Continuity mistake: When young Pumpkin and young Chiyo are on the way to geisha school together, Pumpkin takes a roasted squid from the road under a cart with her right hand. In the next shot, she eats the squid with her left hand. (00:15:30)
Continuity mistake: When Mother and Mameha are waiting for the bid on Sayuri's mizuage, Mother's cigarette is short at one point, but becomes longer in the next shot.
Factual error: When Hatsumomo wakes up late to torture little Chiyo again, her kimono is closed the wrong way.
Factual error: The troop trucks you see belonging to the Japanese Army are incorrect post-War models. During World War II, the Imperial Japanese Army employed trucks that were nearly carbon copies of the Studebaker 3-axle 2 1/2 ton model (or used captured British Bedford trucks).
Continuity mistake: From time to time Chiyos/Sayuri's eye color changes between blue and brown.
Visible crew/equipment: When Hatsumomo and Sayuri are fighting in the bedroom, as they are wrestling on the floor you can see a sound tech in the left upper corner try to move away from the action.
Plot hole: When Pumpkin is telling Sayuri about Hatsumomo talking to Dr. Crab, she says that she was waiting outside during the conversation, and while she could hear it, she couldn't see them. However, at one point Pumpkin describes a facial expression of Dr. Crab.
Continuity mistake: When Hatsumomo comes outside to meet Sayuri for the first time she has nothing in her left hand. She then bends down and now has a short lit cigarette in her left hand.
