Allison, Anne. “Memoirs of the Orient.” Journal of Japanese Studies, vol. 27, no. 2, July 2001,

pp. 381–98. EBSCOhost, https://doi.org/10.2307/3591971. Allison analyzes the phenomena of a post-WWII Japan and the Western intrigue of East Asian culture. Due to the perception of a foreign Japan by American soldiers in WWII, it makes us–the audience–the “outsider” (383). The unknown and foreign customs of Japan become a breeding ground for orientalist fantasy to meld into the world of cultural truth. Based on her research on the book’s reviews, many words and phrases that can be traced back to orientalism can be found within those written reviews like “exotic”, “Asian Cinderella”, and “forbidden” (387). She also mentions how orientalism can play into the characterization of the protagonist, Chiyo or Nitta Sayuri. She states that Western audiences have seen “the Orient as a “yellow peril or an erotic “butterfly” that gets dominated by the West as white male” (386). Although the film and novel’s narrative is centered around women, the creators of the film and book author have placed the role of submissive or aggressive woman to the female characters. (165)

 

Craven, Allison. “Where East-Meets-West Meets Asianization: Aesthetics, Regionality and Frank Capra’s Lost Horizon.” Asian Cinema, vol. 29, no. 2, Oct. 2018, pp. 175–87. EBSCOhost, https://doi.org/10.1386/ac.29.2.175_1. By cinematic identity, Asian representation in film can fall in between the following: submissive or threatening. Craven explains that throughout the twentieth century of cinema, Asian figures are painted as either the malleable woman for the white male protagonist or the looming villain. She states that, to the western audience, the continent of Asia is “a land of threat to civilized whiteness” (177). The west may be drawn to the east’s aesthetics, yet their xenophobic bias can shift the line of pleasing visuals towards dangerously mysterious and foreign. Craven comments, “The aesthetic discourse is marked, I argue, by duality whereby Asia is presented as both threat and paradise” (176). The line between fetishizing and demonizing a continent’s aesthetic for its “otherness” can form the idea of orientalism and the lingering effects of it. She includes that this ideology has increased after WWII and the conflicted relationship of America with Asian-Americans after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. This travesty of a historical event plays into the subconscious fear of Asian representation and foreign discovery of Japan by deployed American soldiers.  (179)

 

Kadhim, Nibras Jawad. “Identity Formation in Adolescence: An Eriksonian Approach to Arthur Golden’s Memoirs of a Geisha.” Theory and Practice in Language Studies, vol. 15, no. 10, Oct. 2025, p. 3208. EBSCOhost, https://doi.org/10.17507/tpls.1510.07. Kadhim analyzes the character of Nitta Sayuri and her progression as the narrator of Memoirs of a Geisha within the world of early twentieth-century Japan. Sold to a geisha house as a child, Sayuri was conditioned and trained to become a geisha and debut in a world of influential men. Her character is often written as submissive and eager to obey, limiting her autonomy which also plays into the stereotype of the submissive Asian woman. When describing the relationship between Sayuri and her mentor, Mameha, he states “Under Mameha’s mentorship, Sayuri learns the art of being a geisha, not just as a series of rituals and performances, but as a means of self-expression and survival” (3212). Sayuri’s need to succeed as a geisha and cater to her male clientele ends plays into the male gaze towards Asian women. He states that her control and agency is limited because of her male-dominated environment, leaving her with no choice. Hence, with the creators of the original source material, the fetishization of Sayuri’s submission increases its clarity that this story was meant for the Western male gaze. (184)

 

Kennedy, Barbara M. “‘Memoirs of a Geisha’: The Material Poesis of Temporality.” Discourse,

vol. 33, no. 2, Apr. 2011, pp. 203–20. EBSCOhost,

 research.ebsco.com/linkprocessor/plink?id=e8062b58-1cc6-3a15-9cdc-e2281e43e8fe. Kennedy’s academic journal focuses on the “performativity” of Memoirs of a Geisha (209). Her analysis of the psychological aspect of the film is that we tend to be drawn to vibrance and spectacle rather than the reality of our world. With Rob Marshall’s directing of the film, he plays with the emphasis on the costuming and maximalist portrayal of Japan’s geisha culture. All in all, Memoirs of a Geisha is a film and was meant to be consumed for pure entertainment and curiosity for those who are interested in the world of geishas. However, Kennedy states that the film is “an abstract machine of the pleasures of a variety of geisha tropes” (209). As geishas are cultural performers, she brings to light that the performance of the film itself mirrors the curious gaze of the young protagonist when she is first purchased by a geisha house–an okiya. She comments, “Memoirs of a Geisha is replete with sequences of looking, gazing, and the specular” (209). Like Nitta Sayuri, we as an audience are drawn to the vibrancy and spectacle of the film that we become blinded by the inaccuracies. (189)

 

Kimiko Akita. “Bloopers of a ‘Geisha’: Male ‘Orientalism’ and Colonization of Women’s

Language.” Women & Language, vol. 32, no. 1, Mar. 2009, pp. 12–21. EBSCOhost,

 research.ebsco.com/linkprocessor/plink?id=728d377b-ec8e-3708-9ba1-b39873fdab61. Kimiko argues that Memoirs of a Geisha is stylized in an orientalist and sexualized manner because of the male gaze and the creative privilege of men. She states that influential men from the west “are privileged to create the language and knowledge that permeate society and prevail” (12). Considering that the original source material, as well as the film adaptation, was written by a white man, the miscommunication of different cultures through the western gaze is inevitable. There has been a long history of overdramatization with Asian cultures and the normalization of it, which unfortunately helps fuel the creator’s reasoning to exploit and sully the role of a geisha. This was done when the bestselling author interviewed a former geisha, Mineko Iwasaki, during his two-week stay in Japan. The events of Memoirs of a Geisha are loosely based on her experiences during her time as a geisha. With the finished novel, Golden had portrayed Iwasaki’s occupation similarly to a prostitute. Kimiko adds that Golden’s reasoning to have done this was because he wished “to satisfy the Western appetites” (15). As a result, this false narrative damaged a culture’s legacy, all for the sake of entertainment. (195)

 

Rida Fahas. “Woman Exploitation Reflected in Memoirs of A Geisha by Arthur Golden.”

English Teaching Journal : A Journal of English Literature, Language and Education,

 vol. 8, Dec. 2020, pp. 103–09. EBSCOhost, https://doi.org/10.25273/etj.v8i2.7733. Analyzing and while dissecting the exploitation of women in Memoirs of a Geisha and their portrayal, Fahas takes us through the stages of exploitation and their acceptance of such treatment throughout the course of the narrative. At the beginning of the novel, a world is established to the reader as well as the characters: a world of men. As Fahas states, “It is called Patriarchy, which refers to the condition that man is the main rule to the woman’s life” (105). Geishas are set to serve and cater to a male clientele and they are pit against one another within the novel and film. With the rivalry between Sayuri and Hatsumomo, a wrathful and envious geisha in Sayuri’s okiya, both women are equally as trapped beneath the male gaze. Fahas even includes how the women were given no choice but to become geishas, when in reality, there was a choice. She states, “This novel shows that Woman has no participation in making decision in their life, because man has all their life control” (106). For a story that is woman-centered, the women barely have agency over themselves from beginning to end. (191)

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