OUIL402 PP1: Research: Geisha

I started off by watching Memoirs of a Geisha, which I absolutely love. The scenes and setting are so atmospheric and the costumes and makeup are amazing. I think the actresses manage to portray an atmosphere of hierarchy but loyalty well and personally I think it really gave me great insight into the world of a Geisha.

However some critics comment on the inaccuracy of some of the costumes and hair styles and other details. To a westerner this may not seem important, however after researching into the ways of the Japanese Geisha I have learnt that it is this perfection to detail that separates them and makes the Geisha the work of art that she is. It is an intensely intricate and detailed way of life which is hidden from outsiders. It is amazing that the author of Memoirs of a Geisha managed to get this information and to find out the inner workings of the lifestyle. So because of this and the beauty of the film, I think it overcomes the incorrect details, however the inaccuracy of them do hold some disrespect to the portrayal of Geisha.

Here are some quotes from the film...

• 1. Sayuri Narrator: After all, these are not the memoirs of an empress, nor of a queen. These are memoirs of another kind.
  
  
• 1. The Baron: Mameha asked me to show you my kimono collection. It's quite venerated. My grandfather and father collected kimonos. I've given a number of valuable kimonos to Mameha; I like to give presents to beautiful girls.
  
  
• 1. Sayuri: The heart dies a slow death. Shedding each hope like leaves, until one day there are none. No hopes. Nothing remains. She paints her face to hide her face, her eyes a deep water; it is not for Geisha to want, it is not for Geisha to feel; Geisha is an artist of the floating world. She dances. She sings. She entertains you - whatever you want. The rest is shadows, the rest is secret.
  
  
• 1. Mameha: You cannot call yourself a true geisha until you can stop a man in his tracks with a single look.
  
  
• 1. Sayuri: No geisha could never hope for more.
  
  
• 1. Sayuri: How could you?! You don't know what you have done!
  2. Pumpkin: But I do.
  3. Sayuri: I do not understand. Why did you have to bring the chairman?
  4. Pumpkin: Because I know how you feel about him. A long time ago, you took something from me. The only thing I ever truly wanted. Well, now you know how it feels.
  (Here she is talking about when Sayuri became the choice to inherit the Geisha house over Pumpkin; this shows how important and powerful and free becoming this role means.)
• 1. Mother: I'm entitled to do as I choose.
  2. Hatsumomo: But you promised the okiya to Pumpkin!
  3. Mother: Look at her, still a virgin maiko. [Pumpkin gets up and runs off]
  4. Hatsumomo: Pumpkin! [Hatsumomo tries unsuccessfully to pull her back]
  5. Sayuri: Can't you adopt us both?
  6. Mother: Quiet Sayuri. Now I'm no fool. Pumpkin would only be Hatsumomo's puppet. How long will it take before you kick us out on the street.
  7. Hatsumomo: I have given you my life.
  8. Mother: Yes your impudence, your foul temper.
  9. Hatsumomo: Who paid for the silk on your back. The rice in your bowl. The tobacco in that pipe of your!? WHO?!
  10. Mother: Don't exaggerate! You have not even had a danna.
  (Shows the seemingly unfairness that the geisha's must give all their earnings to their Geisha mother sometimes even after they have paid off their debts.)
• 1. Sayuri: This is how it was in this tiny world of women. Friend turned against friend. And now the two greatest geisha in Miyako at war over me. Hatsumomo at my back, Mameha calling, offering me the chance to be one of those elegant women I'd seen on the bridge, floating in the silk kimono, the chairman at my side.
• 1. Mother: Besides I can always sell Chiyo to Mrs. Tatsuyo.
  2. Mameha: With your eye for beauty and nose for talent, surely you can see what a terrible waste that would be.
  3. Mother: If you are not the kind-hearted geisha i know you to be, I might think you were scheming against Hatsumomo.
  4. Mameha: Then I'm grateful, Mrs. Nitta, that you do not have a suspicious mind.
  5. Mother: Perhaps you can peak my interest with...
  6. Mameha: Yes?
  7. Mother: Your offer?
  8. Mameha: I will cover Chiyo's schooling, all her expenses, until after her debut.
  9. Mother: Now I am confident you are teasing.
  10. Mameha: I cannot be more sincere. If Chiyo hasn't paid off her debt within 6 months after her debut...
  11. Mother: No, impossible, too little time!
  12. Mameha: Then I will pay you twice over.
  13. Mother: What? No geisha could ever...
• 1. Hatsumomo: It's that kimono. She remembers how you destroyed it. Now she wants to get even.
  (Shows how important and significant Kimono were. They were also incredibly expensive and her set of kimono held the geisha's reputation.)
• 1. Sayuri: Along with the snow, came a most unexpected visitor.
  (Nature always reflects the truth/ goes hand in hand with the atmosphere and Japanese people)
• 1. Mother: Dr. Muri is very expensive. You seem to be racking up quite a debt. Huh? Kimono destroyed, geisha school, rice and pickle, train ticket, Mr. Bekku. All this on top of the money I paid to Mr. Tanaka. And for what? And now I hear that your sister has run away. She didn't wait for you. And now she can never come back. You must forget that you ever had a sister. Hmm? [grabs a small package and gives it to Chiyo] We are you only family now.
  2. Auntie: [Chiyo opens it and pauses. Auntie grabs it and reads] 'Dear Satsu and little Chiyo, As one who was once an orphan child myself,' this humble person is sorry to inform you that "six weeks after you left for you new life in Miyako, the suffering of you honor mother came to an end. And only a few weeks afterwards, your honor father departed this world as well. 'This humble person is 'confident, both your honor parents have found their place in paradise...[reading drifts out]
  (The geisha houses were the geishas only home and only family, a sisterhood with a strict hierarchy.)
• 1. Hatsumomo: Hmm, what is it? 20 yen? 30?
  2. Mother: This can't be the right amount.
  3. Mameha: I trust you agree. I have won the wager. Sayuri's made history. No mizuagi has ever been sold for more, not even mine. 15,000 yen.
  (bids for Sayuri's virginity, sometimes if the geisha's reputation were good enough, the geisha could pay off their debt to the Geisha mother just through this one payment -rare though)
• 1. Hatsumomo: What did Mameha do? Speak to the director, in private?
  2. Sayuri: Not every geisha uses that kind of currency.
  (Embarasing Hatsumomo suggesting that she is like a prostitute; a huge insult to a geisha)
• 1. Hatsumomo: Who is responsible for this?! [slams the poster on the table]
  2. Mother: Ask Mameha.
  3. Hatsumomo: I'm asking you okasan.
  4. Pumpkin: How come Sayuri gets to be the lead?
  5. Mother: It's your own fault. You should practice more.
  (Perfection is never reached in Geisha art forms, you can never practice enough. Hugely competitive and hugely dedicated and talented. Sayuri has received a lead role in a dance performance here.)
• Sayuri: Your honorable sister says, 'Cut your leg.' You cut your leg. She says, 'Follow me.' You follow. My life had turned into a game, and only she knew the rules. (Your older geisha sister lays down the law. You learn everything from her as part of your training, and you cannot dishonor her name.)
• 1. Sayuri: I humbly beg to differ. What is sumo, but a dance between giants. What is business, but a dance between companies. I'd like to know about every kind of dance.
  (Sayuri shows how art is entwined in every aspect of life, it is impossible to escape and therefore impossibly important. She is presenting herself as an equal to talk to in this.)
• 1. Hatsumomo: Sometimes, the smartest remark is silence.
  2. Sayuri: What better advise to follow than your own.
  3. Mameha: Sayuri.
  4. Hatsumomo: I was a maiko myself once.
  5. Sayuri: Of course, but it's been such a very long, long, long, long time. [Everyone laughs]
  (Not only was beauty important, but skill in conversation, charm and wit.)
• 1. Mameha: As for the kimono, I am no fool, Chiyo. Hatsumomo, cannot tolerate competition.
  2. Chiyo: She's jealous of you?
  3. Mameha: Not me I'm afraid. Someone closer to home.
  (Dark side; the competitive nature between geisha sisters for power in the business.)
• 1. Mameha: Rise. [Chiyo gets up off her knees] Not like a horse.
  (A geisha is an artwork, must move beautifully.)
• 1. Sayuri: When Mameha granted me my new name, I felt little Chiyo disappear behind a white mask with red lips. I was a maiko now. An apprentice geisha. From that moment, I told myself, when I make tea, when I poured sake, when I danced, when I tied my obi, it will be for the chairman. Until he finds me. Until I am his.
• 1. Mameha: [in voiceover] Remember, Chiyo, geisha are not courtesans. And we are not wives. We sell our skills, not our bodies. We create another secret world, a place only of beauty. The very word 'geisha' means artist and to be a geisha is to be judged as a moving work of art.
  (My favorite quote and most important for my project)
• 1. Sayuri: At the temple, there is a poem called 'Loss' carved into the stone. It has three words, but the poet has scratched them out. You cannot read Loss, only feel it. (Loss is part of the geisha world, you loose your family, your freedom and your choice in love.) 

I watched some documentaries on Geisha's; historically and modern day:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uP1BBw3IYco
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjhBEgwFP2M

The latter one I made a lot of notes from and below I have written them up as they hold a lot of important information that will inform me for this project: