The Kyoto University sumo exhibition is a turning point in Sayuri’s early life in Gion: at a public event arranged by Nobu, she recognizes the Chairman as the stranger who once comforted her beside the Shirakawa Stream. The same afternoon brings Hatsumomo unexpectedly into view, and Mameha converts that danger into an opportunity, asking Sayuri to feign fascination with Nobu. The exhibition joins a formative recognition, a test of performance, and the first hint that Nobu may help shape Sayuri’s future.

Occasion and Setting

Mameha takes Sayuri to the exhibition as her guest, alongside Iwamura Ken, founder of Iwamura Electric, and Nobu Toshikazu, the company’s president and Iwamura’s right-hand man. Nobu, a sumo enthusiast, has helped organize the event. Its connection to Sayuri’s life is initially indirect but significant: Iwamura Electric manufactured the heater that killed Granny. Mameha warns Sayuri that Nobu looks unusual and stresses the importance of making a good impression on him.

The gathering is held in a vast Exhibition Hall with screened windows high overhead. In the center, a raised square ring stands beneath a roof modeled on a Shinto shrine. A priest walks across it, chanting blessings and shaking a wand decorated with folded paper strips. Mameha guides Sayuri to the front row, where they remove their shoes and cross the wooden margin in split-toed socks to reach their hosts. The space brings together the ceremonial form of sumo, the company’s business leaders, and the personal histories that Sayuri has not yet resolved.

Recognition of the Chairman

As Mameha leads her toward Nobu, Sayuri first notices the elegant man seated beside him. His profile and manner awaken a memory of Mr. Tanaka, the local man whose decision had taken her from her home village and set her life on its present course. The resemblance briefly draws together two men whom Sayuri has reason to remember, but when the stranger turns, she recognizes him as the Chairman, not Mr. Tanaka.

The recognition reaches beyond simply identifying a familiar face. Sayuri had met the Chairman only once before, beside the Shirakawa Stream, yet had carried that encounter in her imagination for years. She is uncertain for a moment whether the man before her is really the one she remembers, but the calm she feels in his presence convinces her. Seeing him again at the exhibition makes a private memory suddenly present within a public gathering.

Mameha introduces her to both men as her new younger sister, Sayuri. She bows and takes her place between Nobu and the Chairman. As she pours tea, she notices the Chairman looking at her arm; the attention makes her newly aware of her appearance and of the effect she may have on him. At this stage, the moment is an encounter rather than a declared relationship, but it gives the childhood memory renewed force and helps explain why the Chairman’s presence matters so much to her.

Sumo and the Encounter with Nobu

The exhibition’s bouts unfold through ritual and delay before the wrestlers finally clash. They toss salt onto the ring, crouch, raise and stamp their legs, and repeatedly step away before the decisive charge. One match ends almost as soon as the wrestlers meet: one pushes the other off balance, and Nobu criticizes the technique. His commentary gives Sayuri a way to converse with him, while the Chairman’s voice nearby continues to distract her.

Hatsumomo’s arrival changes the afternoon’s stakes. Sayuri spots an orange silk flower in the hair of a woman entering a section of the hall and realizes it is Hatsumomo, not Korin. She had not expected her rival to be there. Worried that Hatsumomo will find a way to humiliate her, especially in front of the Chairman, Sayuri struggles to maintain her composure. Mameha notices Hatsumomo and leads Sayuri out of the hall before the encounter can become a confrontation.

Away from other people, Mameha explains the tactic she wants Sayuri to use. She describes Nobu as a dependable friend and a long-standing patron, despite his harshness toward people he dislikes. She also explains that Hatsumomo sees only his appearance and mocks him as “Mr. Lizard.” If Hatsumomo believes Sayuri is charmed by Nobu, Mameha reasons, she may find the supposed attraction so amusing that she will leave Sayuri alone. Mameha therefore tells Sayuri to act as though Nobu fascinates her, turning the rival’s contempt into a possible shield.

Back with Nobu, Sayuri asks about the small wrestler Miyagiyama, pretending that she cannot understand how he can be considered the greatest. Nobu tells her a story about the wrestler’s reaction when his height and weight were correctly printed in a newspaper: offended, Miyagiyama had a friend hit him on the head with a plank, then ate sweet potatoes and drank water before returning to challenge the paper’s figures. Sayuri laughs, and Nobu laughs with her. She sees Hatsumomo watching and recognizes that, from the outside, she and Nobu appear to be close friends. The performance works because the conversation has a real comic spark even as Sayuri uses it to influence what Hatsumomo sees.

From Performance to Plot

While listening to Nobu, Sayuri begins to imagine his words and voice as if they belonged to the Chairman. For a time, this mental substitution allows her to feel absorbed in the exchange and to lose herself in an imagined intimacy with the man she longs for. The scene thus holds two kinds of performance at once: Sayuri’s deliberate show for Hatsumomo and her private transformation of an ordinary conversation into an emotional refuge.

On the rickshaw ride back to Gion, Mameha tells Sayuri that the sumo wrestler has given her a marvelous idea: Hatsumomo, without realizing it, has been thrown off balance. Mameha refuses to disclose her full plan, even to her maid, but tells Sayuri to keep Nobu interested because everything depends on him and on another man Sayuri has not yet met. She suggests that Nobu may prove to be Sayuri’s rescuer. Sayuri’s immediate response is unease: if she needs a rescuer, she wants the Chairman, not someone else. The exhibition therefore ends not with the plan explained, but with a new uncertainty about the roles Nobu and the Chairman may play in her future.