chronology
There's no specific time period given to Sakuran, and it's one of those series where it isn't that important, either. It certainly takes place in the Edo period, and because of the oiran becoming the geisha, that puts it between 1600 - 1761. Since Yoshiwara in Sakuran seems to be at a height of popularity, we can postulate that would put it somewhere in the mid-17th century, but again, it's not terribly important. There are certainly no dates given, so this is less a timeline and more like a chronology of events in Kiyoha's life. They're vaguely organized by her name at the time, which signifies her rank.
Since the manga and movie are also a bit different in what they choose to show or continuing the story, which is which is marked. Fundamentaly, they're the same, but like any adaptation, the movie adds or takes away certain pieces.
⇒ Tomeki [kamuro]
→ arrival at yoshiwara
A young girl is sold to the Tamagiku House in Yoshiwara. She is named Tomeki and put under the care of Shouhi-oiran.
(both)
→ running away #1
Tomeki runs away from the Tamagiku house after bathing with the various members of the household and being frightened by breasts. I dunno, there's a breast montage in the movie.
(both)
→ seiji's promise
Seiji finds Tomeki at the Inari Shrine and promises that he'll take her out of Yoshiwara when the cherry blossom there blooms.
(movie-only)
→ tomeki accepts her fate
Tomeki continues to try and run away, but is thwarted and beaten every time. Shouhi-oiran prepares for an elaborate promenade through Yoshiwara where komuro will be needed to aid her. Tomeki refuses to help, and Shouhi-oiran criticizes her, saying that with her lowbred, boyish attitude, she'll never become an oiran, only a servant. Tomeki takes the words to heart and begins to take her training seriously.
(manga-only)
→ light-yellow lining
After Shouhi-oiran's promenade, a samurai comes to visit her nightly, but treats her roughly and keeps Shouhi up all night, making her too tired to work the next day. Tomeki gets worried about Shouhi-oiran and tries to help in her own way, which sometimes works and sometimes makes this worse. Either way, Shouhi-oiran and Tomeki grow closer.
(manga-only)
→ shouhi-oiran's marriage
Shouhi-oiran will be married in the spring, so Tomeki insults Shouhi-oiran in a fit of being upset, which makes Shouhi-oiran pick another kamuro to serve her. Since the other kamuro don't like Tomeki, and without Shouhi-oiran to protect her, she starts to get bullied. The morning that Shouhi-oiran leaves, she searches for a comb that was her first purchase when she was a child. Tomeki finds it, but when the other kamuro accuse Tomeki of stealing it, she flips the fuck out and attacks them. Shouhi-oiran stops the fight, but doesn't admonish Tomeki--she gives her the comb and tells Tomeki the lesson that the more gifts she recieves, the more her peers will be jealous and hate her, but that is the job of being oiran. Tomeki takes the comb and treasures it, and Shouhi leaves Yoshiwara. Tomeki promises that she won't escape or complain again.
(manga-only)
⇒ O-Rin [hikkomi]
→ o-some-chan
O-Rin meets O-some in her training. O-some is a girl a little bit older than O-Rin who lives in another household and they become friends. After an event at the house where O-Rin is frightened by a client, they meet at the river and talk, cry and practice how to smile. O-Rin later becomes famous for her "smiles." O-Some kills herself not long after her debut, and O-Rin debuts three months later.
(manga-only)
⇒ Kiyoha [shinsou]
→ debut
Takao (this character is called Mikumo in the manga, but I'll be referring to her as Takao for consistency's sake) sponsors Kiyoha's debut, which is extremely unusual, but kind of Takao. Kiyoha doesn't like her very much, but appreciates being under her care.
(manga-only)
→ the honorable retiree
Takao-oiran is attending a guest when another very important guest arrives to see her. The house owners temporarily send Kiyoha in Takao-oiran's place. The older man insults Kiyoha at first, but she wittily responds, which upsets him. When Takao-oiran does arrive, Kiyoha leaves. Kiyoha is later beaten for upsetting Takao-oiran, which the honorable retiree reveals is because he told her how wonderful Kiyoha was to make Takao-oiran jealous. Despite that, he did like her wit, and after that Kiyoha and the retiree were fast friends.
(both)
→ fingers are love...apparently...
A florist who regularly delivers flowers develops a crush on Kiyoha, which she doesn't really see or acknowledge. However, one of her housemates (Umeha) is in love with him and grows jealous. Umeha decides to cut off one of her fingers as a pledge of love to him, and asks Kiyoha to deliver it. This, plus one of Takao's clients becoming fond of Kiyoha, teaches her that she must be cold to all of the clients, lest they fall in love with her and cause jealousy to flare up.
(manga-only)
→ meeting Soujirou-sama
While at a small "party" with one of Takao-oiran's clients, Kiyoha meets one of the client's friends. The two of them exchange a little conversation, but when they brush hands as Kiyoha pours him a drink, Kiyoha realizes that she likes this man.
(both)
→ sexual encounters
Kiyoha turns seventeen. On tradition, a client comes on the seventy-fifth day to take a shinsou's virginity (known as mizage in later geisha culture, dunno what it was called for oiran.) Kiyoha has a gynecological exam, where the gynecologist says she's the finest goddess in ten years. lmao... Not long after her exam, the man that Kiyoha touched hands with arrives looking for Kiyoha. He's come to tell her his name--Soujirou. They have a brief sexual encounter, and she realizes that she loves him.
(both)
→ deflowering
Kiyoha's virginity is sold to the highest bidder--the honorable retiree. There was quite a bit of competition for it, but he ends up winning. This may be creepy, but he mostly teaches her about the kinds of things she should do/say to be a successful ho. Shortly after, she makes her debut as a full-fledged shinsou, and quickly becomes very popular for her beauty, sexual prowess and personality.
(both)
→ waiting for soujirou-sama
After her debut, Kiyoha mostly waits day to day for Soujirou-sama to come back, which he does with regularity and a distinct pattern.
(both)
→ wakagiku-san's koto
As she waits, one of the other shinsou is being hassled by the house mother for not paying off her debts since she's stopped working for the past week or so. Kiyoha overhears and approaches Wakagiku, who frets about what to do about the money. Kiyoha is sympathetic and helps Wakagiku by taking care of the koto that had recently been bought for Wakagiku.
(manga-only)
→ woof!
Takao-oiran and Kiyoha are given a new client to serve--a daimyo named Sakaguchi. Takao-oiran arrives first, but Sakaguchi isn't very fond of her because of how quiet and aloof she is. Kiyoha, on the other hand, was expecting Soujirou that day, so she comes in acting like a dog to try and get Sakaguchi to leave early. It backfires, and he's really amused, but Kiyoha is able to spend time with Soujirou anyways. Win-win!
(manga-only)
→ wakagiku's betrayal
Kiyoha falls more and more in love with Soujirou and begins to refuse clients or be cold and distant, which causes the house mother to confront her. She is forbidden from seeing or talking about Soujirou as long as Sakaguchi is around, since he's so important. She vents her frustration to Wakagiku, but Wakagiku doesn't understand why Kiyoha would pick the middle-class Soujirou over the rich daimyo who could buy her out of the house if he wanted. Kiyoha tells her that she doesn't want to hurt Soujirou because she loves him, which makes Wakagiku jealous. Wakagiku and Takao-oiran arrange for Soujirou to show up at the same time as Sakaguchi and purposely whisper about them being together near Sakaguchi. Sakaguchi runs around in a rage until he finds Kiyoha and Soujirou. Soujirou runs away, and Kiyoha is beaten by Sakaguchi as well as by the house mother later. The next day Wakagiku taunts Kiyoha, which makes Kiyoha fly into a rage and beat her up.
(both)
→ a ghost's smile
Still heartbroken about Soujirou, Kiyoha decides to run away and find Soujirou outside of Yoshiwara. Somewhat with Seiji's help, she runs away and dresses like a commoner, wandering around on the outside until she finds the shop Soujirou works at. She waits outside for hours in the rain until he comes out, but he gives her the polite smile of a stranger, not wanting to cause a scene or acknowledge her. Realizing the reality of their relationship, Kiyoha runs to the river and cries until Seiji arrives to take her back. She's punished severely, but gains the resolve to not fall in love again.
(both)
→ Takao's death
One night on display, Kiyoha tries to lure in a client, not realizing that he's Takao-oiran's lover. Takao-oiran says something smart to Kiyoha, which makes her angry, and she kicks Takao-oiran in the face. fuck yeah!! When the client does come in to see Takao, though, he admits that he was attracted to Kiyoha, which upsets Takao-oiran. They have sex, and Takao-oiran decides that for him to continue loving her or whatever, she should kill him. She tries to kill him with a razor, but as he struggles with her, he accidentally cuts her neck and she bleeds out.
(both)
→ becoming oiran
After Takao's death, the house mother approaches Kiyoha about taking her place, but Kiyoha isn't interested--she'd rather take second place where she's not as much in the spotlight. She vehemently refuses until Seiji calls her "oiran," and she concedes. In the manga her new name isn't specified, but in the movie, she becomes Higurashi. For guysandolls, Kiyoha comes from shortly after this, so she'll still be calling herself "Kiyoha" out of habit. And I'm still going to refer to her as Kiyoha in this chronology, haha.
(both)
⇒ Higurashi [oiran]
→ meeting Mitsunobu
After her very successful debut as oiran and promenade, a samurai comes to the house to meet Kiyoha. On their first meeting, he gives her a lot of money, which she refuses angrily, thinking of it as an insult.
(movie-only)
→ fun times
Kiyoha has fun as the oiran for a few months [the movie says it's only a few days, but considering the amount of things we see, I'm saying it's months...], avoiding work and getting booty, and is very very successful. The manga says she's the #3 oiran in the district, but the movie says that she's #1. Eventually Mitsunobu returns despite her rudeness and apologizes for his actions, and Kiyoha apologizes for hers, after which they get along quite well.
(movie-only)
→ proposal
When the morning comes one day for Kiyoha and Mitsunobu, he proposes to take her out of Yoshiwara as his wife. Kiyoha thinks that he's joking, but he's quite serious. Kiyoha tentatively refuses, saying that she will be ready to leave "when cherry trees bloom in Yoshiwara." Mitsunobu doesn't realize the significance of what she's saying, and he brings in lots and lots of cherry blossom trees into Yoshiwara as a gesture of his devotion. He's also hired the whole quarter for a huge party. During the party he announces their engagement, which Kiyoha cannot refuse now.
(movie-only)
→ Kiyoha's pregnancy
Kiyoha leaves the party early, feeling unwell. Seiji follows her and discovers that she's pregnant, which of course isn't acceptable. She wants to keep the baby, however, and tells Mitsunobu about the baby and her plans. Both she and Seiji expect him to tell her to either abort the baby or to drop their marriage, but he still insists, saying that he would treat the child as his own regardless. ...And then at that moment she has a miscarriage. Because you can totally time them that way.
(movie-only)
→ Seiji's engagement
After resting for a while with Seiji at her side, Kiyoha leaves the house one night to go to the Inari Shrine just because it comforts her. Seiji follows, and she cries about her baby in his arms. The next day, Kiyoha is introduced to a girl named Ume, who is Seiji's fiancee and a niece of the house mother, since she plans for Seiji and Ume to inherit the house when she dies. Seiji's wedding is planned for the day Kiyoha leaves the house, which she cannot object to.
(movie-only)
→ the honorable retiree visits
The honorable retiree visits Kiyoha, which he hasn't done since she became the oiran. He's much older, and tells her that she should hold on to her dream of the cherry blossoms blooming, since if she doesn't have hope, she'll never be able to leave Yoshiwara. He eventually lays down to nap with his head in her lap and dies that night with Kiyoha watching over him.
(movie-only)
→ the cherry blossom blooms
The night before Kiyoha leaves and before Seiji's wedding, they have a brief conversation, telling each other to be happy. As the sun starts to rise, Kiyoha goes to the Inari Shrine to say goodbye, but Seiji had already come to do the same. They have a brief conversation, but Seiji points out there's a single pair of cherry blossom on the tree. True to his promise, he takes her out of Yoshiwara despite the fact that they won't have anything together. All of the house is enraged and surprised, but Mitsunobu seems at peace with Kiyoha's decision.
(movie-only)
Since the manga and movie are also a bit different in what they choose to show or continuing the story, which is which is marked. Fundamentaly, they're the same, but like any adaptation, the movie adds or takes away certain pieces.
⇒ Tomeki [kamuro]
→ arrival at yoshiwara
A young girl is sold to the Tamagiku House in Yoshiwara. She is named Tomeki and put under the care of Shouhi-oiran.
(both)
→ running away #1
Tomeki runs away from the Tamagiku house after bathing with the various members of the household and being frightened by breasts. I dunno, there's a breast montage in the movie.
(both)
→ seiji's promise
Seiji finds Tomeki at the Inari Shrine and promises that he'll take her out of Yoshiwara when the cherry blossom there blooms.
(movie-only)
→ tomeki accepts her fate
Tomeki continues to try and run away, but is thwarted and beaten every time. Shouhi-oiran prepares for an elaborate promenade through Yoshiwara where komuro will be needed to aid her. Tomeki refuses to help, and Shouhi-oiran criticizes her, saying that with her lowbred, boyish attitude, she'll never become an oiran, only a servant. Tomeki takes the words to heart and begins to take her training seriously.
(manga-only)
→ light-yellow lining
After Shouhi-oiran's promenade, a samurai comes to visit her nightly, but treats her roughly and keeps Shouhi up all night, making her too tired to work the next day. Tomeki gets worried about Shouhi-oiran and tries to help in her own way, which sometimes works and sometimes makes this worse. Either way, Shouhi-oiran and Tomeki grow closer.
(manga-only)
→ shouhi-oiran's marriage
Shouhi-oiran will be married in the spring, so Tomeki insults Shouhi-oiran in a fit of being upset, which makes Shouhi-oiran pick another kamuro to serve her. Since the other kamuro don't like Tomeki, and without Shouhi-oiran to protect her, she starts to get bullied. The morning that Shouhi-oiran leaves, she searches for a comb that was her first purchase when she was a child. Tomeki finds it, but when the other kamuro accuse Tomeki of stealing it, she flips the fuck out and attacks them. Shouhi-oiran stops the fight, but doesn't admonish Tomeki--she gives her the comb and tells Tomeki the lesson that the more gifts she recieves, the more her peers will be jealous and hate her, but that is the job of being oiran. Tomeki takes the comb and treasures it, and Shouhi leaves Yoshiwara. Tomeki promises that she won't escape or complain again.
(manga-only)
⇒ O-Rin [hikkomi]
→ o-some-chan
O-Rin meets O-some in her training. O-some is a girl a little bit older than O-Rin who lives in another household and they become friends. After an event at the house where O-Rin is frightened by a client, they meet at the river and talk, cry and practice how to smile. O-Rin later becomes famous for her "smiles." O-Some kills herself not long after her debut, and O-Rin debuts three months later.
(manga-only)
⇒ Kiyoha [shinsou]
→ debut
Takao (this character is called Mikumo in the manga, but I'll be referring to her as Takao for consistency's sake) sponsors Kiyoha's debut, which is extremely unusual, but kind of Takao. Kiyoha doesn't like her very much, but appreciates being under her care.
(manga-only)
→ the honorable retiree
Takao-oiran is attending a guest when another very important guest arrives to see her. The house owners temporarily send Kiyoha in Takao-oiran's place. The older man insults Kiyoha at first, but she wittily responds, which upsets him. When Takao-oiran does arrive, Kiyoha leaves. Kiyoha is later beaten for upsetting Takao-oiran, which the honorable retiree reveals is because he told her how wonderful Kiyoha was to make Takao-oiran jealous. Despite that, he did like her wit, and after that Kiyoha and the retiree were fast friends.
(both)
→ fingers are love...apparently...
A florist who regularly delivers flowers develops a crush on Kiyoha, which she doesn't really see or acknowledge. However, one of her housemates (Umeha) is in love with him and grows jealous. Umeha decides to cut off one of her fingers as a pledge of love to him, and asks Kiyoha to deliver it. This, plus one of Takao's clients becoming fond of Kiyoha, teaches her that she must be cold to all of the clients, lest they fall in love with her and cause jealousy to flare up.
(manga-only)
→ meeting Soujirou-sama
While at a small "party" with one of Takao-oiran's clients, Kiyoha meets one of the client's friends. The two of them exchange a little conversation, but when they brush hands as Kiyoha pours him a drink, Kiyoha realizes that she likes this man.
(both)
→ sexual encounters
Kiyoha turns seventeen. On tradition, a client comes on the seventy-fifth day to take a shinsou's virginity (known as mizage in later geisha culture, dunno what it was called for oiran.) Kiyoha has a gynecological exam, where the gynecologist says she's the finest goddess in ten years. lmao... Not long after her exam, the man that Kiyoha touched hands with arrives looking for Kiyoha. He's come to tell her his name--Soujirou. They have a brief sexual encounter, and she realizes that she loves him.
(both)
→ deflowering
Kiyoha's virginity is sold to the highest bidder--the honorable retiree. There was quite a bit of competition for it, but he ends up winning. This may be creepy, but he mostly teaches her about the kinds of things she should do/say to be a successful ho. Shortly after, she makes her debut as a full-fledged shinsou, and quickly becomes very popular for her beauty, sexual prowess and personality.
(both)
→ waiting for soujirou-sama
After her debut, Kiyoha mostly waits day to day for Soujirou-sama to come back, which he does with regularity and a distinct pattern.
(both)
→ wakagiku-san's koto
As she waits, one of the other shinsou is being hassled by the house mother for not paying off her debts since she's stopped working for the past week or so. Kiyoha overhears and approaches Wakagiku, who frets about what to do about the money. Kiyoha is sympathetic and helps Wakagiku by taking care of the koto that had recently been bought for Wakagiku.
(manga-only)
→ woof!
Takao-oiran and Kiyoha are given a new client to serve--a daimyo named Sakaguchi. Takao-oiran arrives first, but Sakaguchi isn't very fond of her because of how quiet and aloof she is. Kiyoha, on the other hand, was expecting Soujirou that day, so she comes in acting like a dog to try and get Sakaguchi to leave early. It backfires, and he's really amused, but Kiyoha is able to spend time with Soujirou anyways. Win-win!
(manga-only)
→ wakagiku's betrayal
Kiyoha falls more and more in love with Soujirou and begins to refuse clients or be cold and distant, which causes the house mother to confront her. She is forbidden from seeing or talking about Soujirou as long as Sakaguchi is around, since he's so important. She vents her frustration to Wakagiku, but Wakagiku doesn't understand why Kiyoha would pick the middle-class Soujirou over the rich daimyo who could buy her out of the house if he wanted. Kiyoha tells her that she doesn't want to hurt Soujirou because she loves him, which makes Wakagiku jealous. Wakagiku and Takao-oiran arrange for Soujirou to show up at the same time as Sakaguchi and purposely whisper about them being together near Sakaguchi. Sakaguchi runs around in a rage until he finds Kiyoha and Soujirou. Soujirou runs away, and Kiyoha is beaten by Sakaguchi as well as by the house mother later. The next day Wakagiku taunts Kiyoha, which makes Kiyoha fly into a rage and beat her up.
(both)
→ a ghost's smile
Still heartbroken about Soujirou, Kiyoha decides to run away and find Soujirou outside of Yoshiwara. Somewhat with Seiji's help, she runs away and dresses like a commoner, wandering around on the outside until she finds the shop Soujirou works at. She waits outside for hours in the rain until he comes out, but he gives her the polite smile of a stranger, not wanting to cause a scene or acknowledge her. Realizing the reality of their relationship, Kiyoha runs to the river and cries until Seiji arrives to take her back. She's punished severely, but gains the resolve to not fall in love again.
(both)
→ Takao's death
One night on display, Kiyoha tries to lure in a client, not realizing that he's Takao-oiran's lover. Takao-oiran says something smart to Kiyoha, which makes her angry, and she kicks Takao-oiran in the face. fuck yeah!! When the client does come in to see Takao, though, he admits that he was attracted to Kiyoha, which upsets Takao-oiran. They have sex, and Takao-oiran decides that for him to continue loving her or whatever, she should kill him. She tries to kill him with a razor, but as he struggles with her, he accidentally cuts her neck and she bleeds out.
(both)
→ becoming oiran
After Takao's death, the house mother approaches Kiyoha about taking her place, but Kiyoha isn't interested--she'd rather take second place where she's not as much in the spotlight. She vehemently refuses until Seiji calls her "oiran," and she concedes. In the manga her new name isn't specified, but in the movie, she becomes Higurashi. For guysandolls, Kiyoha comes from shortly after this, so she'll still be calling herself "Kiyoha" out of habit. And I'm still going to refer to her as Kiyoha in this chronology, haha.
(both)
⇒ Higurashi [oiran]
→ meeting Mitsunobu
After her very successful debut as oiran and promenade, a samurai comes to the house to meet Kiyoha. On their first meeting, he gives her a lot of money, which she refuses angrily, thinking of it as an insult.
(movie-only)
→ fun times
Kiyoha has fun as the oiran for a few months [the movie says it's only a few days, but considering the amount of things we see, I'm saying it's months...], avoiding work and getting booty, and is very very successful. The manga says she's the #3 oiran in the district, but the movie says that she's #1. Eventually Mitsunobu returns despite her rudeness and apologizes for his actions, and Kiyoha apologizes for hers, after which they get along quite well.
(movie-only)
→ proposal
When the morning comes one day for Kiyoha and Mitsunobu, he proposes to take her out of Yoshiwara as his wife. Kiyoha thinks that he's joking, but he's quite serious. Kiyoha tentatively refuses, saying that she will be ready to leave "when cherry trees bloom in Yoshiwara." Mitsunobu doesn't realize the significance of what she's saying, and he brings in lots and lots of cherry blossom trees into Yoshiwara as a gesture of his devotion. He's also hired the whole quarter for a huge party. During the party he announces their engagement, which Kiyoha cannot refuse now.
(movie-only)
→ Kiyoha's pregnancy
Kiyoha leaves the party early, feeling unwell. Seiji follows her and discovers that she's pregnant, which of course isn't acceptable. She wants to keep the baby, however, and tells Mitsunobu about the baby and her plans. Both she and Seiji expect him to tell her to either abort the baby or to drop their marriage, but he still insists, saying that he would treat the child as his own regardless. ...And then at that moment she has a miscarriage. Because you can totally time them that way.
(movie-only)
→ Seiji's engagement
After resting for a while with Seiji at her side, Kiyoha leaves the house one night to go to the Inari Shrine just because it comforts her. Seiji follows, and she cries about her baby in his arms. The next day, Kiyoha is introduced to a girl named Ume, who is Seiji's fiancee and a niece of the house mother, since she plans for Seiji and Ume to inherit the house when she dies. Seiji's wedding is planned for the day Kiyoha leaves the house, which she cannot object to.
(movie-only)
→ the honorable retiree visits
The honorable retiree visits Kiyoha, which he hasn't done since she became the oiran. He's much older, and tells her that she should hold on to her dream of the cherry blossoms blooming, since if she doesn't have hope, she'll never be able to leave Yoshiwara. He eventually lays down to nap with his head in her lap and dies that night with Kiyoha watching over him.
(movie-only)
→ the cherry blossom blooms
The night before Kiyoha leaves and before Seiji's wedding, they have a brief conversation, telling each other to be happy. As the sun starts to rise, Kiyoha goes to the Inari Shrine to say goodbye, but Seiji had already come to do the same. They have a brief conversation, but Seiji points out there's a single pair of cherry blossom on the tree. True to his promise, he takes her out of Yoshiwara despite the fact that they won't have anything together. All of the house is enraged and surprised, but Mitsunobu seems at peace with Kiyoha's decision.
(movie-only)