Aguri and Portrait of an Old Geisha

Both of these stories tell how the older one would invest into the younger one. In “Aguri”, I felt that Okada to Aguri is a sugar daddy instead of a lover or friend. Aguri would spend time with him and in exchange he buys her things that she wants. He says that if he was asked if he loved Aguri, he would say yes but to me I felt that Okada feels obsessed with Aguri rather than love. While walking down the streets with her next to him, he would fantasize about Agur. Both these two characters are polar opposites of each other. Okada is a thirty-something year old man while Aguri is a seventeen year old. He is depicted as a skinny and weak old man while Aguri is a young woman with a body that Okada craves. In the sentence, “But while he was steadily aging, her hands mysteriously looked younger every year” we see that his health is depleting while hers isn’t (64). Another difference is that on their shopping trip, Okada is wearing western clothes which seems to suffocate him and Aguri is wearing a traditional kimono.



In contrast, Kosono is trying to get Yuki to accomplish what she didn’t when she was young (92). Like Okada, Kosono gave Yuki things that would keep him there next to her. She would talk about her days as a young geisha and how she felt trapped in the geisha house. Yuki, however, was different from her; he was free. He was able to move from job to job and didn’t stay in one place for too long. Maybe because of this did Kosono see something in him that she thinks he’s the one who’ll take her place in accomplishing things she never did. To me, it felt like Kosono was like a mother to him. She would give the best to Yuki and in exchange he would become someone successful. It’s almost the same as a mother giving up everything just so her child will do well in the future.



My question is: What did you think the theme of these two stories is?