AllMovie

Screen icon Sayuri Yoshinaga stars in this historical melodrama about geishas in the southern city of Nagasaki set during the 1920s. Though she was sold to a geisha house at a young age, Aihara (Yoshinaga) has since become a master samisen player and woman of great elegance. Though not especially rich, she doles out money to street kids, in particular, a pretty young flower vendor named Oyuki, who becomes Aihara's godchild of sorts. Yet when a geisha (Reiko Takashima) from a rival red-light district insults Aihara and her brethren, she fights back. Soon an all-out geisha war looms. Dapper businessman and amateur scholar Tojiro Koga (Tetsuya Watari) appears on the scene and defuses tempers -- suggesting that difference be settled through a competition of artistic abilities. Smitten with her talent and mature beauty, Koga invites Aihara to record Nagasaki folk songs before they disappear forever. They discover a song called "Nagasaki Bura Bura Bushi," which Aihara remembers from her childhood. Koga and Aihara soon fall in love, even though he is married and, thanks to neglect of his business, dirt poor. Years later, Oyuki, now a noted dancer, falls ill with consumption. Aihara manages to raise money for medical treatment by recording "Nagasaki Bura Bura Bushi."