Discover Nikkei Logo

https://www.discovernikkei.org/en/nikkeialbum/items/10267/

Japanophilia

(Memoirs of a Geisha)


Published: Feb. 8, 2025 Modified: Feb. 11, 2025

The word Geisha literally translates to art person. The movie Memoirs of a Geisha reflects this both in its hauntingly beautiful imagery and its plotline. The story tells of a young girl who is torn from her family and sold to a Geisha house. After sometime at the Geisha House, the title character, Sayuri, is presented with the opportunity to become a Geisha. From here in the story erupts with poignant exoticism of the Geisha lifestyle, which is shown to be both glamorous and tragic. The epitome of this hyper-exotification is exemplified in Sayuri’s solo dance sequence in the movie. Both the outfit and the dance choreography succeed in magnifying the exotic allure her presence. The sense of magnification, further radiates ethereal aesthetics so as to tailor the visual representation of the Geisha world to an American audience. Also to be noted, this on-screen portrayal of this book is essentially further hyper exotification, as most of the dance choreography is imbued with western influence, so as to emphasize the mystifying aspects the Geisha . This is evidenced in the fact that the main character is differentiated from the other character by possessing blue eyes. The movie explains that she has “too much water in her eyes,” which means that she posses the ability to be both be it soft and delicate or powerful and destructive. These “superstitious” beliefs also lead into the exoticism aspect of the movie as well, which is essentially the essence of the film. Once again, illustrating an auto-exotic aspect in both imagery and plotline, this film creates a otherness, that does not relate to Japanese culture, but rather is tailored to an American culture, so as represent an “otherworldyness” aspect via visual aesthetics.


2000s geisha Japanophilia Memoirs of a Geisha (film)

Part of this album

Japanophilia
This collection brings together student work from a seminar held at Occidental College, titled "Japanophilia: Orientalism, Nationalism, Transnationalism." The class examined the relationship between collecting/appropriating Japanese cultur…
View Album
Discover Nikkei brandmark

The new Nikkei Album!

We’re excited to share our redesigned Nikkei Album. It’s a work-in-progress, so please have patience as we add more features and functionality. It will be an exciting tool for our community to easily share photos, videos, and text! Learn More
Discover Nikkei brandmark

New Site Design

See exciting new changes to Discover Nikkei. Find out what’s new and what’s coming soon! Learn More

Discover Nikkei Updates

SUPPORT THE PROJECT
Discover Nikkei’s 20 for 20 campaign celebrates our first 20 years and jumpstarts our next 20. Learn more and donate!
SHARE YOUR MEMORIES
We are collecting our community’s reflections on the first 20 years of Discover Nikkei. Check out this month’s prompt and send us your response!
PROJECT UPDATES
New Site Design
See exciting new changes to Discover Nikkei. Find out what’s new and what’s coming soon!