I made the assumption last night that nothing else significant could happen in Sayuri's life. Well, these last 30 pages proved me wrong. Chapter twenty- six begins by saying in a round a bout way that General Tottori has become Sayuri's danna. Sayuri realizes that Mother was right when she said "military men don't treat geisha the way aristocrats do." The two always meet at shabby inns, which is unlike the lavish surroundings Sayuri is accustomed to. One day, Sayuri meets a man named Yasuda Akira at a party. She becomes interested in him and he in her. He buys her a cheap kimono, which Mother sells because of its poor quality. Out of angst that evening, Sayuri "hooks up" with Yasuda in a room at the teahouse, promising the maid an indecent sum of money to make sure no one disturbs them. After this engagement, Yasuda is no longer mentioned. However, the book moves on to talk about how Nobu has not contacted Sayuri after she took a danna. She learns which teahouse he now goes to after a young geisha comes to her saying he has treated her badly. She tries to run into him for several weeks until she finally accomplishes her goal and stops him. They take a walk together and Nobu explains that he has lost respect for her because of who her danna is. She tries to tell him she has no control over who is chosen for her, but he doesn't believe her, claiming she must as the daughter of the okiya. After talking it out, there friendship is left in a somewhat awkward spot, since Nobu hasn't said whether or not he would like to be friends still. Anyways, in the past month, Sayuri has earned more than Pumpkin and Hatsumomo combined, so Mother says it is time for Sayuri to take the larger room upstairs and trade with Hatsumomo. While moving her stuff, though, Sayuri returns to her new room to find Hatsumomo at her mirror, reading her private diary. Hatsumomo is drunk and threatens to show Mother the diary if Sayuri tries to take it from her, which is bad because it tells about all the feelings Sayuri has toward all the men in her life, plus Mother. On Hatsumomo's way out of Sayuri's new room with her diary, Hatsumomo accidentally cuts her foot on broken glass and has to hop down to her new room to bandage herself. Sayuri comes down to her new room in hopes to catch her off guard and take back the diary. When she opens Hatsumomo's door, she sees the obi brooch she was accused of stealing from Hatsumomo years earlier. She decides to take it, and the diary from Hatsumomo, catching her off guard. She quickly hides the diary in a kimono room before Hatsumomo can see then rushes into her room and opens and closes her drawers, pretending to stash the diary in them. Hatsumomo comes out of her room and both girls go to Mother's room to tell on the other. Sayuri shows mother the brooch, proving she never stole it, and Hatsumomo tells Mother about the diary. This prompts Mother to make Hatsumomo show her the diary since Sayuri denies knowing anything about a diary. When Hatsumomo is unable to find the diary, Mother says she will pay back Sayuri for the brooch charges and pay for new tatami mats that her foot blood has stained. This pleases Sayuri, but she is not through with torturing her yet. Mameha and Sayuri follow her to a party thrown by a very close friend of her, Bajiru- san. There Mameha shows up Hatsumomo when Bajiru asks her to perform a dance, then playfully kisses her all over the face. This angers Hatsumomo very much since Mameha took away Bajiru's attention during almost all of the party. After seeing her anger, Mameha prompts Bajiru into kissing Hatsumomo the same way in front of everyone, and he cannot turn down her request. However, Hatsumomo makes a fool of herself when she bites Bajiru- san out of angst and makes him bleed. He calls her a monster and she is thrown out of the teahouse once she tries to beat Bajiru up. Mother kicks her out of the okiya, and Sayuri hasn't seen her since. She's heard of her becoming a prostitute, but she thinks she drank herself to death.
This section makes me realize how much Sayuri has changed throughout the novel. She has become almost like Hatsumomo, playing her own evil tricks on those who have done her wrong. She has been led by Mameha in this, though, so I suppose I can't blame her. Mameha is trying to make Sayuri self-supportive, even though she is always there to give Sayuri advice and talk to her about her feelings. I think Sayuri's life will get more interesting now that the main part of World War II is coming. I'm very interested to find out how the atomic bomb impacted her life at the time, and how she has gotten to America, which she hints at saying she lives in New York now.
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