Since the last post on this novel, I've read about 50 more pages into the story. Chiyo has still been confined to the okiya and has been taken out of her lessons at the school. Two years have passed since her failed escape and the letter from Mr. Tanaka. Now, Chiyo is trusted to leave the okiya and go on errands. She is sent one day to the school to ask Hatsumomo about the mysterious hair ornaments she brought home the previous night. Auntie suspected they were another girl's, which is gross to her since geisha don't wash their hair often. Chiyo takes the hair ornaments to the school, finds Hatsumomo, who ends up insulting her, and realizes how badly she wants to be a geisha. On her way back, she sits up against a wall and cries after seeing so many geisha and men in suits with so much purpose to her life, realizing as a maid she will never have purpose. While she is crying, a man comes up to her and asks what is wrong. A geisha and two men accompany him, and the geisha jokes about how he, a Chairman, should not waste his time on a maid. He defends Chiyo, saying she is beautiful and has the geisha taken to the performance by the two men. This man turns out to be a chairman of some sort, and is very kind to Chiyo. He gives her a coin in his handkerchief and says to buy a shaved ice because he would have wanted one when he was younger. She buys herself a shaved ice and is left with much change, which she decides to throw into the offeratory box and prays that she will become a geisha somehow. Afterwards, Granny dies and the house is made up for almost all of Kyoto to come and pay their respects. One of the people that comes is Mameha, one of the most well- known geisha in Japan and also the woman who owned the kimono that Chiyo wrote on with ink. Upon leaving, Mameha notices how beautiful Chiyo is and compliments her for her eyes. Chiyo's prayers are answered when Mameha orders Chiyo to come to her apartment. Mameha hints that she wants to take Chiyo under her wing as her "younger sister," or apprentice geisha. Chiyo is very excited by this but Mameha says she must not tell anyone about it. Finally weeks later, Mameha comes to the okiya to talk to Mother about taking Chiyo as her younger sister. Mother is very surprised by this because of how great Chiyo's debts are. Nonetheless, the two make a bet and Chiyo restarts her training as Mameha's younger sister. This causes a greater rivalry though between Mameha and Hatsumomo, who were already rivals, as Hatsumomo tries to make her younger sister, Pumpkin (who is a friend of Chiyo's at the okiya), even better than Chiyo. Hatsumomo plays even more tricks on Chiyo but Mameha protects Chiyo. Chiyo is very determined to become a great geisha, and tries very hard at her studies, pushed along by the thought of someone like the Chairman admiring her someday as a successfu geisha.
This section really kept me reading with all the events that happen. I'm very pleased that Chiyo's prayers were answered and she can now become a geisha. That is, if she can keep up her determination to succeed. Meeting the Chairman was the sign and the push she needed to straighten out her life and turn it into the right direction. I feel bad for her, though, because through the rivalry she has lost her friend Pumpkin and is basically being used to settle a dispute with another geisha. Even so, this will lead her to success. She keeps mentioning the Chairman though, so I have to wonder if he may turn up again...
No comments:
Post a Comment