Arthur Golden - Memoirs of a Geisha

There was a pause, and then Mother said, “Well, I’m not as young as I used to be. It isn’t the first time my memory has misled me.”

“We all have these sorts of problems from time to time,” Mrs. Okada replied. “Now, Mrs. Nitta, what was this about offering Mameha an additional ten percent? I assume you meant ten percent over the double you originally agreed to pay her.”

“If only I were in a position to do such a thing,” Mother said.

“But you offered it only a moment ago. Surely you haven’t changed your mind so quickly?”

Mrs. Okada wasn’t gazing at the tabletop any longer, but was staring directly at Mother. After a long moment she said, “I suppose we’ll let it be. In any case, we’ve done enough for one day. Why don’t we meet another time to work out the final figure?”

Mother wore a stern expression on her face, but she gave a little bow of assent and thanked the two of them for coming.

“I’m sure you must be very pleased,” Mrs. Okada said, while putting away her abacus and her accounting book, “that Sayuri will soon be taking a danna . And at only eighteen years of age! How young to take such a big step.”

“Mameha would have done well to take a danna at that age herself,” Mother replied.

“Eighteen is a bit young for most girls,” Mameha said, “but I’m certain Mrs. Nitta has made the right decision in Sayuri’s case.”

Mother puffed on her pipe a moment, peering at Mameha across the table. “My advice to you, Mameha-san,” she said, “is that you stick to teaching Sayuri about that pretty way of rolling her eyes. When it comes to business decisions, you may leave them to me.”

“I would never presume to discuss business with you, Mrs. Nitta. I’m convinced your decision is for the best… But may I ask? Is it true the most generous offer has come from Nobu Toshikazu?”

“His has been the only offer. I suppose that makes it the most generous.”

“The only offer? What a pity… The arrangements are so much more favorable when several men compete. Don’t you find it so?”

“As I say, Mameha-san, you can leave the business decisions to me. I have in mind a very simple plan for arranging favorable terms with Nobu Toshikazu.”

“If you don’t mind,” Mameha said, “I’d be very eager to hear it.”

Mother put her pipe down on the table. I thought she was going to reprimand Mameha, but in fact she said, “Yes, I’d like to tell it to you, now that you mention it. You may be able to help me. I’ve been thinking that Nobu Toshikazu will be more generous if he finds out an Iwamura Electric heater killed our Granny. Don’t you think so?”

“Oh, I know very little about business, Mrs. Nitta.”

“Perhaps you or Sayuri should let it slip in conversation the next time you see him. Let him know what a terrible blow it was. I think he’ll want to make it up to us.”

“Yes, I’m sure that’s a good idea,” Mameha said. “Still, it’s disappointing… I had the impression another man had expressed interest in Sayuri.”

“A hundred yen is a hundred yen, whether it comes from this man or that one.”

“That would be true in most cases,” Mameha said. “But the man I’m thinking of is General Tottori Junnosuke…”

At this point in the conversation, I lost track of what the two of them were saying; for I’d begun to realize that Mameha was making an effort to rescue me from Nobu. I certainly hadn’t expected such a thing. I had no idea whether she’d changed her mind about helping me, or whether she was thanking me for taking her side against Mother… Of course, it was possible she wasn’t really trying to help me at all, but had some other purpose. My mind went on racing with these thoughts, until I felt Mother tapping my arm with the stem of her pipe.

“Well?” she said.

“Ma’am?”

“I asked if you know the General.”

“I’ve met him a few times, Mother,” I said. “He comes to Gion often.”

I don’t know why I gave this response. The truth is, I’d met the General more than a few times. He came to parties in Gion every week, though always as the guest of someone else. He was a bit on the small side-shorter than I was, in fact. But he wasn’t the sort of person you could overlook, any more than you could overlook a machine gun. He moved very briskly and was always puffing on one cigarette after another, so that wisps of smoke drifted in the air around him like the clouds around a train idling on the tracks. One evening while slightly drunk, the General had talked to me for the longest time about all the various ranks in the army and found it very funny that I kept mixing them up. General Tottori’s own rank was sho-jo , which meant “little general”-that is to say, the lowest of the generals-and foolish girl that I was, I had the impression this wasn’t very high. He may have played down the importance of his rank from modesty, and I didn’t know any better than to believe him.

By now Mameha was telling Mother that the General had just taken a new position. He’d been put in charge of something called “military procurement”-though as Mameha went on to explain it, the job sounded like nothing more than a housewife going to the market. If the army had a shortage of ink pads, for example, the General’s job was to make sure it got the ink pads it needed, and at a very favorable price.

“With his new job,” said Mameha, “the General is now in a position to take a mistress for the first time. And I’m quite sure he has expressed an interest in Sayuri.”

“Why should it matter to me if he’s expressed an interest in Sayuri?” Mother said. “These military men never take care of a geisha the way a businessman or an aristocrat does.”

“That may be true, Mrs. Nitta. But I think you’ll find that General Tottori’s new position could be of great help to the okiya.”

“Nonsense! I don’t need help taking care of the okiya. All I need is steady, generous income, and that’s the one thing a military man can’t give me.”

“Those of us in Gion have been fortunate so far,” Mameha said. “But shortages will affect us, if the war continues.”

“I’m sure they would, if the war continued,” Mother said. “This war will be over in six months.”

“And when it is, the military will be in a stronger position than ever before. Mrs. Nitta, please don’t forget that General Tottori is the man who oversees all the resources of the military. No one in Japan is in a better position to provide you with everything you could want, whether the war continues or not. He approves every item passing through all the ports in Japan.”

As I later learned, what Mameha had said about General Tottori wasn’t quite true. He was in charge of only one of five large administrative areas. But he was senior to the men who oversaw the other districts, so he may as well have been in charge. In any case, you should have seen how Mother behaved after Mameha had said this. You could almost see her mind at work as she thought about having the help of a man in General Tottori’s position. She glanced at the teapot, and I could just imagine her thinking, “Well, I haven’t had any trouble getting tea; not yet… though the price has gone up…” And then probably without even realizing what she was doing, she put one hand inside her obi and squeezed her silk bag of tobacco as if to see how much remained.

Mother spent the next week going around Gion and making one phone call after another to learn as much as she could about General Tottori. She was so immersed in this task that sometimes when I spoke to her, she didn’t seem to hear me. I think she was so busy with her thoughts, her mind was like a train pulling too many cars.