The Memoirs of a Geisha is a story of girl named Chiyo. Together with her sister Satsu, they were sold to slavery to pay the debts of their parents. They were sent to an Okiya (geisha house) but Satsu was not accepted so they parted ways. She was a slave of a geisha in the Okiya. But after six years she was sent to a geisha school and changed the name from Chiyo to Sayuri, to be trained with the support of a successful geisha Mameha, and making a lot of enemies in the process.
While still a child, Chiyo falls in love with The Chairman since they had met and gave her snow ice cream and a penny, and wiped her tears with his handkerchief. In the post-World War II, they meet each other, in a period of changes in Japan with the occupying American forces and the country completely destroyed.The main character Sayuri was forced to leave the Gion district of Kyoto because of World War II. Not only did she and other prominent geisha have to leave, but ordinary civilians left because the war had begun to ruin the city. As usual, the war put a strain on Japan economically.
Therefore, the people of Kyoto basically had to start their lives over because the war had taken away everything. The business owners, The Chairman and Nobu, lost their businesses and began to depend on the intruding Americans to help them rebuild their lifestyles. Because they depended on the Americans at this point, Sayuri was able to leave hiding and return as a geisha. Only, the world had changed tremendously and the real meaning of a geisha had been altered. Since then, the impression of a geisha has been known as a prostitute because of the many women who took advantage of the real geisha being away during the war.
Implications To Socio-Cultural Geisha School: drink sake, sleep until noon, wear kimono, a geisha needs an elegant wardrobe just like an artist needs ink. If shes not properly dressed, she is not a true gesisha Costumes do not have to exactly duplicate the film’s period, but they need to look right to the audience. Designers may exaggerate color, style, and silhouette for dramatic effect. For example, when the director of Memoirs of a Geisha felt that a sexier, more contemporary look would be more appealing to non-Japanese viewers, designer Colleen Atwood fashioned kimonos that were more shape-revealing than traditional garments.These strict rules in fact allowed the geisha to flourish as artists and entertainers. Though more simply dressed than the courtesans, they became regarded as fashion leaders.
But many aspects of the lifestyle itself were less glamorous. Young girls were sold into the geisha life by their families until the mid-20th century and were often subject to the ritual of 'mizu-age,' whereby their virginity was sold to the highest bidder. Such practices were eradicated after World War II and the geisha profession went into a steady decline. Today, if geisha are hired to entertain at a private party outside the upper eschelons of society, they are most likely to be seasoned veterans, more akin to your favorite aunt or even grandmother than the girl next door.
