Season 1
Memoirs of a Geisha tells the fictional story of Chiyo, a young Japanese girl, whose family, unable to support her, sell her to a geisha house in the city of Kyoto during the 1930s.
A geisha is a professional female companion for men in Japan, trained in music, dancing, and the art of conversation.
The geisha training is a life of virtual slavery, and Chiyo finds herself working as maid to a malevolent geisha called Hatsumomo who, jealous of Chiyo’s beauty, makes her life utterly miserable.
One day, as Chiyo weeps by a stream in the city, a wealthy man stops and comforts her. Chiyo, deeply moved by the man’s kindness, knows
that she will never forget him.
Two years later, a geisha called Mameha, as kind as Hatsumomo is cruel, takes Chiyo under her wing. Chiyo, now renamed Sayuri, becomes a successful geisha, renowned for her beauty.
Then one day she meets the man who had comforted her by the stream. But life does not run smoothly for Sayuri and there are powerful obstacles that prevent the two from coming together ...