Memoirs of a Geisha characters

Also known as Chiyo, Chiyo Sakamoto

Appears from the start

A poor fisherman's daughter from the seaside village of Yoroido, born Chiyo Sakamoto and marked by unusual gray-blue eyes. When her mother is dying, she and her older sister are sold and sent away; Chiyo is taken to an okiya, a geisha house, in the Gion district of Kyoto. Frightened and homesick, she is set to work as a maid while the household decides whether she is worth training. She narrates her own life story looking back from later years.

First appears in chapter 3

The beautiful and celebrated geisha of the okiya that takes Chiyo in, and the source of the household's income. Vain, spiteful, and quick to sense a threat, she torments Chiyo from the start, determined that no rival geisha will ever be raised under the same roof.

First appears in chapter 3

The shrewd, money-minded woman who runs the okiya and keeps its accounts. She weighs every girl and every kimono as an investment, and Chiyo's debts to the house are recorded and owed to her.

First appears in chapter 3

A plain, aging former geisha who manages the daily running of the okiya. Gruff but fairer than the others, she oversees the maids and gives Chiyo blunt, practical guidance on surviving in the house.

First appears in chapter 3

The mean-tempered old woman of the okiya, who does little but complain and demand attention. She adds to the small cruelties of Chiyo's first days in the house.

First appears in chapter 4

Another young girl living in the okiya, plump-faced and eager to please, being trained under Hatsumomo. Timid and anxious, she becomes Chiyo's closest companion among the household's newcomers, though the rivalries of Gion will test their friendship.

Appears from the start

Chiyo's older sister, plainer and less clever, sold away at the same time but sent to a far lower house in a poorer quarter. The two girls are separated at the outset and long to find each other again.

Also known as Ken Iwamura

First appears in chapter 9

A kindly, prosperous businessman who notices the young Chiyo weeping alone by a canal and offers her a small, unexpected gesture of comfort. His momentary gentleness gives her a reason to hope, and she resolves to make herself into a geisha so that she might one day belong to his world.

First appears in chapter 12

One of Gion's most admired and successful geisha, elegant and self-possessed. For reasons of her own, she offers to take Chiyo on as her younger sister and pupil, guiding her training and debut, and becoming Hatsumomo's rival in the process.

First appears in chapter 16

A blunt, formidable executive of a large electric company, his face and arm scarred from war injuries. Impatient with pretense and unusually honest, he takes a genuine liking to Sayuri and becomes one of her most loyal and important patrons.

First appears in chapter 19

A reserved, precise physician who moves in Gion's circles and is known for his fixation on the coming-of-age ceremonies of young apprentice geisha. Mameha steers him toward Sayuri as her career takes shape.