How exactly does one train to become a geisha? It turns out, the process is a long and arduous one, taking maybe as long as medical school!
All true geishas undergo many years of intense training and experience to become masters of their trade. Historically, they have always relied on these laboriously honed skills, rather than their sexuality, to establish their role and status in Japan.
While geishas are traditionally women of Japanese origin, a few non-Japanese women have completed geisha training. If you are in your later teens or even early 20s, it's possible that an okasan may accept you but it's not typical.
It can be anywhere between $3K a month to tens of thousands of dollars for a popular geisha as she can also get gifts from her clients including expensive silk kimono and gems that cost more than 5 figures etc..
The geisha system was traditionally a form of indentured labour, although some girls, attracted by the glamour of the life, volunteered. Usually, a girl at an early age was given by her parents for a sum of money to a geisha house, which taught, trained, fed, and clothed her for a period of years.
In Japan, geisha are very highly respected because they spend years training to learn the traditional instruments and dances of Japan. Although some western media portray geisha as prostitutes, that's just a myth.
Typically, this training period will last around four years. Apprentices must also begin attending nyokoba, vocational schools for geisha in training so that they can learn many kinds of traditional Japanese performance arts to entertain their guests.
Geishas spend a lot of time pouring drinks and, in many cases, drinking. One geisha told the Japan Times, "You need to be able to drink.
Today there are only about 1,000 geisha in Japan. They can be found in several major cities including Tokyo, and Kanazawa but most of them work in Kyoto.
Can a foreigner become a maiko and later a geisha/geiko? No foreigner can work as a geisha without permanent residency or Japanese nationality. A few women married to Japanese have worked briefly as geisha in the countryside where standards are more lax.
Fiona Graham is the first Caucasian woman to be accepted into the ancient Japanese geisha tradition. Now known only as Sayuki, she tells Anna Seaman about her new life.
Geiko are allowed to have children and Maiko aren't necessarily “forbidden” (you can't ever forbid people from getting pregnant in genereal) from having children, but it's very very rare today. Maiko are 15 to 21, sometimes 22, and the vast majority of them doesn't want to have children yet anyways.
Geishas are required to remain unmarried, but can work in the profession as long as they want without retiring. So even now, aged 80, Ikuko is not only head of the Akasaka Geisha Association -- she's also a practicing geisha. She first came to Tokyo in 1964, the year the city first hosted the Olympics.
They are trained in various traditional Japanese arts, such as dance and music, as well as in the art of communication. Their role is to make guests feel at ease with conversation, drinking games and dance performances.
Iwasaki was the most famous geisha in Japan until her sudden retirement at the age of 29. Known for her performances for celebrity and royalty during her geisha life, Iwasaki was the heir apparent (atotori) to her geisha house (okiya) while she was just a young apprentice.
The first geisha were actually male, appearing around the year 1730. It was only about 20 years later that female geisha began to appear in the forms of odoriko (踊り子, meaning dancers) and shamisen players, and they quickly took over the profession, dominating it by 1780.
To inflame a doctor's lust for Sayuri (for the impending bidding war for her virginity), Mameha intentionally cuts Sayuri's leg high on her thigh (off camera). Mameha tells the doctor the cut came from a scissors accident; he stares longingly at her leg before stitching it up.
Geisha Are Paid by the Hour
As already mentioned, the apprentice maiko do not receive any salary except for the allowance from their okiya. Only when they graduate and have cleared their debts will they be able to keep the money they earn.
Geisha used small, hard pillows to keep their hair set at night. Pillows have supposedly been around since 7000 BCE, in early Mesopotamia. Of course, they were made of stone and so understandably less comfortable; very unlike what we think of as pillows today.
Since candlelight was not bright enough, Geishas painted their faces white to enhance their skin tones and to contour their faces, making their faces more visible and recognizable. Other reason why they painted their faces white is to hide their true feelings and facial expressions.
Who was the youngest geisha? Born as Masako Tanaka, she left home at the age of four to begin studying traditional Japanese dance at the Iwasaki okiya (geisha house) in the Gion district of Kyoto. She was legally adopted by the okiya's owner, Madame Oima, and began using their family name of Iwasaki.
Oiran (花魁) is a collective term for the highest-ranking courtesans in Japanese history, who were considered to be above common prostitutes (known as yūjo (遊女, lit. 'woman of pleasure')) for their more refined entertainment skills and training in the traditional arts.
She no longer entertains at parties, and she may discontinue her studies. At this point, a former geisha might become the head of an okiya or teahouse, or she may leave the geisha life entirely.
For instance, to keep their skin (and minds) clear, geisha maintain a conventional Japanese diet complete with things like antioxidant-rich green tea, rice, and seaweed, giving new life to the age-old phrase: You are what you eat.
No, as prostitution is illegal in Japan and the geishas are cultural performers who are deeply respected. Geisha never sleep with their clients as it goes against the rules of the organizations they belong to.