Geisha

This article is about the female Japanese entertainer. For the Chinese elm variety, see Ulmus parvifolia 'Geisha'.

Typical nape make-up on a Maiko (Note the red collar)

Geisha (芸者), Geiko (芸子) or Geigi (芸妓) are traditional, female Japanese entertainers whose skills include performing various Japanese arts such as classical music and dance.

Terms

Geisha (Template:Pron-en), like all Japanese nouns, has no distinct singular or plural variants. The word consists of two kanji, 芸 (gei) meaning "art" and 者 (sha) meaning "person" or "doer". The most literal translation of geisha into English would be "artist" or "performing artist". Another name for geisha used in Japan is geiko, which is usually used to refer to geisha from Western Japan, including Kyoto.

Apprentice geisha are called maiko (舞子, lit. "dance child") or hangyoku (半玉), "half-jewel" (meaning that they are paid half the wage as opposed to a full geisha), or by the more generic term o-shaku (御酌), literally "one who pours (alcohol)". Maikos' white make-up and elaborate kimono and hairstyle is the popular image held of geisha. A woman entering the geisha community does not have to start out as a maiko, having the opportunity to begin her career as a full geisha. Either way, however, usually a year's training is involved before debuting either as a maiko or as a geisha. A woman above 21 is considered too old to be a maiko and becomes a full geisha upon her initiation into the geisha community. However, those who do go through the maiko stage can enjoy more prestige later in their professional lives.

Tokyo geisha are more likely to start at 18 years old for hangyoku, so on average, Tokyo hangyoku are slightly older than their Kyoto counterparts.

Stages of training

Traditionally, Geisha began their training at a very young age. Although some girls were bonded to geisha houses (okiya) as children, this was not a common practice in reputable districts. Daughters of geisha were often brought up as geisha themselves, usually as the successor (atotori, meaning "heiress") or daughter-role (musume-bun) to the okiya.

A maiko will start her formal training on the job as a minarai. Before she can do this she must find an onee-san ("older sister": an older geisha acting as her mentor). It is the onee-san's responsibility to bring her to the ozashiki, to sit and observe as the onee-san is at work. This is a way in which she will gain insights of the job, and seek out potential clients. Although minarai attend ozashiki (banquets in which guests are attended by geisha), they do not participate at an advanced level. Their kimono, more elaborate than a maiko's, are intended to do the talking for them. Minarai can be hired for parties but are usually uninvited (yet welcomed) guests at parties that their onee-san attends. They only charge a third of the usual fee. Minarai generally work with a particular tea house (minarai-jaya) learning from the okaa-san (literally "mother," the proprietress of the house). From her, they would learn techniques such as conversation and gaming, which would not be taught to them in school. This stage lasts only about a month or so.

After a short period of time the final of training begins, and the students are called maiko. Maiko (literally "dance girl") are apprentice geisha, and this stage can last for years. Maiko learns from their senior geisha mentor and follows them around to all their engagements. The onee-san and imouto-san (senior/junior, literally "older sister/younger sister") relationship is important. Since the onee-san teaches her maiko everything about working in the hanamachi, her teaching is vital. There are 5 different hairstyles that the maiko wear, that mark the different stages of her apprenticeship. She will teach her proper ways of serving tea, playing shamisen, dancing, casual conversation and more. The onee-san will even help pick the maiko's new professional name with kanji or symbols related to her name.

When a girl is around 20-22, the maiko is promoted to a full-fledged geisha in a ceremony called erikae (turning of the collar). This could happen after two to five years of her life as a maiko or hangyoku, depending on at what age she debuted. She now charges full price for her time. Geisha remain as such until they retire.

Modern geisha

A geiko entertaining a guest in Gion (Kyoto)

The Gion geiko district (hanamachi) of Kyoto, Japan

Modern geisha still live in traditional geisha houses called okiya in areas called hanamachi (花街 "flower towns"), particularly during their apprenticeship. Many experienced geisha are successful enough to choose to live independently. The elegant, high-culture world that geisha are a part of is called karyūkai (花柳界 "the flower and willow world").

Young women who wish to become geisha now most often begin their training after completing middle school, junior high school, or even high school, or college. Many women begin their careers in adulthood. Geisha still study traditional instruments: the shamisen, shakuhachi, and drums, as well as traditional songs, Japanese traditional dances, tea ceremony, literature, and poetry. Women dancers drawing their art from butō (a classical Japanese dance) were trained by the Hanayagi school, whose top dancers performed internationally. Ichinohe Sachiko choreographed and performed traditional dances in Heian court costumes, characterized by the slow, formal, and elegant motions of this classical age of Japanese culture in which geisha are trained.

By watching other geisha, and with the assistance of the owner of the geisha house, apprentices also become skilled dealing with clients and in the complex traditions surrounding selecting and wearing kimono, a floor length silk robe embroidered with intricate designs which is held together by a sash at the waist.

Kyoto is considered by many to be where the geisha tradition is the strongest today, including Gion Kobu. The geisha in these districts are known as geiko. The Tokyo hanamachi of Shimbashi, Asakusa and Kagurazaka are also well known.

In modern Japan, geisha and maiko are now a rare sight outside hanamachi. In the 1920s, there were over 80,000 geisha in Japan, but today, there are far fewer. The exact number is unknown to outsiders and is estimated to be from 1,000 to 2,000, mostly in Kyoto, Osaka, and the resort town of Atami. Most common are sightings of tourists who pay a fee to be dressed up as a maiko.

A sluggish economy, declining interest in the traditional arts, the exclusive nature of the flower and willow world, and the expense of being entertained by geisha have all contributed to the tradition's decline.

Geisha are often hired to attend parties and gatherings, traditionally at tea houses (茶屋, Chashitsu|ochaya) or at traditional Japanese restaurants (ryōtei) . Their time is measured by the time it takes an incense stick to burn and is called senkōdai (線香代, "incense stick fee") or gyokudai (玉代 "jewel fee"). In Kyoto, the terms ohana (お花) and hanadai (花代), meaning "flower fees", are preferred. The customer makes arrangements through the geisha union office (検番 kenban), which keeps each geisha's schedule and makes her appointments both for entertaining and for training.

In 2007, the first Caucasian geisha debuted under the name of "Sayuki", in the Asakusa district of Tokyo.

Geisha and prostitution

There remains some confusion, even within Japan, about the nature of the geisha profession. Geisha are regarded as prostitutes by many non-Japanese. However, legitimate geisha do not engage in paid sex with clients. Their purpose is to entertain their customer, be it by dancing, reciting verse, playing musical instruments, or engaging in light conversation. Geisha engagements may include flirting with men and playful innuendos; however, clients know that nothing more can be expected. In a social style that is common in Japan, men are amused by the illusion of that which is never to be.

Geisha have been confused with the Edo period's high-class courtesans known as oiran, from whom they evolved. Like geisha, oiran wore elaborate hairstyles and white makeup, but oiran knotted their obi in the front. It has been commonly thought the obi was tied that way for easy removal, though anthropologist Liza Dalby has suggested that it was because it was the practice of married women at the time.

During the Edo period, prostitution was legal. Prostitutes such as the oiran worked within walled-in districts licensed by the government. In the seventeenth century, the oiran sometimes employed men called "geisha" to perform at their parties. Therefore, the first geisha were men. In the late eighteenth century, dancing women called "odoriko" and newly popular female geisha began entertaining men at banquets in unlicensed districts. Some were apprehended for illegal prostitution and sent to the licensed quarters, where there was a strict distinction between geisha and prostitutes, and the former were forbidden to sell sex. In contrast, "machi geisha", who worked outside the licensed districts, often engaged in illegal prostitution.

In 1872, shortly after the Meiji Restoration, the new government passed a law liberating "prostitutes (shōgi) and geisha (geigi)". The wording of this statute was the subject of controversy. Some officials thought that prostitutes and geisha worked at different ends of the same profession—selling sex— and that all prostitutes should henceforth be called "geisha". In the end, the government decided to maintain a line between the two groups, arguing that geisha were more refined and should not be soiled by association with prostitutes.

Also, geisha working in onsen towns such as Atami are dubbed onsen geisha. Onsen geisha have been given a bad reputation due to the prevalence of prostitutes in such towns who market themselves as "geisha," as well as sordid rumors of dance routines like Shallow River (which involves the "dancers" lifting the skirts of their kimono higher and higher). In contrast to these "one-night geisha," the true onsen geisha are in fact competent dancers and musicians. However, the autobiography of Sayo Masuda, an onsen geisha who worked in Nagano Prefecture in the 1930s, reveals that in the past, such women were often under intense pressure to sell sex.

Personal relationships and danna

Geisha are expected to be single women; those who choose to marry must retire from the profession.

It was traditional in the past for established geisha to take a danna, or patron. A danna was typically a wealthy man, sometimes married, who had the means to support the very large expenses related to a geisha's traditional training and other costs. This sometimes occurs today as well, but very rarely.

A geisha and her danna may or may not be in love, but intimacy is never viewed as a reward for the danna's financial support. The traditional conventions and values within such a relationship are very intricate and not well understood, even by many Japanese.

While it is true that a geisha is free to pursue personal relationships with men she meets through her work, such relationships are carefully chosen and unlikely to be casual. A hanamachi tends to be a very tight-knit community and a geisha's good reputation is not taken lightly.

"Geisha girls"

"Geisha girls" were Japanese women who worked as prostitutes during the period of the Allied Occupation of Japan. They almost exclusively serviced American GIs stationed in the country, who incorrectly referred to them as "Geesha girls." The term is a mispronunciation of the word geisha. The mispronunciation persists among some Westerners.

Adding to the confusion is the fact that these women dressed in kimono and imitated the look of geisha. Americans unfamiliar with the Japanese culture could not tell the difference between legitimate geisha and these costumed prostitutes. Shortly after their arrival in 1945, occupying American GIs are said to have congregated on the Ginza and shouted in unison, "We want geesha girls!"

Eventually, the term "geisha girl" became a general word for any female Japanese prostitute or worker in the mizu shobai and included bar hostesses and streetwalkers.

Geisha girls are speculated by researchers to be largely responsible for the continuing misconception in the West that all geisha engaged in prostitution.

Appearance

Women posing as maiko (geisha apprentices), Kyoto, Japan, wearing traditional furisode and okobo

A geisha's appearance changes throughout her career, from the girlish, heavily made-up maiko, to the more sombre appearance of an older established geisha.

Makeup

Today, the traditional makeup of the apprentice geisha is one of their most recognizable characteristics, though established geisha generally only wear full white face makeup characteristic of maiko during special performances.

The traditional makeup of an apprentice geisha features a thick white base with red lipstick and red and black accents around the eyes and eyebrows. Originally, the white base mask was made with lead, but after the discovery that it poisoned the skin and caused terrible skin and back problems for the older geisha towards the end of the Meiji Era, it was replaced with rice powder.

The application of makeup is hard to perfect and is a time-consuming process. Makeup is applied before dressing to avoid dirtying the kimono. First, a wax or oil substance, called bintsuke-abura, is applied to the skin. Next, white powder is mixed with water into a paste and applied with a bamboo brush starting from the neck and working upwards. The white makeup covers the face, neck, and chest, with two or three unwhitened areas (forming a W or V shape, usually a traditional W shape) left on the nape, to accentuate this traditionally erotic area, and a line of bare skin around the hairline, which creates the illusion of a mask.

After the foundation layer is applied, a sponge is patted all over the face, throat, chest, the nape and neck to remove excess moisture and to blend the foundation. Next the eyes and eyebrows are drawn in. Traditionally, charcoal was used, but today, modern cosmetics are used. The eyebrows and edges of the eyes are colored black with a thin charcoal; a maiko also applies red around her eyes.

The lips are filled in using a small brush. The color comes in a small stick, which is melted in water. Crystallized sugar is then added to give the lips lustre. Rarely will a geisha color in both lips fully in the Western style, as white creates optical illusions and colouring the lips fully would make them appear overly large. The lower lip is colored in partially and the upper lip left white for maiko in her first year, after which the upper lip is also colored. Newly full-fledged geisha will color in only the top lip fully. Most geisha wear the top lip colored in fully or stylized, and the bottom lip in a curved stripe that does not follow the shape of the lip.The geisha round the bottom lips to create the illusion of a flower bud.

Maiko who are in their last stage of training will sometimes color their teeth black for a short period of time. This practice used to be common among married women in Japan and, earlier, at the imperial court, but survives only in some districts, or even families. While this sounds unsavoury to Western ears, it is again at least partly because of the optical illusion generated by white makeup: in contrast, teeth seem very yellow; colouring the teeth black means that they seem to "disappear" in the darkness of the open mouth. This illusion is of course more pronounced at a distance.

For the first three years, a maiko wears this heavy makeup almost constantly. During her initiation, the maiko is helped with her makeup either by her onee-san, or "older sister" (an experienced geisha who is her mentor), or by the okaa-san, or "mother" of her geisha house. After this, she applies the makeup herself.

After a maiko has been working for three years, she changes her make-up to a more subdued style. The reason for this is that she has now become mature, and the simpler style shows her own natural beauty. For formal occasions, the mature geisha will still apply white make-up. For geisha over thirty, the heavy white make-up is only worn during special dances which require her to wear make-up for her part.

Further information: History of cosmetics

Dress

File:Maiko obi.jpg

Rear view of a minarai in a teahouse, her richly embroidered obi clearly visible

Geisha always wear kimono. Apprentice geisha wear highly colorful kimono with extravagant obi. Always, the obi is brighter than the kimono she is wearing to give a certain exotic balance. Maiko wear the obi tied in a style called "darari" (dangling obi). Older geisha wear more subdued patterns and styles (most notably the obi tied in a simpler knot utilized by married women known as the "taiko musubi" (太鼓結び), or "drum knot"). The sign of a prosperous okiya is having geisha not wearing a kimono more than once, meaning that those okiya with higher economic status will have "storehouses" of sorts where kimono are stored and interchanged between geisha.

Kimono can be as many as 12 or 15 layers thick for a maiko. An apprentice geisha's kimono will have, in addition to the heavy dangling obi, pocketed sleeves called "furi" which dangle all the way to the ground. During a dance or performance, an apprentice must wrap the pocketed sleeves around her arms many times to avoid tripping.

The color, pattern, and style of kimono is also dependent on the season and the event the geisha is attending. In winter, geisha can be seen wearing a three-quarter length haori lined with hand-painted silk over their kimono. Lined kimono are worn during colder seasons, and unlined kimono during the summer. A kimono can take from two to three years to complete, due to painting and embroidering.

Geiko wear red or pink nagajuban, or under-kimono. A maiko wears red with white printed patterns. The junior maiko's collar is predominantly red with white, silver, or gold embroidery. Two to three years into her apprenticeship, the red collar will be entirely embroidered in white (when viewed from the front) to show her seniority. At around age 20, her collar will turn from red to white.

Geisha wear a flat-soled sandal, zori, outdoors, and wear only tabi (white split-toed socks) indoors. In inclement weather geisha wear raised wooden clogs, called geta. Maiko wear a special wooden clog known as okobo.

Hair

The maiko Mamechiho in the Gion district of Kyoto. Notice the green pin on the mid-left called tsunagi-dango: this identifies her as a maiko of Gion kobu.

The hairstyles of geisha have varied through history. In the past, it has been common for women to wear their hair down in some periods, but up in others. During the 17th century, women began putting all their hair up again, and it is during this time that the traditional shimada hairstyle, a type of traditional chignon worn by most established geisha, developed.

There are four major types of the shimada: the taka shimada, a high chignon usually worn by young, single women; the tsubushi shimada, a more flattened chignon generally worn by older women; the uiwata, a chignon that is usually bound up with a piece of colored cotton crepe; and a style that resembles a divided peach, which is worn only by maiko. This is sometimes called "Momoware", or "split peach". Additional hairstyles: Ofuku, Katsuyama, Yakko-shimada, and Sakko. Maiko of Miyagawa-chō and Pontochō will wear an additional six hairstyles leading up to the Sakko, including Umemodoki, Oshidori no Hina, Kikugasane, and Osafune.

These hairstyles are decorated with elaborate hair-combs and hairpins (kanzashi). In the seventeenth century and after the Meiji Restoration period, hair-combs were large and conspicuous, generally more ornate for higher-class women. Following the Meiji Restoration and into the modern era, smaller and less conspicuous hair-combs became more popular.

Geisha were trained to sleep with their necks on small supports (takamakura), instead of pillows, so they could keep their hairstyle perfect. To reinforce this habit, their mentors would pour rice around the base of the support. If the geisha's head rolled off the support while she slept, rice would stick to the pomade in her hair. The geisha would thus have to repeat the tiresome process of having her hair elaborately styled. Without this happening, a geisha will have her hair styled every week or so.

Many modern geisha use wigs in their professional lives, while maiko use their natural hair. However, either one must be regularly tended by highly skilled artisans. Traditional hairstyling is a slowly dying art. Over time, the hairstyle can cause balding on the top of the head.

In popular culture

The growing interest in geisha and their exotic appearance have spawned various popular culture phenomena both in Japan and in the West. Western interest in geisha increased with the 1997 novel and 2005 film Memoirs of a Geisha and the autobiography of former geisha Iwasaki Mineko, titled Geisha of Gion.

Geisha photography

• A girl inherited Maiko (apprentice geisha) life (2007) by Naoyuki Ogino at the Canon Gallery, Japan
• A Geisha's Journey (2008) Photographs by Naoyuki Ogino, text by Komomo, ISBN 9784770030672, Kodansha International [2]
• Geisha of Pontocho (1954) by P.D. Perkins. Photographs by Francis Haar. Published by Tokyo News Service.

Films featuring geisha

• Sisters of the Gion (1936) - Dir. Kenji Mizoguchi
• Geisha Girl (1952) - Dir. George P. Breakston
• The Life of Oharu (西鶴一代女Saikaku Ichidai Onna) (1952) - Dir. Kenji Mizoguchi
• A Geisha (祇園囃子, Gion bayashi) (1953) - Dir. Kenji Mizoguchi
• The Teahouse of the August Moon (1956) - Dir. Daniel Mann
• The Barbarian and the Geisha (1958) - Dir. John Huston
• The Geisha Boy (1958) - Dir. Frank Tashlin
• Late Chrysanthemums (Bangiku) (1958) - Dir. Mikio Naruse
• My Geisha (1962) - Dir. Jack Cardiff
• The World of Geisha (1972) - Dir. Tatsumi Kumashiro‎
• In the Realm of the Senses (1976) - Dir. Nagisa Oshima
• American Geisha (1986) - Dir. Lee Philips
• Ihara Saikaku Koshoku Ichidai Otoko (1991) - Dir. Yukio Abe
• The Geisha House (1999) - Dir. Kinji Fukasaku
• Zatoichi (2003) - Dir. Takeshi Kitano
• Fighter in the Wind (2004) - Dir. Yang Yun-ho
• Memoirs of a Geisha (2005) - Dir. Rob Marshall
• Wakeful Nights (2005) - Dir. Masahiko Tsugawa
• DOA: Dead or Alive (2006) - Dir. Cory Yuen
• Maiko Haaaan!!! (2007) - Dir. Nobuo Mizuta

Music about geisha

• "Geisha's Dream" by Naoki featuring Smile.dk
• "Neo Geisha" by Zeromancer on the album Eurotrash
• "Geisha Dreams" by Rollergirl
• "Latin Geisha" by Illya Kuriaki and the Valderramas
• "GEI-SHA" by S.K.I.N.
• "Madama Butterfly" by Giacomo Puccini

See also

• Taikomochi
• Mineko Iwasaki
• Sada Yacco
• Ichiriki Ochaya
• Memoirs of a Geisha

Further reading

• Aihara, Kyoko. Geisha: A Living Tradition. London: Carlton Books, 2000. ISBN 1858689376, ISBN 1858689708.
• Ariyoshi Sawako, The Twilight Years. Translated by Mildred Tahara. New York: Kodansha America, 1987.
• Burns, Stanley B., and Elizabeth A. Burns. Geisha: A Photographic History, 1872–1912. Brooklyn, N.Y.: powerHouse Books, 2006. ISBN 1576873366.
• Downer, Lesley. Women of the Pleasure Quarters: The Secret History of the Geisha. New York: Broadway Books, 2001. ISBN 0767904893, ISBN 0767904907.
• Ishihara, Tetsuo. Peter MacIntosh, trans. Nihongami no Sekai: Maiko no kamigata (The World of Traditional Japanese Hairstyles: Hairstyles of the Maiko). Kyōtō: Dōhōsha Shuppan, 1993. ISBN 4810412946.
• Iwasaki, Mineko, with Rande Brown. Geisha, A Life (also known as Geisha of Gion). New York: Atria Books, 2002. ISBN 0743444329, ISBN 0756781612; ISBN 074343059X.
• Masuda, Sayo. G.G. Rowley, trans. Autobiography of a Geisha. New York: Columbia University Press, 2003. ISBN 0231129505. * Masuda, Sayo. G.G. Rowley, trans. Autobiography of a Geisha. New York: Columbia University Press, 2003. ISBN 0231129505.
• Scott, A.C. The Flower and Willow World; The Story of the Geisha. New York: Orion Press, 1960.

External links

• Japanese Society Performing Arts[3]*Japanese Dance [4]
• The apprentice geisha (maiko)'s explanation
• Photos of maiko by Naoyuki Ogino
• Photos of geisha and maiko by Lubomir Cernota
• Information on geisha and maiko from Japanlinked.com
• Geisha and Maiko of Gion, photos by Francois Bergeron
• Geisha and maiko photos by Frantisek Staud