Characters frequently remark on how much water Sayuri has in her personality, and this relates to the Buddhist belief that an individual’s personality is made up of a balance of five elements. Water is associated with flexibility, as it is something that is fluid and runs through rivers and streams. At the same time, water must often follow a set course. The predominance of water in her personality, then, suggests Sayuri’s struggle between her desire for freedom and her sense that she must submit to the destiny that has been laid out for her. 

When Sayuri looks back on the afternoon when she first met Mr. Tanaka, she uses the metaphor of water to illustrate how this was not just the worst, but also the best day of her life. Her life had been like water flowing in one direction before meeting him but, on that day, its path changed in a way that would have a dramatic effect on her future. Sayuri believes that if she hadn’t met Mr. Tanaka she would have carried on living her simple life in Yoroido, like a stream leading from her tipsy house to the ocean. 

Mameha points to the positive attributes of water, singling it out as the most versatile element and saying that it “never waits.