The inn on the grounds of Nanzen-ji Temple is the setting for the private meeting between Sayuri and Dr. Crab after dinner following her mizuage ceremony. It becomes a threshold between the ceremony’s public solemnity and the uncertain intimacy awaiting Sayuri: Mr. Bekku prepares her clothing and the room, while Sayuri waits in dread for the Doctor’s arrival.

Setting and Preparation

After dinner at Kitcho, Mr. Bekku escorts Sayuri by rickshaw to the inn, which stands on the grounds of Nanzen-ji Temple. He had visited earlier to arrange her clothing in an adjoining room. There he helps her out of her formal kimono and dresses her in a more casual one, choosing an obi that needs no padding and tying it so it can be undone easily.

The preparations make the inn more than a place to stay: it is arranged for the encounter to come. Once dressed, Sayuri is so nervous that Mr. Bekku must help her back into the room and position her near the door. Left there to wait, she experiences dread, imagining the forthcoming ordeal as an operation to remove her kidneys or liver.

The Garden Balcony

When Dr. Crab arrives, he asks Sayuri to order sake while he bathes. His strange look suggests that he may have expected her to help him undress, but her hands are too cold and awkward. He emerges in a sleeping robe and opens the doors onto the garden; they sit on a small wooden balcony, sipping sake and listening to crickets and the stream below.

The scene’s quiet setting contrasts with Sayuri’s apprehension. She spills sake on her kimono, but Dr. Crab does not notice. His attention instead settles on a fish splashing in the pond, which he points out to her. A maid lays out their futons side by side while they sit outside, making the purpose of the carefully prepared room present without resolving the tension of the wait.

The Threshold of the Room

At last Dr. Crab leaves the balcony and goes inside. Sayuri watches him from the corner of her eye as he unpacks two white towels and arranges them on a table, then adjusts the pillows on one futon. His precise, methodical gestures give the meeting an unexpectedly businesslike air, echoing the way he appeared at dinner, peering through his glasses as if at a business meeting.

When Dr. Crab stands at the doorway, Sayuri rises from her knees and follows him. The account ends at that threshold. The inn’s rooms and balcony have held the preparations and the wait; the narrative leaves the encounter itself unstated, making the pause before Sayuri follows the final, defining moment of the setting’s role.