Chiyo Sakamoto/Nitta Sayuri

Nitta Sayuri is the main protagonist in both the 1997 book and 2006 film Memoirs Of A Geisha. She is played by Chinese actress Zhang Ziyi

Sayuri's Early Life
Born Chiyo Sakamotto? she was the daughter of a fisherman and his wife whose name was never given in the book or the film, she has a an older sister named Satsu but as she and Satsu learned? their mother don't have much time on earth due to she was dying of bone cancer and much to her dismay? she and her sister were sent away to live in Gion Japan, Once there? they go to the Nitta Okiya.

A boarding house for geishas, Auntie, 1 of the 3 women that run the okiya accepts Chiyo but rejects Satsu and to Chiyo's dismay they seperate, she meets the mistress Mrs. Nitta and another 9 year old girl named Pumpkin whose family also sold her to Mrs. Nitta, Pumpkin tries to calm her down by telling her that she must forget Satsu and her parents  and her life of poverty before she came to Gion and shows her a picture of the only geisha to the Nitta okiya and main antagonist in both the book and the film Hatsumomo

Chiyo like Pumpkin before became a servant to Mrs. Nitta, Auntie, Granny and Hatsumomo, she first see the geisha fitting into a kimino and was amazed how beautiful she was but their first official meeting wasn't plesant, she speaks to both her and Pumpkin cruelly and auntie while doing chores tells her the reason she and the other 2 women tolarate her is that she brings in good money and that she must keep in mind that it's Hatsumomo who pays for the food and the clothes in the okiya.

One night she and another geisha named Korin come back from an event drunk and she blackmails Chiyo by getting her to ruin a rival geisha Mameha's kimino with ink knowing that if she were to do it herself? she would owe her thousands of dollars for it and if she did? she would tell Chiyo what okiya Satsu is located in, all 3 go to Mameha's house and in the book? she gives it to Mameha's maid but in the movie? she leaves it in her doorstep and once Mameha opens the door? she runs away before she sees her.

Once Mrs. Nitta learned what she has done and Hatsumomo's accusation that she stole 1 of brooch, she pours cold water over Chiyo's back and began in front of Granny and auntie spanking her with the bamboo stick but auntie takes over, Hatsumomo then tells Chiyo that Satsu is now a prostitute living in a brothel under the name of Tatsuyo, one night as she holds the umbella for Hatsumomo to an event? instead of going home? she runs to find Satsu and they reunite in the brothel she was sold to.

Chiyo begs her to run away together from Gion but Satsu refuses to leave the brothel without any money and she will meet her another night to that but Chiyo as she desperately tried to escape the okiya? she falls off the roof causing her to break her arm, Mrs. Nitta after a doctor she hired to treat Chiyo leave? tells her that she's highly in debt due to her puchase price, Mameha's kimino and her broken arm plus she tells her Satsu had ran away from Gion WITHOUT her.

Auntie gives Chiyo more BAD news, she tells her that her parents has passed away but one day? she meets a man that she would later fall in love with later in life, he gives her his handicheif and buys her a shave ice, instead of using the money towards her escape from the Nitta okiya or pay for the food and clothes for it? she gives the money back in prayer at The Gion Shrine, praying to 1 day become a geisha to see the kind gentleman again.

The Greastest Geisha In Gion
Years pass and Chiyo is still a maid at the okiya while Pumpkin becomes a geisha but she is Hatsumomo's geisha sister and she gives her the name Hatsumiyo, but clients keep calling her by her real name, soon after and at Granny's funreal? she meets Mameha, a successful but kind, wise and wealthy geisha, Hatsumomo's long time rival, she after funreal visits Mrs. Nitta and convience her to reinvest in Chiyo's training and months after training? she becomes Mameha's new proteige and apprentice geisha Sayuri.

She embarasses Hatsumomo in a formal party which causes her to slap her in the face and tell her in her bedroom that "I shall destroy you" so she sprends nasty rumors about Sayuri at the events she and Pumpkin go to and Pumpkin going against her geisha sister's orders never to talk to her again? tells her after 1 of their clients Dr. Crab refusal to see both she and Mameha one night? tells her one of the rumors she told him about her.

Almost ruining Mameha's plans for a bidding war for Sayuri's mizuage, a ceremony where an apprentice geisha loses her virginty to a wealthy client in order to become a full geisha but before the ceremony and at a party? Mameha's danna (Japaness for wealthy benefactor) tries to sexually assault Sayuri at a party he was throwing in which lead to rumors that she had already lost her virginty to him which angered Mameha but the bidding war continue to spite the rumors but the man she met at the bridge Ken Iwamura a.k.a The Chairman wasn't 1 of the bidders.

The Baron was the highest bidder but because of his actions towards her proteige? she let Dr. Crab win the war making Sayuri a full geisha, paying off the debts she owes Mrs. Nitta and because of this, she adopts her and she become heir to the Nitta Okiya, this move angers both Hatsumomo and Pumpkin seeing that Mrs. Nitta orignally was going to adopt her and leave her the okiya but she saw that if she were to do that? Hatsumomo? being Pumpkin's big sister? will kick her and auntie out.

Hatsumomo tries to convience Nitta to not adopt Sayuri but because her career is failing along with Pumpkin's, her deception of Sayuri stealing the brooch and her temper along with not getting a wealthy benefactor to secure her career? Nitta refuse and with that, she finds another thing to blackmail Sayuri with, the handicheif that The Chairman gave her and the newspaper article with his picture on it. Sayuri kicks Hatsumomo out of her new room but she confronts her about her feelings for the chairman.

And out of vengence of telling Mrs. Nitta about her and her then boyfriend Korchi having sex in the okiya years before? she tries to burn the handichief but Sayuri grabs it from her but Hatsumomo fights her off which lead to a fight but soon after? one of the oil lamps fell into the floor causing her room to catch on fire, Sayuri calls for help but Hatsumomo proceeds to try to set the whole house on fire and after Sayuri, Mrs. Nitta and Auntie put out the fire? Hatsumomo was forced to leave both the okiya and Gion forever making Sayuri head geisha of the house.

Happy Ending
After Hatsumomo's departure? World War 2 began, she and the other geishas began to evacuate to other cities and they during the war work in factories, after war was over? Nobu who sent Sayuri to work far north to work with a kimino marker asks if she can become Nitta Sayuri once more to entertain the new Deputy Minister Sato who can help save him and Ken's company which was along with other buildings was destroyed during the war? Chiyo agrees and they both return to Gion.

So she, Mameha and Pumpkin? who was a prostitute during the war? entertain the minister reguarly but on a trip at Amami Islands with Iwamura Company? Nobu once again makes his proposal to be her danna and she knew if she accepted the proposal? she wouldn't be able to have a romantic relationship with Ken so she makes a plan to keep Nobu from making that proposal again, but before that? she and Mameha agrue and during that agruement she discovers that Mameha had feeelings for The Baron.

The man who tried to sexually assault Sayuri but Mameha says that her relationship with him was PROFESSIONAL and that Sayuri should take Nobu's proposal to be her danna but she refuses and she tells Pumpkin to have Nobu meet her at a place where he will catch her with the minister (Colonel Derricks in the movie) knowing if she did this? he'll never forgive her but still vengeful over Sayuri's inheritence of The Nitta Okiya and becoming Nitta's adoptive daughter?

Pumpkin brings Ken in the room instead of Nobu, Pumpkin knew all along that she likes Ken and knew it would ruin her chances of being his mistress since he like the other clients? are in arranged marriages and it devastes Sayuri, she thought now that the chairman saw her with the minister? she would lose him forever and she has to appect Nobu's proposal to be her wealthy benefactor but she recieves a call to meet with The Iwamura Electric Company, Mrs. Nitta thinks it's Nobu, offering to be her danna once again.

But to her surprise? it was Ken, she tells that her behavior at the island was for personal reasons, he explains to her that he knew all along she was that little girl he met on the bridge and he was the reason she became a geisha in the first place and through Pumpkin, he learned that Nobu was the 1 that was supposed to see her seduce the minister not him so he told Nobu in spite of him being his friend and business partner and he did in fact save his life during a war Japan once had against another country.

And once he told him? Nobu never forgave Sayuri which was fine with the both of them after telling each other their feelings for 1 another? they kiss at the end of the film but in the book? Ken becomes her danna and Sayuri retires from being geisha. it reveals that they have an illegitmate son together, she moves from Gion Japan to New York City later in life where she opens a small teahouse to entertain Japanese men on business in The United States from Japan in which Mrs. Nitta takes financial interest.

But no longer her head geisha? she severs ties with her and Japan all together. Ken remained her danna until his death, in the end of the book? she reflects on her life as both Chiyo and Sayuri.