“A balance of good and bad can open the door to destiny.”

“A balance of good and bad can open the door to destiny” is an almanac saying that Sayuri recalls as she faces the prospect of becoming Nobu’s mistress. Its meaning lies in the opposing forces she sees converging in her life: relationships and decisions that have brought her toward Nobu even as her love for the Chairman makes that future feel like a loss.

The Saying and Its Origin

Sayuri first encountered the saying on the day she met Nobu at a sumo tournament. The almanac’s words stayed with her, and she says she has thought of them in one way or another on nearly every day since. The phrase thus connects a chance reading to the long sequence of events that made Nobu’s proposal imaginable.

Sayuri’s Reading of the Balance

Looking back, Sayuri identifies several pairs of good and bad in her life. Mameha and Hatsumomo stand on opposing sides of her experience; her adoption by Mother and the mizuage that followed belong to the chain that shaped her circumstances; and the Chairman and Nobu form the most consequential contrast. The saying does not reduce these figures or events to simple opposites: Sayuri explicitly says she does not dislike Nobu, and that she feels quite the opposite.

Destiny at the Point of Choice

Mother tells Sayuri to leave business decisions to her, calling Nobu’s offer one only a fool would refuse. Sayuri understands that Nobu may one day propose to become her danna: he had already bid for her mizuage years earlier and had sought her company more often than any other man. Yet recognizing that possibility is not the same as believing she would accept it. She fears that becoming his mistress would close her life off from the Chairman forever.

The saying therefore frames destiny not as a simple reward for hardship but as a balance whose parts carry different costs. Nobu’s offer is materially compelling, while the life Sayuri wants remains bound to the Chairman. At the moment the almanac’s words return to her, the good and bad she has traced through her past become a present choice whose consequence she can already see.