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In the Japanese Buddhist tradition, water is one of five elements that make up the fabric of the universe and the personalities of every person. Like water shifting to fit the shape of its container, people with a lot of water in their personality have a tendency towards adaptability and flexibility. Therefore, when characters in Memoirs of a Geisha comment on how much “water” Sayuri has in her personality, they are linking her to these traits. Related to ideas of adaptability, rivers and streams in the novel are mutable and flexible symbols, sometimes representing destiny while other times representing self-determination. Guided by external forces like gravity and wind, running water is not always capable of following a path of its own making. In this way, water represents destiny, because the water has no control over its own movements. Likewise, for most of the novel, Sayuri lets other people determine the direction that her life will take. But the character Nobu introduces the second meaning of water. He suggests that running water is a powerful force that can flow in any direction it wishes. Thus, Sayuri must choose between the two conflicting symbolic meanings of water: the water that lets external forces guide it, or the water that determines its own direction.
Water, Rivers, and Streams Quotes in Memoirs of a Geisha
The Memoirs of a Geisha quotes below all refer to the symbol of Water, Rivers, and Streams. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 1
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Water flows from place to place quickly and always finds a crack to spill through. Wood, on the other hand, holds fast to the earth.
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Chapter 9
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So many things in my life had changed, even the way I looked; but when I unwrapped the moth from its funeral shroud, it was the same startlingly lovely creature as on the day I had entombed it…It struck me that we—that moth and I—were two opposite extremes. My existence was as unstable as a stream, changing in every way; but the moth was like a piece of stone, changing not at all. While thinking this thought, I reached out a finger to feel the moth's velvety surface; but when I brushed it with my fingertip, it turned all at once into a pile of ash….Now I understood the thing that had puzzled me all morning. The stale air had washed away. The past was gone. My mother and father were dead and I could do nothing to change it.
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Chapter 10
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“Those of us with water in our personalities don't pick where we'll flow to. All we can do is flow where the landscape of our lives carries us.”
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Chapter 26
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“I wish I could believe life really is something more than a stream that carries us along, belly-up.”
“All right, if it's a stream, you're still free to be in this part of it or that part, aren't you? The water will divide again and again. If you bump, and tussle, and fight, and make use of whatever advantages you might have…”
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Chapter 34
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In the instant before that door opened, I could almost sense my life expanding just like a river whose waters have begun to swell; for I had never before taken such a drastic step to change the course of my own future. I was like a child tiptoeing along a precipice overlooking the sea. And yet somehow I hadn't imagined a great wave might come and strike me there, and wash everything away.
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Water, Rivers, and Streams Symbol Timeline in Memoirs of a Geisha
The timeline below shows where the symbol Water, Rivers, and Streams appears in Memoirs of a Geisha. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 1
...blue eyes, a rarity among Japanese people, indicated that they both had a lot of water in their personalities. In contrast, her father Minoru Sakamoto – who was over twenty years...
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Chapter 2
...to get undressed. Seeing Chiyo’s eyes, she says that Chiyo must have a lot of water in her personality. When the old woman tells her to spread her legs, Chiyo resists...
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Chapter 3
Mother approvingly says that Chiyo’s beautiful blue-grey eyes mean that she has a lot of water in her personality. Granny simply says that she looks dull. Mother tells Chiyo that if...
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Chapter 8
...away, Chiyo washes the wood floors in the maids’ room. While she cleans, the soapy water snakes across the room. The sight of the water flowing makes Chiyo daydream of flowing...
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Chapter 9
...see the moth utterly unchanged. Sayuri feels that her existence is “as unstable as a stream, changing in every way,” but that the moth is “like a piece of stone, changing...
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...purpose. Feeling her own lack of purpose in life, she sits down by the Shirakawa Stream that runs though Kyoto and begins to cry.
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Chapter 10
...in life. Mameha also says that Chiyo has yet to make use of all the water in her personality. Mameha says that people with water in the personalities “flow where the...
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...to understand the ways of the universe so that they aren’t always swimming against the currents, but instead flowing with them.
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Chapter 14
...meaning “together,” yu, from the zodiac sign for the hen (in order “to balance the water elements in her personality”), and ri, meaning “understanding.” Sayuri feels odd about her new name,...
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Chapter 23
Arriving back in Kyoto, Sayuri feels like a lake quivering after being struck by a stone. A few days after her return, Sayuri goes...
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...falls in love with a dolphin prince. Her costume is a pink kimono with a water design in grey. After she gets ready, Sayuri goes backstage to watch Mameha’s performance.
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Chapter 26
Sayuri responds by saying that life is like stream carrying everyone along belly up. Nobu says that if life is truly like a stream,...
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Chapter 34
...the instant before the door opens, Sayuri can almost sense her life expanding like a river whose riverbanks have swelled, but when she sees the Chairman, she feels only a sense...
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...He tells her that around eighteen years ago, he took a walk by the Shirakawa Stream. Before the Chairman can say any more, Sayuri removes the Chairman’s handkerchief from her sleeve...
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...for the Chairman. She says that every step she took since that day by the stream has been with the hopes of bringing herself closer to the Chairman. Feeling all the...
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...the same look of desperation on her face that she did years ago by the stream. The Chairman says that he told Nobu what happened, because if Sayuri so dreaded being...
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Chapter 35
...however we may suffer them, all too soon they bleed into a wash, just like watery ink on paper.”
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