Arthur Golden - Memoirs of a Geisha

So you can imagine how terrified we were of the factories. Every day that we awakened to find Gion still open, we felt grateful.

Then one morning in January of the following year, I was standing in line at the rice store in the falling snow, holding my ration coupons, when the shopkeeper next door put out his head and called into the cold:

“It’s happened!”

We all of us looked at one another. I was too numbed with cold to care what he was talking about, for I wore only a heavy shawl around my peasant’s clothing; no one wore kimono during the day any longer. Finally the geisha in front of me brushed the snow from her eyebrows and asked him what he was talking about. “The war hasn’t come to an end, has it?” she asked.

“The government has announced the closing of the geisha districts,” he said. “All of you are to report to the registry office tomorrow morning.”

For a long moment we listened to the sound of a radio inside his shop. Then the door rumbled closed again, and there was nothing but the soft hiss of the falling snow. I looked at the despair on the faces of the other geisha around me and knew in an instant that we were all thinking the same thing: Which of the men we knew would save us from life in the factories?

Even though General Tottori had been my danna until the previous year, I certainly wasn’t the only geisha acquainted with him. I had to reach him before anyone else did. I wasn’t properly dressed for the weather, but I put my ration coupons back into the pocket of my peasant pants and set out at once for the northwest of the city. The General was rumored to be living in the Suruya Inn, the same one where we’d met during the evenings twice a week for so many years.

I arrived there an hour or so later, burning with the cold and dusted all over with snow. But when I greeted the mistress, she took a long look at me before bowing in apology and saying she had no idea who I was.

“It’s me, mistress… Sayuri! I’ve come to speak with the General.”

“Sayuri-san… my heavens! I never thought to see you looking like the wife of a peasant.”

She led me inside at once, but wouldn’t present me to the General until she’d first taken me upstairs and dressed me in one of her kimono. She even put on me a bit of makeup she’d stashed away, so the General would know me when he saw me.

When I entered his room, General Tottori was sitting at the table listening to a drama on the radio. His cotton robe hung open, exposing his bony chest and the thin gray hairs. I could see that his hardships of the past year had been far worse than mine. After all, he’d been accused of awful crimes-negligence, incompetence, abuse of power, and so forth; some people considered him lucky to have escaped prison. An article in a magazine had even blamed him for the Imperial Navy’s defeats in the South Pacific, saying that he’d failed to oversee the shipment of supplies. Still, some men bear hardships better than others; and with one look at the General I could see that the weight of this past year had pressed down upon him until his bones had grown brittle, and even his face had come to look a bit misshapen. In the past he’d smelled of sour pickles all the time. Now as I bowed low on the mats near him, he had a different sort of sour smell.

“You’re looking very well, General,” I said, though of course this was a lie. “What a pleasure it is to see you again!”

The General switched off the radio. “You’re not the first to come to me,” he said. “There’s nothing I can do to help you, Sayuri.”

“But I rushed here so quickly! I can’t imagine how anyone reached you before I did!”

“Since last week nearly every geisha I know has been to see me, but I don’t have friends in power any longer. I don’t know why a geisha of your standing should come to me anyway. You’re liked by so many men with influence.”

“To be liked and to have true friends willing to help are two very different things,” I said.

“Yes, so they are. What sort of help have you come to me for anyway?”

“Any help at all, General. We talk about nothing these days in Gion but how miserable life in a factory will be.”

“Life will be miserable for the lucky ones. The rest won’t even live to see the end of the war.”

“I don’t understand.”

“The bombs will fall soon,” the General said. “You can be certain the factories will take more than their share. If you want to be alive when this war is over, you’d better find someone who can tuck you away in a safe place. I’m sorry I’m not that man. I’ve already exhausted what influence I had.”

The General asked after Mother’s health, and Auntie’s, and soon bid me good-bye. I learned only much later what he meant about exhausting his influence. The proprietress of the Suruya had a young daughter; the General had arranged to send her to a town in northern Japan.

On the way back to the okiya, I knew the time had come for me to act; but I couldn’t think what to do. Even the simple task of holding my panic at arm’s length seemed more than I could manage. I went by the apartment where Mameha was now living-for her relationship with the Baron had ended several months earlier and she’d moved into a much smaller space. I thought she might know what course I should take, but in fact, she was in nearly as much of a panic as I was.

“The Baron will do nothing to help me,” she said, her face pale with worry. “I’ve been unable to reach the other men I have in mind. You had better think of someone, Sayuri, and go to him as quickly as you can.”

I’d been out of touch with Nobu for more than four years by that time; I knew at once I couldn’t approach him. As for the Chairman… well, I would have grabbed at any excuse just to speak with him, but I could never have asked him for a favor. However warmly he may have treated me in the hallways, I wasn’t invited to his parties, even when lesser geisha were. I felt hurt by this, but what could I do? In any case, even if the Chairman had wanted to help me, his quarrels with the military government had been in the newspapers lately. He had too many troubles of his own.

So I spent the rest of that afternoon going from teahouse to teahouse in the biting cold, asking about a number of men I hadn’t seen in weeks or even months. None of the mistresses knew where to find them.

That evening, the Ichiriki was busy with farewell parties. It was fascinating to see how differently all the geisha reacted to the news. Some looked as though their spirits had been murdered within them; others were like statues of the Buddha-calm and lovely, but painted over with a layer of sadness. I can’t say how I myself looked, but my mind was like an abacus. I was so busy with scheming and plotting-thinking which man I would approach, and how I would do it-that I scarcely heard the maid who told me I was wanted in another room. I imagined a group of men had requested my company; but she led me up the stairs to the second floor and along a corridor to the very back of the teahouse. She opened the door of a small tatami room I’d never entered before. And there at the table, alone with a glass of beer, sat Nobu.

Before I could even bow to him or speak a word, he said, “Sayuri-san, you’ve disappointed me!”

“My goodness! I haven’t had the honor of your company for four years, Nobu-san, and already in an instant I’ve disappointed you. What could I have done wrong so quickly?”

“I had a little bet with myself that your mouth would fall open at the sight of me.”

“The truth is, I’m too startled even to move!”

“Come inside and let the maid close the door. But first, tell her to bring another glass and another beer. There’s something you and I must drink to.”