reading response # 1

Sayuri is the main character of memoirs of a geisha as she is telling the story of her life. Some of the main supporting characters are: Hatsumomo a geisha who lives with Sayuri and has a hated for Sayui ever since they first met when Sayuri was a child, Mameha is Sayuri's older sister in the sense that she shows Sayuri what and how to be a successful geisha and also gets her to meet all of Mameha's best clients, Mr. Tanaka is the one who in a way sold Sayuri to the okiya where she becomes a geisha,Dr.Crab is the man who is her mizuage patron as he out bidded the baron Matsunaga Tsuneyoshi for her mizuage which is pretty much her virginity and when she is no longer a apprentice geisha and is a doctor,Baron Matsunaga Tsuneyoshi is Mameha's Danna, Nobu Toshikazu is the president of Iwamura electric company. he is disfigured but he is very kind, Mr. Chairman is the owner of Iwamura electric company, and when he shows kindness to Sayuri he becomes her idol, and she believes he is her sole reason as a geisha.
The plot seems to unfold rather naturally. It moved from one thing to another easily. The only surprise i found was when Nobu did not become Sayuri's Danna but a General by the name of Tottori Junnosuke. The setting takes place mostly in the Gion district in Kyoto japan in the 1930's and afterwards during the great depression and world war II. An other setting is Yoroido a small fishing village that Sayuri grows up in until she meets Mr. Tanaka.
Some of the major themes in Memoirs of a geisha are: masks and deception, intrigue and competition, and money and power. Geisha's spend many hour to create a illusion of highly exaggerated femininity, but it is not all looks , they commint themselves to learn the arts of music, facial expression, and it is all to try to get the most influentical of men. For intrigue and competition is that geisha's have many rivals so they scheme to take out the competition,and they manipulate ignorant men. And many money looks like the main force that drive the world of geisha's or social staus.
My personal reaction to the book is very good because i like how the book has many japanese words and that they are explained rather well. and that they are very interesting to like Danna, Mizuage Nagauta and Wareshinobu to name a few, and that it shows the life of a geisha.

first blog!^-^

The book I choose is memoirs of a geisha by Arthur golden. I picked is book because it talked about Japanese geishas during the depression. And it shows the life of geishas. And I’m very interested in Japanese culture.