him.
• Fatal Flaw: Her cruelty dooms her, because once she's turned out of the okiya, no one else wants her, and the main reason is because she's so awful.
• Green-Eyed Monster: She is very jealous of Sayuri's beauty.
• Head-Turning Beauty: In her prime, Hatsumomo is renowned as one of the most beautiful women in Gion, and Sayuri notes at one point when observing Hatsumomo that she looks more beautiful gnawing on her fingernail in nervousness than most women do posing for a photograph. However, given her Jerkass personality, Beauty Is Bad is also in full effect.
• Impoverished Patrician: Her real life inspiration, per Geisha of Gion, came from very privileged roots but her family lost their fortune in the Meiji Restoration.
• Lady Drunk: She comes home drunk one night having stolen a kimono from Mameha, and bullies Chiyo into ruining it. After the war, Sayuri suspects that she died of alcoholism.
• My Girl Is Not a Slut: She is slut shamed by Mother for having a secret lover, and is taunted for behaving "like a common prostitute".
• Red and Black and Evil All Over: As an antagonist who is compared to fire, she usually wears red and black.
• Screw the Rules, I'm Beautiful!: She's able to get away with her bad behaviour because her beauty allows her to make a lot of money for the okiya. Deconstructed when Sayuri comes of age, and is much more affable, and Hatsumomo has alienated everyone by that point.
• Stupid Evil: She is a rotten person and not very wise. Despite her beauty and popularity, she alienates everyone due to her poor attitude, and ruins her chances of inheriting anything precisely because Mother doesn't want to put up with her once her usefulness has run out.
• Vague Age: It's not clear precisely what age she is, as Auntie already talks about "when she was twenty" when Chiyo is only nine, and there are already jokes about her age once she and Pumpkin are teenagers. Mameha mentions in passing that Hatsumomo is three years her senior, but since we don't know Mameha's age either, this isn't very helpful.
• Villain Ball: When Chiyo catches her and Koichi, and they are found by Mother and Auntie, Hatsumomo has to try and be petty and frame Chiyo for stealing. Since Chiyo is planning to escape and thus has no reason to put up with her anymore, Chiyo exposes her tryst with Koichi. Had Hatsumomo come up with literally any more innocent explanation for why they were outside, they would have been fine.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Once she leaves the okiya, Sayuri never finds out what happened to her.

Mameha

Mameha:

Played by: Michelle Yeoh

A renowned geisha who is rival to Hatsumomo, but inexplicably takes Chiyo under her wing and trains her to become a geisha.

• Age Lift: In the book, she is three years younger than Hatsumomo, but seems to be portrayed as older in the movie. Michelle Yeoh is four years older than Gong Li as well.
• The Chessmaster: She is better at reading people and controlling them than Hatsumomo, as she knows she is successful because people think highly of her, and does her best to remain so.
• Good All Along: Everyone suspects that Mameha has ulterior motives for taking Chiyo on, and guesses correctly that it's partly out of a desire to destroy Hatsumomo. But Mameha comes to care for her sincerely, apologises that she couldn't protect her from the Baron, and reveals that the Chairman asked her to be the tutor.
• Head-Turning Beauty: While Hatsumomo is famed as the great beauty of Gion, Mameha is also quite beautiful in her own right, and gets a scene where she easily catches the eye of a man Sayuri picks out for her. Michelle Yeoh is a former Miss World contestant after all.
• Love Martyr: She went through hell for the Baron, including aborting three children by him, only for him to bid for the virginity of her apprentice and not even help her when World War II broke out.
• The Mentor: To Chiyo/Sayuri.
• Onee-sama: She functions as a surrogate older sister to Sayuri and, although is partly motivated by the thought of ruining Hatsumomo, does care about her too. Sayuri calls her this multiple times in the movie.
• Pet the Dog: When the Baron bids the highest for Sayuri's mizuage, Mameha feels guilt for not protecting her from his previous assault, and arranges for Dr Crabb to win instead.
• Star-Crossed Lovers: She and the Baron, who was her client, and so they couldn't be together.

Pumpkin

Pumpkin aka Hatsumiyo

Played by: Youki Kudoh, Zoe Weisenbaum (as a child)

Another maiko in the okiya, who is mentored by Hatsumomo and becomes Chiyo's rival.

• Always Someone Better: Other characters never fail to remind her that she's not as beautiful or talented as Sayuri or Hatsumomo.
• Break the Cutie: Just like Chiyo/Sayuri, she is sold to the okiya at a young age, frequently beaten and treated like crap by Hatsumomo. And unlike Sayuri, she doesn't get a kind mentor either. She's then reduced to becoming a prostitute during the war because Mother decides she's not worth keeping at the okiya.
• Butt-Monkey: The poor girl is told she's never as pretty as Sayuri nor as talented, and she's a complete victim in everyone's scheming.
• Cute Clumsy Girl: She's mentioned to be very clumsy as a child, and this endears her to Chiyo.
• Disappeared Dad: Her father is said to have died from someone placing a curse on him.
• Expository Hairstyle Change: After the war breaks out, and she becomes bitter and manipulative, she wears her hair with a fringe.
• Face–Heel Turn: In the last part, she sabotages Sayuri's plan as revenge for how her life was ruined.
• Mighty Whitey and Mellow Yellow: During the war, she has to prostitute herself to American soldiers.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: Chiyo nicknames her Pumpkin from a young age and, even when she's become a geisha and chosen the name Hatsumiyo, she's only ever called Pumpkin. Even by her own clients. Since in the movie she is already called Pumpkin when Chiyo arrives at the okiya, it's possible it's also an Adaptation Name Change.
• The Resenter: When Sayuri becomes more successful than her, which leads to Pumpkin losing everything, she becomes bitter and resentful.
• Revenge Myopia: She blames Sayuri for her not getting adopted by Mother, and that being the reason she lost everything. However, the reason Mother didn't adopt her was because she knew Hatsumomo would use Pumpkin as her puppet. Sayuri tried to get Mother to adopt them both, which again didn't happen because of Hatsumomo. As Hatsumomo has vanished by the time Pumpkin and Sayuri are reunited, the latter is an easier target. She's also forgetting that she only stopped helping Sayuri because Hatsumomo forbade her to, which she could have easily disobeyed in secret.
• Unknown Rival: Sayuri doesn't see her as a rival and has no idea about her resentment.
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid: She was a genuinely nice, kind girl, but years of mistreatment and being screwed around by everyone else led to her becoming bitter.
• We Used to Be Friends: She and Chiyo were the best of friends when they were little girls, but Hatsumomo forbade Pumpkin to speak to her once she began her training. After that, Sayuri's adoption ensured their friendship would never recover.

The Chairman

The Chairman aka Iwamura Ken

Played by: Ken Watanabe

A kindly older man who is nice to Chiyo one day, and she becomes a geisha to win his heart.

• Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": Even Sayuri just calls him The Chairman. Mameha is the only one who refers to his actual name at one point.
• Mysterious Benefactor: It turns out he funded Mameha's tutoring of Chiyo.
• Posthumous Character: Sayuri's final narration confirms that he has died by the time the story is published.
• Prince Charming: Older than most examples, but he functions as this in a story with heavy Cinderella motifs.
• Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: He is the sensitive guy to Nobu's manly man. He's nice and kind to Sayuri, and even cries at one of her performances.

Nobu

Nobu

Played by: Kōji Yakusho

The Chairman's friend who takes an interest in Sayuri.

• Abhorrent Admirer: He's very interested in Sayuri, and while she comes to care for him as a friend very much, she only indulges him at Mameha's insistence. In fact, when he tells her he would never speak to her again if the Minister became her new Danna, she decides to do just that to get him off her back.
• Abled in the Adaptation: He's missing an arm in the book, but has them both in the film.
• Adaptational Attractiveness: Sayuri doesn't go into detail in the book, but says he's so scarred it would be unkind to describe how badly. In the film, he's only lightly scarred.
• Age-Gap Romance: He's the same age as the Chairman, and Sayuri is much younger.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: He's known for being very grouchy.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Despite his grouchy demeanor and short temper, he's very loyal and kind in his own way.
• Loving a Shadow: He thinks he's in love with Sayuri, but he only knows her through the geisha persona. She herself even tells him he has too high an opinion of her.
• This Is Unforgivable!: He makes it very clear to Sayuri that he despises the Minister, and tells her during a fight that if she was the kind of person who would allow herself to be with the Minister under any circumstances, he would never want to see her again. She ends up weaponizing this to dissuade him from becoming her danna, by seducing the Minister and ensuring that Nobu will catch them in the act. The Chairman ends up finding them instead, thanks to Pumpkin's machinations, but the Chairman ends up telling Nobu anyway, and he cuts Sayuri out of his life entirely.

Mother

Mrs Nitta aka 'Mother'

Played by: Kaori Momoi

The woman who runs the okiya, and is in charge of everything.

• Adaptational Attractiveness: She's not described in flattering terms in the book, with Sayuri saying she tries to hide her ugliness with lots of makeup and a colourful kimono. In the film, she's played by the handsome Kaori Momoi and looks like a perfectly normal woman.
• Blue-and-Orange Morality: All she cares about is who can help her make money. She'll tolerate Hatsumomo's bad behaviour as long as she brings good business into the okiya, but is happy to cast her aside for Sayuri once she knows she won't have to put up with Hatsumomo anymore.
• Distinguished Gentleman's Pipe: She's frequently seen smoking from a pipe to indicate her status over everyone else. During Hatsumomo's Villainous Breakdown, she even rants that she paid for "the tobacco in that pipe of yours!"
• Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": She's called Mother by everyone in the okiya, but her full name is known as Kayoko Nitta.
• Lesser of Two Evils: Compared to Hatsumomo, Mother is the preferable option, as she can name a successor and has some standards.
• Only in It for the Money: She is motivated entirely by financial gain.
• Smoky Voice: She has a very deep, raspy voice as a result of all the smoking she's done.
• Wicked Stepmother: She functions as this for Chiyo once she's sold to the okiya. She's a stern caretaker, beats her and Pumpkin multiple times, and later throws Pumpkin out during the war on the basis that she doesn't bring enough money in to justify keeping her.