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Two apprentice geisha (
maiko
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Kanji
| 芸者
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Geisha
(
芸者
)
(or
geigi
(
芸妓
)
or
geiko
(
芸子
)
) are
traditional
female
Japanese
entertainers
. They are
skilled
at different Japanese
arts
, like playing classical Japanese
music
,
dancing
and
poetry
. Geisha are not
prostitutes
, despite what some people think.
[1]
The
term
geisha
is made of two Japanese words,
芸
(
gei
) meaning "
art
," and
者
(
sha
), meaning "person who does" or "to be employed in." The most
literal translation
in
English
is "
artist
." Geisha are respected as artists and performers, and it is difficult to become one.
[2]
Kyoto
is the city with the strictest geisha traditions. Geisha have worked there for the longest time. Becoming a professional geisha can take up to five years of
training
in Kyoto.
Apprentice
geisha are called
maiko
(
舞子
)
. The name comes from
舞
(
mai
), meaning "dancing," and
子
(
ko
), meaning "child."
Maiko
wear white
make-up
called
oshiroi
and long-sleeved
kimono
with many
bright
colors.
Maiko
in some places wear a belt, called an
obi
, that is up to 6 metres (20 ft) long. Many
maiko
wear fancy hairstyles made with their own hair, but in some places, they wear wigs instead. Full geisha wear simpler kimono and wear white makeup only for special occasions. Geisha also wear wigs and have a much shorter kimono belt.
There are also geisha in other cities, but there are differences. In
Tokyo
, becoming a full geisha takes from six months to a year. Geisha apprentices in Tokyo are called
han'gyoku
(
半玉
)
, which means "half jewel" or "half pay." Apprentice geisha in Tokyo are also called
o-shaku
(
御酌
)
, which means "one who serves (
alcohol
)." Geisha in Tokyo are normally older than those in Kyoto.
[3]
[
not in the source given
]
Many geisha still live in traditional geisha
houses
called
okiya
(
置屋
)
in
neighborhoods
called
hanamachi
(
花街
)
, which means "flower town." Older geisha who are successful may have their own home. A geisha always needs to be registered to a geisha house to be allowed to work.
The world that geisha are a part of is called
kary?kai
(
花柳界
)
, which means "the flower and
willow
world."
[4]
One very famous geisha,
Mineko Iwasaki
, said that is because a "geisha like a flower, beautiful in her own way, and like a willow tree,
gracious
,
flexible
, and strong."
[5]
Geisha are considered to be
cultural icons
of Japan.
Before geisha appeared, some women worked as
artists
and entertainers. In the
Heian period
(794-1185), women entertained people at the
Imperial Court
by singing and dancing and were known as
shiraby?shi
(
白拍子
)
.
Later, women who worked as
prostitutes
and
courtesans
entertained men in the
red-light districts
of Japan. In 1589,
Toyotomi Hideyoshi
authorized the building of a
neighborhood
in Kyoto that was closed from the outside with walls. Called
Shimabara
, it was dedicated to
pleasure
.
[6]
Shimabara
was established as an official red-light district in 1640,
[7]
and became one of three areas in Japan in which prostitution could be practiced legally. The other two were
Yoshiwara
in Tokyo, which had been established in 1617, and
Shinmachi
, in
Osaka
.
[7]
Those areas were known as
y?kaku
and were the only places that women were allowed to be prostitutes. Courtesans were collectively called
oiran
(
花魁
)
and were very expensive.
Oiran
also entertained men with singing, dancing, poetry, music and conversation. The highest-ranking
oiran
were the
tay?
, who did not engage in prostitution, unlike the other
oiran
. Instead, they would have one or two rich clients act as their
patron
; those men would pay a lot of money to be entertained by their
tay?
.
Tay?
could turn men away and could decide who they would entertain.
Tay?
were raised from a young age to be very skilled in different types of art and entertainment, and many of them became celebrities. Many woodblock prints and paintings exist of famous
tay?
, and other
oiran
.
Geisha appeared only much later, during the
Tokugawa period
. Originally, geisha were men, who travelled throughout the red-light districts to entertain clients with music, dancing, and poetry. Such men were known as geisha but were also called
otoko geisha
(
男芸者
,
'male geisha'
)
,
h?kan
(
幇間
,
'
jesters
'
)
and
taikomochi
(
太鼓持ち
,
'
drummers
'
)
because they played the
taiko
, a Japanese drum.
[8]
Male geisha were very low-class entertainers, but
oiran
were considered to be upper class. Every man who wished to be with an
oiran
had to follow difficult
rituals
and
etiquette
and to have enough money to pay for her time. That meant that only the richest
nobility
got to be entertained by
oiran
.
[8]
Many tea houses (
ochaya
(
お茶屋
)
) appeared outside
Shimabara
and offered entertainment that was not offered inside
Shimabara
. At some of the tea houses, some women practiced
cheaper
prostitution and were called
sancha-jor?
. However other women, who were called
'odoriko'
('dancing girls'), acted as dancers and musicians and soon became very popular. They started calling themselves 'geisha', like the male artists who worked in
Shimabara
.
By about 1700, female geisha had become much more popular than male geisha. A few years later, almost all geisha were women.
[9]
The
government
prohibited
geisha from working as prostitutes and allowed them only to act as
entertainers
.
[10]
One of the laws made them tie their
obi
(
?
)
(
sash
) in the back, as
oiran
wore theirs at the front as a sign that they were available for sex. Geisha had to wear simpler
hairstyles
, less hair accessories, less makeup, and simpler kimono. If an
oiran
accused a geisha of stealing her customers, the geisha would be investigated.
[11]
[12]
Soon, the geisha became so much more popular than the
oiran
that in 1761, the last
tay?
of
Yoshiwara
retired.
[13]
Though
tay?
continued to work in Kyoto and Osaka,
oiran
as a whole were seen as outdated, too traditional, and too expensive.
Oiran
could not leave the red-light districts because they had a lot of debt to the owner of the brothel they worked in
[11]
: 59
and were not thought of as celebrities or fashionable anymore.
[14]
Most people could not afford to hire them.
[15]
[15]
:
18
In contrast, geisha were cheaper and more fashionable, and could leave the red-light districts whenever they wanted. They sang popular songs and did not need several expensive meetings before they would entertain a client. New geisha neighborhoods (
hanamachi
) were created in Kyoto and other cities.
In the 19th century, geisha were in better position than common women,but they also had problems in Japanese
society
. Some poor people sold their daughters to a geisha house, but that was less common than some people think since many geisha came from families in which the mother or another female relative had once been a geisha. Geisha could not
marry
but could have a patron to pay for their
expenses
, and some retired when they gained a rich patron. Other men paid a lot of money to take the new girls'
virginity
(
mizuage
),
[9]
and if the owner of a geisha house was dishonest and greedy, a young geisha could have her virginity sold a number of times to different men.
However, the
reputation
and the respect for the geisha grew in the
Meiji Restoration
and even more after
World War II
. Important laws to protect them were created. Young girls could no longer be sold to the geisha houses, and the virginity of young geisha could no longer be
bought
. Since then, women become geisha only by their
free will
.
[6]
Though people often talk about how there are not many geisha left in Japan and that they might be about to die out, the geisha profession is very
resilient
. In history, the numbers of geisha sometimes fell because of changes in the
economy
or because of
war
. However, the number of working geisha usually rose again not long afterward.
In the 1920s there were over 80,000 geisha in Japan. In 1944, all geisha districts were shut because of
World War II
, and geisha, like everyone else, had to help out with the war. In Tokyo alone, almost 9,000 geisha were still entertaining guests before they were told they could not work as geisha anymore.
[11]
: 98
After the war, geisha districts opened up again on 25 October 1945. By 1967, there were nearly 5,000 geisha in Tokyo again.
[11]
: 187
Today, there are far fewer geisha. The exact number of geisha working today is not known but is
estimated
to be around 1,000 to 2,000.
[8]
Geisha today live and work now Japan in different geisha districts (
hanamachi
), which have their own traditions of arts, training, and clothing. The best-known geisha live in Kyoto, which has five geisha districts. The most famous one is
Gion Kobu
, which is sometimes just called
Gion
. There are also Manu geisha in Tokyo and in towns with hot springs like
Atami
. In some places in Japan, people have decided to bring back geisha districts that had no geisha in them for decades.
Many geisha houses and districts now use social media to advertise their work, and geisha do not need to be born into a geisha district to work there. Some geisha districts put on events to attract tourists. In Kyoto, places like
Gion
Corner put on dances performed by
maiko
that anyone can go and watch.
People can also pay to dress up like geisha or
maiko
for the day. Being dressed up as a geisha or
maiko
is known as
henshin
. Some dress-up services, like those in Kyoto, allow someone to walk around the city for the day in dress-up. However, they will not dress someone completely
accurately so
that real geisha and
maiko
cannot be confused with people in costumes. If someone wearing
henshin
wants to be dressed the exact same as a geisha or
maiko
, they cannot walk around outside. Most, if not all,
henshin
services will take photographs of someone in dress-up for them to keep. Real geisha do not have the time to take pictures with
tourists
and so most women dressed as geisha or
maiko
who appear on the photos of tourists are in fact people in
henshin
.
Young women who wish to become geisha now usually begin their
training
after they finish
junior high school
or even
high school
or
college
. Many women begin their
careers
as adults. Geisha still study traditional
musical instruments
like the
shamisen
, the
shakuhachi
(
bamboo
flute
), and
drums
, as well as traditional songs,
Japanese traditional dance
,
tea ceremony
,
literature
and poetry. By watching other geisha, apprentices also become skilled in the difficult traditions of dressing,
makeup
, and dealing with clients.
Geisha are often
hired
to go to
parties
and
gatherings at
tea houses or traditional Japanese restaurants (
ry?tei
). Their time is measured by the time it takes an
incense stick
to burn, which called
senk?dai
(
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 used instead. Clients hire the services of geisha through the geisha district's union or registery office, known as the
kenban
(
?番
)
, which takes care of the geisha's
schedule
and makes appointments for her to entertain customers and train in the traditional arts.
[16]
Traditionally, geisha began their training at a very young age. Although some girls
were sold
to become geisha as children, that was not normal practice in hanamachi with good reputation.
[17]
Daughters of geisha were often
educated
as geisha themselves.
The first part of
training
is called
"shikomi"
. When girls first arrived at the okiya, they used to be put to work as
maids
, or do everything they were told. The work was difficult to "make" and "break" the new girls. The most
junior
shikomi of the house had to wait late into the night for the
senior
geisha to return from work, sometimes at as late as two or three in the morning. During that stage of training, the shikomi went to classes at the hanamachi's geisha school. In modern times, that stage still exists, but it is less hard than before. Shikomi now become used to the traditions and dress of the
kary?kai
("flower and willow world").
When an apprentice became skilled in the geisha arts and passed a final and difficult dance
test
, she was
promoted
to the second stage of training, the
minarai
, and not longer did housework. This stage still exists but is much shorter than before (only a month). The minarai learn in the
field
and go to
banquets
and dance with the geisha. However, they do not participate but just sit, watch, and learn from their
onee-san
(
older sisters
). Their kimono are more
elaborate
than even that of a maiko, and it does the talking for them.
After a short time, the third and most famous stage of training begins, the
maiko
. The apprentice geisha stayed in this stage for years. Maiko learn from their senior geisha and follow them around to every
presentation
that she does. The
onee-san/imoto-san
("older sister/younger sister")
relationship
is very important. The onee-san teaches her maiko everything about working in the hanamachi. She teaches her the right ways of serving
tea
, playing the
shamisen
, and dancing and everything about the art of
iki
(see below). Maiko wear heavy white
makeup
and elaborate
hairstyle
and have their
lips
painted almost all the time. Their kimono and
obi
have more vibrant colors and richer
embroidery
than those of full geisha. Like the minarai, maiko
charge
less money to go to parties or gatherings than full geisha.
After a period of only six months (in Tokyo) or five years (in Kyoto), the maiko is promoted to a full geisha and charges full
price
for her time. Geisha use kimono of fewer colors and wear makeup only for work or dance because they are more
mature
than a maiko, and the simpler
style
shows her own
natural
beauty
. Geisha remain as such until they retire.
[16]
Geisha must be very skilled at traditional Japanese music, dance, and poetry since they use all three skills at their work. The arts of makeup, hairstyles, and clothing are very important as well.
The most important
principle
of a geisha is iki,
[18]
which started in the 18th century as a reply to the
extravagant
ways of the courtesans (
oiran
) and those who liked their style. Oiran wore very elaborate clothes, makeup, and
jewelry
. Geisha preferred to be
discreet
, and more intelligent. They created iki as a
style
that gave more importance to
conversation
and
wit
. Instead of working with
sex
, as oiran then did and simple prostitutes still do, geisha try to be
sexy
. A geisha will
flirt
,
tease
, and joke with men but always with art and
elegance
. Japanese clients know that nothing more can be expected. Men enjoy the
illusion
of that which is never to be. Geisha do not have sex with clients for money.
[19]
Geisha give more importance to their reputation than prostitutes do, and they almost never enter a
relationship
with a client. Those who do generally act with care and usually get married. Normally, when a geisha marries, she retires from the
profession
. The most important quality of a geisha is her
trustworthiness
, especially to Japanese clients. Anything that her clients do or tell her must remain a secret. Anything said or done at a tea house will remain anonymous.
[20]
Becoming a geisha needs such
discipline
. A geisha believes she must be a work of art in herself. She works everyday to improve everything she does. A geisha's movements and her way of walking, sitting, and talking are very important. She is a geisha all the time, even when she is at home or not working. An example of the
dedication
is the old
custom
of
kangeiko
("
lessons
in the cold"). Until the early 1920s, apprentice geisha would put their hands in
icy
water and then go outside in cold
weather
to practice playing the
shamisen
until their
fingers
bled
.
[20]
[21]
- ↑
Henshall, K. G. (1999).
A History of Japan
. Macmillan Press LTD, London. p.
61
.
ISBN
0-333-74940-5
.
- ↑
Ito, Masami (2017-11-25).
"Japan's geisha battle to protect their future"
.
Japan Times
. Retrieved
2020-10-15
.
- ↑
"Tokyo Asakusa"
(in Japanese). Taito-ku Association of
Tokyo
. Archived from
the original
on 13 September 2011
. Retrieved
21 August
2007
.
- ↑
"
"Geisha, A Life", by Mineko Iwasaki"
. MostlyFiction.com. Archived from
the original
on 3 April 2016
. Retrieved
31 May
2019
.
- ↑
Iwasaki, Mineko
(2003).
Geisha: A Life
. Washington Square Press. p.
7
.
ISBN
0-7434-4429-9
.
- ↑
6.0
6.1
"Geisha and Maiko"
. Amaya Booker. Archived from
the original
on 30 July 2013
. Retrieved
19 August
2007
.
- ↑
7.0
7.1
Avery, Anne Louise.
Flowers of the Floating World: Geisha and Courtesans in Japanese Prints and Photographs, 1772?1926
[Exhibition Catalogue] (Sanders of Oxford & Mayfield Press: Oxford, 2006)
- ↑
8.0
8.1
8.2
"Inside Japan"
. Hanami Web. Archived from
the original
on 24 February 2015
. Retrieved
21 August
2007
.
- ↑
9.0
9.1
Dorda, Cristina.
"Geigi Gakko"
(in Spanish). Archived from
the original
on 11 August 2014
. Retrieved
21 August
2007
.
- ↑
"Women of the Arts"
. Rutgers Business School,
New Brunswick
. Archived from
the original
on 25 May 2007
. Retrieved
21 August
2007
.
- ↑
11.0
11.1
11.2
11.3
Dalby, Liza (2000).
Geisha
(3rd ed.). London: Vintage Random House.
ISBN
0099286386
.
- ↑
Varley, H. Paul
(2000).
Japanese Culture
(4th ed.). University of Hawaii Press.
ISBN
978-0-8248-2152-4
.
- ↑
"About Japanese Courtesans' Names"
.
issendai.com
. Issendai.
Archived
from the original on 12 July 2020
. Retrieved
14 July
2020
.
- ↑
Eichman, Shawn.
"Tongue in Cheek: Erotic Art of 19th Century Japan"
(Online museum exhibition)
.
honolulumuseum.org
. Honolulu Museum of Art
. Retrieved
30 May
2020
.
Though the precise reasons for [the decline] in the public's perception of the Yoshiwara [Edo brothel district] during the 19th century can only be speculated, the decline was as precipitous as it was undeniable. By the early 20th century, the aura of dignity and elan the courtesans had once exuded was all but lost, and these women, many of whom suffered from venereal disease, appeared more like sexual slaves than celebrities. (page 102)
- ↑
15.0
15.1
Kimino, Rinko; Ichikawa, Somegoro (2016).
Photographic Kabuki Kaleidoscope
(1st ed.). Tokyo: Shogakukan. p. 18.
ISBN
978-4-09-310843-0
.
- ↑
16.0
16.1
"El mundo de la flor y el sauce"
(in Spanish). Japonismo.com. 4 April 2011
. Retrieved
31 May
2019
.
- ↑
Varley, p. 142.
- ↑
Varley, pp. 144-145.
- ↑
Henshall, K. G. (1999).
A History of Japan
. Macmillan Press LTD. p.
61
.
ISBN
0-333-74940-5
.
- ↑
20.0
20.1
"Shizuka Online"
. Midori Nihihara
. Retrieved
31 May
2019
.
- ↑
Varley, p. 151
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