Irony of Sabotage
The antagonist of the story, Hatsumomo, has many rivals who know her as a cruel and heartless person. However, she manages to hide that infamous side of her character from at least some of her acquaintances. She is in a position to be a mentor to Sayuri, but instead she regards her as a potential rival particularly after another geisha, Mameha, takes an interest in Sayuri. Hatsumomo tries to manipulate Sayuri into ruining Mameha's expensive kimono and attempts to undermine her career, until eventually Mameha and Sayuri retaliate by destroying Hatsumomo's career instead. Had Hatsumomo done the normal and natural thing, helping to train Sayuri, she would have benefited financially by being part of an extremely wealthy and powerful okiya. Instead, she was banished.
Irony of Cunning
Although geisha, especially apprentice geisha, are supposed to cultivate an air of innocence, in reality the apparent amicable relations between them can mask intense rivalry. The rivalry between Mameha and Hatsumomo becomes so intense that the competitors are ready to do everything possible to get rid of each other. Saying that “Mameha would probably establish a relationship with your little dog if she thought it would help drive me out of Gion”, Hatsumomo means that Mameha could go really low in order to destroy Hatsumomo’s career. However, a humorous tone of Hatsumomo’s words portrays the other side - paranoid and hysterical. Yet to observers at a party, the women appear to be on the best of terms. The more innocuous and helpless a geisha appears to be, the more powerful and socially dangerous she is. Pumpkin, for example, takes advantage of her chance to repay Sayuri for the earlier loss of her career.
Irony of Ignorance
When Sayuri arrives in Kyoto, city life astonishes her, maybe even scares her. The very name of the city, which was completely unfamiliar for her, seems to be some foreign place, too far away from her home. And the city life scares her even more, “all the people, bicycles, cars, and trucks”. This shows how ignorant she and her sister are, and her statement that “I’d never seen a car before” proves it. Yet later in the book when she admits to being from her small fishing village, the man to whom she was speaking believes she was joking: the sophisticated, witty Sayuri could not possibly have come from a crude, poor village. Sayuri has transformed. Although she still feels herself very ignorant and incapable, in reality Sayuri has become a competent adult.
Irony of Attraction
Sayuri has an intense crush on a man she calls "The Chairman", however for social reasons she feigns an interest in his best friend Nobu, who is hideously scarred due to an earlier accident. Nobu falls in love with Sayuri. This, according to the social standards of Japan, means that the Chairman could never express even a slightest interest in Sayuri without permanently alienating his best friend and business associate. Although Nobu saves Sayuri during the war and presents her with a valuable gift, and although he proposes himself as her danna after years of kindness and support without which Sayuri could not have survived, ultimately Sayuri is unable to love or care for him because of his unattractive appearance.
Irony of a Favor From Pumpkin
Sayuri's fellow apprentice, nicknamed "Pumpkin", is less talented than Sayuri as a geisha but is far more popular because of Hatsumomo's tireless and somewhat unethical attempts to help her make money and be recognized as the best and highest-earning apprentice in Gion. Pumpkin's position is secure: whereas Sayuri is a lowly maid, she is the heir-presumptive to the entire okiya and is set to inherit a significant empire if she is adopted by "Mother". From time to time, Sayuri asks Pumpkin for a favor: to run an errand, or to carry a message. Unfortunately, Pumpkin's willingness to do Sayuri a favor allowed Sayuri to start a mizuage bidding war and earn more than Pumpkin, thereby displacing Pumpkin as top apprentice. Sayuri is therefore adopted by "Mother" instead of Pumpkin, and enjoys a successful life. Pumpkin's career is less stellar, because her mentor Hatsumomo throws a destructive tantrum and is banished from the okiya. Unbeknownst to Sayuri, who thinks Pumpkin is a slow, dimwitted person, Pumpkin understands that Sayuri essentially stole the adoptive daughter position she had been led to believe she'd already earned. She therefore resents Sayuri: by helping Sayuri, she harmed herself. Much later in the book, she has another opportunity to do a favor for Sayuri by bringing Nobu by to witness Sayuri seducing somebody else. Instead, Pumpkin brings the Chairman.
