Entry 2 (chapter 4 -5)

Chiyo's life in the Okiya soon settles into a routine and time passes in a blur of daily tasks. Her misery and fear is no less than before and she worries that she will never be able see her family again. Chiyo works very hard, because she thinks that this is the only way she can be reunited with her sister, Satsu. Chiyo's main tasks are menial. They involve cleaning and running errands. She tries her best to be unobtrusive, but Granny likes company, and she makes many demands on Chiyo's time which often makes Chiyo late doing other tasks and this get her into trouble. When Hatsumomo tells Chiyo that Satsu came by to see her weeks before, Chiyo is upset that no one had told her and she’s desperate to know where her sister is. However, Hatsumomo knows where Satsu is, she holds this information over Chiyo’s head, and forces Chiyo to listen to her and do whatever she tells her to do. Fortunately, after working several months in okiya, Chiyo and Pumpkin are finally sent to training school. There, Chiyo has to take four classes – shamisen, dance, tea ceremony, and a formal Japanese style of singing they call nagauta. One afternoon, Hatsumomo takes Chiyo to the registry office in Gion where she is registered as a geisha. Chiyo tries to find out if Sastu has been also registered there, but she’s disappointed to find out that Sastu has not and Chiyo realizes that Hatsumomo has been lying to her about her sister. While Chiyo is registering, the registry clerk comments on Chiyo’s beauty, and Hatsumomo is immediately jealous.

Sakamoto Chiyo is an ordinary girl who lives in the fishing village of Yoroido. In her ealier years, Chiyo is very much like her mother; she resembles her mother’s unsual translucent grey eyes and she resembles her mother’s beauty. Chiyo is a really sweet girl, when she is still a kid, she would help her mother do the house chores and listen patiently to her mother’s stories. Even when Chiyo moves to the okiya, she still remains to be the same girl back in Yoroido. She is still that innocent, naïve, warm-hearted, and curious girl. Even though Chiyo is miserable from being away from her family, she never cries or complains because she knows that her complains wouldn’t bring her back to her family. She knows that the only way she can find her sister back is to work hard and become a geisha one day.

       I really like Arthur Golden’s writing style. The descriptions are really clear and detailed. If makes me feel like that I could really hear Chiyo’s voice, and her unsual expression she wears while she is telling me her story. While reading these two chapters, my heart broke once again. I just can’t believe how badly Hatumomo is treating Chiyo. At that point, Chiyo is only a nine-year old girl, and she has been so respectful to Hatsumomo, but still, Hatsumomo treats her as her rival and always treats her badly. However, from reading these two chapters, I learn that a young girl’s first step toward becoming a geisha is to apply and be accepted into an okiya, a geisha house owned by the woman who will pay for her training. Training to be a geisha takes about as long as it takes to train to be as a doctor; Typically, a young woman spends about six years studying the arts of music, Japanese traditional dance (nihon-buyoh), tea ceremony (sadoh). Through this book, I think I would learn a lot about geishas’ culture. I just cannot wait to read the next chapter!