Sisters of the Gion

Sisters of the Gion
Scene from the film.
Directed by	Kenji Mizoguchi
Produced by	Daiichi Eiga Masaichi Nagata (producer)
Written by	Kenji Mizoguchi (writer) Yoshikata Yoda (writer)
Cinematography	Minoru Miki
Distributed by	Shochiku
Release date	15 October 1936
Running time	68 min., 95 min.
Country	Japan
Language	Japanese

Sisters of the Gion (祇園の姉妹, Gion no shimai^?) or Sisters of Gion is a 1936 black and white Japanese film drama directed by Kenji Mizoguchi about two sisters living in the Gion District. The film is seen as a companion piece to Mizoguchi's Osaka Elegy which shares much of the same cast and production team.

The film won 1937 Kinema Junpo Award for the best film (director Kenji Mizoguchi) and an award in Vienna in 1998.

The story centers around two sisters (Umekichi and Omocha), who are geisha, living in an okiya of their own in the licensed pleasure district of Gion, Kyoto. The two women have very different outlooks on relationships with men. Umekichi, the elder sister, is the ideal geisha; she grew up going to dance and music lessons, wears kimono, and has a strong sense of giri, or loyalty, to her patron. Umekichi’s younger sister, Omocha, was educated in public schools and wears western clothing, except when she is working as a geisha. Unlike Umekichi, Omocha doesn’t trust men and believes that they will only use geisha and then abandon them without a care. Thus, she uses men to her own advantage. In doing so she is willing to manipulate and lie to her customers.

Umekichi’s patron in the movie is a newly bankrupt businessman named Shimbei Furusawa, who Umekichi takes care of after he loses his house and business. Omocha does not believe that her sister should support Shimbei, that doing so will prevent her from providing for herself by finding a new patron, and that she owes him nothing as, in her view, he has received more than he has given in the past. Omocha finds her sister a new patron and, one day when Umekichi is out, gives Shimbei some money to return to his wife in the country and tells him that her sister no longer wants him around. He takes the money but, rather than leaving, spends it drinking and takes up residence with his former clerk.