The Beautiful Dancer of Yedo

 

That feeling when you're the heroine of a tragedy.

 

Hello, readers! This week's story comes from Japan. The Beautiful Dancer of Yedo is a sad story, but there's some beauty in it too. Read the story at the link above and analyze it with me below.

It's an interesting quirk of language that the narrator calls the three men in this story Sakura-ko's lovers. I wouldn't call the first two that, and only maybe the third, but I suppose they mean men who loved her. Although, I'm not sure they actually cared about her.

The first man wanted, essentially, to buy Sakura-ko. He wanted her, body and soul, in exchange for pretty clothes and servants. I'm not always sure of the culture behind these stories, so I'm glad she was able to tell him no, although I doubt she liked being a geisha that much. This first man wanted to possess her, possibly just to be another pretty thing in his house. So much for the first man loving her.

The second man wanted to die with her. I suppose that since he was old, he decided he didn't have much time left alive, so it would be better to die with a beautiful woman than live the time he had left. I'm so glad the other geisha, Silver Wave, knew what the old man planned and didn't let him kill Sakura-ko. If they had died together, I'm sure her spirit wouldn't have let his rest easily. So much for the second man loving her.

The third man is the one I could maybe see being in love, although even with him, I'm not convinced. He didn't want to buy her and he didn't want to die with her. He asked her to marry him. Again, I only know a bit about Japanese culture and I'm not sure when, exactly, this story takes place, but I don't think geishas often married lords, no matter how excellent at dancing the geishas were. This man lets himself shrivel away because of his emotions for her, but that still doesn't convince me this is love. What makes me think it might be love are Sakura-ko's actions. When she finds him in the street, she takes him to his house and takes care of him for three months.

She didn't have to do that. Even if Sakura-ko felt she needed to get him back to his house, she didn't need to stay there and take care of him. And she definitely didn't have to do it for three months! The story says that she was happy and I'm glad for her. I don't understand why she had to leave, but taking that at face value is part of what makes this story so tragically beautiful. Clearly, there was a reason. Maybe it was because she knew a lord couldn't marry a geisha? Whatever the reason, she leaves and they're both sad about it.

The postscript is what really makes me like this story, though. That nun who comes back and sees the young lord's son. That nun is clearly Sakura-ko. What else could a woman who was once a geisha do in that society besides become a nun? (Again, I don't know enough to be sure, but I believe her options would have been incredibly limited.) She still thinks it was better for the lord that they didn't stay together, even all that time later.

The circular nature of this story where, once again, Sakura-ko leaves a boy in that same house makes this whole story work. We see how Sakura-ko deals with other men pursuing her and how they handle her rejection, and then we see the differences in this third man. After she left the other two, Sakura-ko stayed in town, but after she left the young lord, she disappeared. He was different, and that difference draws us to the end of the story nicely.

The moral of this story is not to be a geisha in this time period. Alternatively, if you fall in love with someone you can't have, make sure you disappear completely, so neither of you can try the relationship again.

Have a different moral? Wondering if Sakura-ko or Silver Wave got in trouble with the law after that old man killed himself? Have a different story you'd like me to talk about? Comment below!