you won't need me. You'll know if the bidding goes high, because 
things will start to happen." 

"I don't understand," I said. "What sorts of things?" "All sorts of things," she said, and then left 
without even taking a cup of tea. 

She was gone three days. At first my heart raced every time I heard one of the maids 
approaching. But two days passed without any news. Then on the third day, Auntie came to 
me in the hallway to say that Mother wanted me upstairs. 

I'd just put my foot onto the first step when I heard a door slide open, and all at once 
Pumpkin came rushing down. She came like water poured from a bucket, so fast her feet 
scarcely touched the steps, and midway down she twisted her finger on the banister. It must 
have hurt, because she let out a cry and stopped at the bottom to hold it. 

"Where is Hatsumomo?" she said, clearly in pain. "I have to find her!" 

"It looks to me as if you've hurt yourself badly enough," Auntie said. "You have to go find 
Hatsumomo so she can hurt you more?" 

Pumpkin looked terribly upset, and not only about her finger; but when I asked her what was 
the matter, she just rushed to the entryway and left. 

Mother was sitting at the table when I entered her room. She began to pack her pipe with 
tobacco, but soon thought better of it and put it away. On top of the shelves holding the 
account books stood a beautiful European-style clock in a glass case. Mother looked at it 
every so often, but a few long minutes passed and still she said nothing to me. Finally I 
spoke up. "I'm sorry to disturb you, Mother, but I was told you wanted to see me." 

"The doctor is late," she said. "We'll wait for him." I imagined she was referring to Dr. Crab, 
that he was coming to the okiya to talk about arrangements for my mizuage. I hadn't 
expected such a thing and began to feel a tingling in my belly. Mother passed the time by 
patting Taku, who quickly grew tired of her attentions and made little growling noises. 


At length I heard the maids greeting someone in the front entrance hall below, and Mother 
went down the stairs. When she came back a few minutes later she wasn't escorting Dr. 
Crab at all, but a much younger man with smooth silver hair, carrying a leather bag. "This is 
the girl," Mother said to him. I bowed to the young doctor, who bowed back to me. "Ma'am," 
he said to Mother, "where shall we . . . ?" 

Mother told him the room we were in would be fine. The way she closed the door, I knew 
something unpleasant was about to happen. She began by untying my obi and folding it on 
the table. Then she slipped the kimono from my shoulders and hung it on a stand in the 
corner. I stood in my yellow underrobe as calmly as I knew how, but in a moment Mother 
began to untie the waistband that held my underrobe shut. I couldn't quite stop myself from 
putting my arms in her way-though she pushed them aside just as the Baron had done, 
which gave me a sick feeling. After she'd removed the waistband, she reached inside and 
pulled out my koshimaki-once again, just as it had happened in Hakone. I didn't like this a bit, 
but instead of pulling open my robe as the Baron had, she refolded it around me and told me 
to lie down on the mats. 

The doctor knelt at my feet and, after apologizing, peeled open my underrobe to expose my 
legs. Mameha had told me a little about mizuage, but it seemed to me I was about to learn 
more. Had the bidding ended, and this young doctor emerged the winner? What about Dr. 
Crab and Nobu? It even crossed my mind that Mother might be intentionally sabotaging 
Mameha's plans. The young doctor adjusted my legs and reached between them with his 
hand, which I had noticed was smooth and graceful like the Chairman's. I felt so humiliated 
and exposed that I had to cover my face. I wanted to draw my legs together, but I was afraid 
anything that made his task more difficult would only prolong the encounter. So I lay with my 
eyes pinched shut, holding my breath. I felt as little Taku must have felt the time he choked 
on a needle, and Auntie held his jaws open while Mother put her fingers down his throat. At 
one point I think the doctor had both of his hands between my legs; but at last he took them 
away, and folded my robe shut. When I opened my eyes, I saw him wiping his hands on a 
cloth. 

"The girl is intact," he said. 

"Well, that's fine news!" Mother replied. "And will there be much blood?" 

"There shouldn't be any blood at all. I only examined her visually." 

"No, I mean during mizuage." 

"I couldn't say. The usual amount, I should expect." 

When the young silver-haired doctor had taken his leave, Mother helped me dress and 
instructed me to sit at the table. Then without any warning, she grabbed my earlobe and 
pulled it so hard I cried out. She held me like that, with my head close to hers, while she said: 

"You're a very expensive commodity, little girl. I underestimated you. I'm lucky nothing has 
happened. But you may be very sure I'm going to watch you more closely in the future. What 
a man wants from you, a man will pay dearly to get. Do you follow me?" 

"Yes, ma'am!" I said. Of course, I would have said yes to anything, considering how hard she 
was pulling on my ear. 

"If you give a man freely what he ought to pay for, you'll be cheating this okiya. You'll owe 
money, and I'll take it from you. And I'm not just talking about this!" Here Mother made a 


gruesome noise with her free hand-rubbing her fingers against her palm to make a squishing 
sound. 

"Men will pay for that," she went on. "But they'll pay just to chat with you too. If I find you 
sneaking off to meet a man, even if it's just for a little talk . . ."And here she finished her 
thought by giving another sharp tug on my earlobe before letting it go. 

I had to work hard to catch my breath. When I felt I could speak again, I said, "Mother . . . I've 
done nothing to make you angry!" 

"Not yet, you haven't. If you're a sensible girl, you never will." 

I tried to excuse myself, but Mother told me to stay. She tapped out her pipe, even though it 
was empty; and when she'd filled it and lit it, she said, "I've come to a decision. Your status 
here in the okiya is about to change." 

I was alarmed by this and began to say something, but Mother stopped me. 

"You and I will perform a ceremony next week. After that, you'll be my daughter just as if 
you'd been born to me. I've come to the decision to adopt you. One day, the okiya will be 
yours." 

I couldn't think of what to say, and I don't remember much of what happened next. Mother 
went on talking, telling me that as the daughter of the okiya I would at some point move into 
the larger room occupied by Hatsumomo and Pumpkin, who together would share the 
smaller room where I'd-lived up to now. I was listening with only half my mind, until I began 
slowly to realize that as Mother's daughter, I would no longer have to struggle under 
Hatsumomo's tyranny. This had been Mameha's plan all along, and yet I'd never really 
believed it would happen. Mother went on lecturing me. I looked at her drooping lip and her 
yellowed eyes. She may have been a hateful woman, but as the daughter of this hateful 
woman, I would be up on a shelf out of Hatsumomo's reach. 

In the midst of all of this, the door slid open, and Hatsumomo herself stood there in the 
hallway. 

"What do you want?" Mother said. "I'm busy." 

"Get out," she said to me. "I want to talk with Mother." 

"If you want to talk with me," Mother said, "you may ask Sayuri if she'll be kind enough to 
leave." 

"Be kind enough to leave, Sayuri" Hatsumomo said sarcastically. 

And then for the first time in my life, I spoke back to her without the fear that she would 
punish me for it. 

"I'll leave if Mother wants me to," I told her. 

"Mother, would you be kind enough to make Little Miss Stupid leave us alone?" Hatsumomo 
said. 

"Stop making a nuisance of yourself!" Mother told her. "Come in and tell me what you want." 


Hatsumomo didn't like this, but she came and sat at the table anyway. She was midway 
between Mother and me, but still so close that I could smell her perfume. 

"Poor Pumpkin has just come running to me, very upset," she began. "I promised her I'd 
speak with you. She told me something very strange. She said, 'Oh, Hatsumomo! Mother has 
changed her mind!' But I told her I doubted it was true." 

"I don't know what she was referring to. I certainly haven't changed my mind about anything 
recently." 

"That's just what I said to her, that you would never go back on your word. But I'm sure she'd 
feel better, Mother, if you told her yourself." 

"Told her what?" 

"That you haven't changed your mind about adopting her." 

"Whatever gave her that idea? I never had the least intention of adopting her in the first 
place." 

It gave me a terrible pain to hear this, for I couldn't help thinking of how Pumpkin had rushed 
down the stairs looking so upset . . . and no wonder, for no one could say anymore what 
would become of her in life. Hatsumomo had been wearing that smile that made her look like 
an expensive piece of porcelain, but Mother's words struck her like rocks. She looked at me 
with hatred. 

"So it's true! You're planning to adopt her. Don't you remember, Mother, when you said you 
were going to adopt Pumpkin? You asked me to tell her the news!" 

"What you may have said to Pumpkin is none of my concern. Besides, you haven't handled 
Pumpkin's apprenticeship as well as I expected. She was doing well for a time, but lately . . ." 

"You promised, Mother," Hatsumomo said in a tone that frightened me. 

"Don't be ridiculous! You know I've had my eye on Sayuri for years. Why would I turn around 
and adopt Pumpkin?" 

I knew perfectly well Mother was lying. Now 