Arthur Golden · 1997 · exile

Arthur Golden's 1997 novel. Sold from the poor fishing village of Yoroido on the Sea of Japan, nine-year-old Chiyo is taken to the Gion district of Kyoto and trained in an okiya to become the celebrated geisha Sayuri. Through the 1930s, the war that scatters Gion, and the American occupation, she pursues the one man she has loved since childhood across a vanishing world.

1. 1
   Yoroido

   The poor seaside fishing village where nine-year-old Chiyo lives until her mother's death, when she and her sister are sold and taken away by a stranger.

2. 2
   Kyoto

   The Gion district, where Chiyo is placed in an okiya and trained through hardship into the geisha Sayuri, rising through the teahouses of a closed and beautiful world.