Talent Is An Asset

Geisha in Kyoto - on a Telephone Card

For those of you going to Japan and expecting the place to be crawling with white-faced women in kimono's - let me set the record straight. That's not Japan. At least not anymore.

What is a Geisha? Well, for one thing, they aren't prostitutes. Geisha translates into gei (art) and sha (performer). Art performers - specifically performing traditional Japanese arts.

In my three years in Japan, I only saw one woman in full geisha garb - and thus I assume she was a geisha. One person. Yes,  there are plenty of television shows and ads featuring geisha (or someone purporting to be a geisha), but they are not a common sight in Japan.

The white face make-up, the fantastic kimono and the impossibly elaborate hair are three visual definitions of a geisha... but they are so much more. And I wish I could tell you more from personal experience, but I'm going to have to do so from information gleaned from books I've read. Yes, I can read.

Women wishing to enter the profession start at the age of 15 in Kyoto or 18 in Tokyo. There's a full year's training to become a geisha. Historically, geisha began the earliest training at the ages of 3-5 - merely watching and learning.

Now women can apprentice first as a maiko (which translates to 'dance child') or can begin training directly as a geisha--though women who first apprentice as a maiko are said to enjoy more prestige later on.

Way back in the 16th century, Japan had legalized pleasure quarters built with yuujo ('play women') who were fully licensed and classified. The highest level was the Oiran, who performed erotic dances, skits and yes, would sleep with their customer. Now these Oiran weren't stupid. They were educated in many performing arts as well as sex.

In the early 1700's, the geisha arose - they were men! Men who would entertain other men who were waiting at the pleasure quarters to see an Oiran.

Dancing girls--odoriko--were literally teenaged girls who were trained in the art of dance and were paid entertainers in the homes of samurai (Japanese warriors). When they were no longer teenagers, they were unable to called themselves odoriko, so instead adopted the name geisha, after the male entertainers. 

Around the mid-1700s, these new geisha forgo the sex aspect, concentrating solely on the entertainment aspect like their male colleague geisha. By the 1800's, the geisha was considered a woman's occupation. By the 1830's the geisha began changing their style to look high class, to go with the high class entertainment skills they were offering. It became more formalized.

Geisha on a bridge circa 1934 - from author's private photo collection.

So, there is indeed a prostitute angle here with the origins of the geisha--but most people wouldn't know that. During WWII, women--including geisha--went to work in the factories to keep their war efforts going. As such, there weren't any geisha practicing their trade--and there certainly weren't a lot of young women entering the trade. To make matters worse, after the war (please don't make me have to say who won the war), when the U.S occupied Japan, prostitutes actually called themselves "geisha girls" to all the Joe's in the U.S. forces.

After the war, the geisha profession began to build itself back up. Nowadays, they still offer the high-class entertainment skills of music, dance and conversation, but they also hold a high social status. Geisha are single women who have achieved economic self-sufficiency and independence in a male dominated Japanese society. It's a way of life without having to become a wife--an expected norm here in Japan.

Nowaday's, geisha ply their trade within the traditional Japanese tea houses or in Geisha houses.

• Skills: Well, musically, it could be the shamisen, shakuhachi, yokobue, drums, learning games, songs, calligraphy, traditional Japanese dances, tea ceremony rituals, literature and poetry.

• Appearance: Geisha have been known to continue performing into their 90s. The white-faced make-up we associate with the geisha is actually usually only worn by the apprentice maiko. Geisha will wear the full make-up on occasion during special performances. The white make up is applied to the face, neck and chest.

• Different hairpins and style of hair denote different stages or levels of geisha, as does the length of the eyebrow--the short eyebrows are for the younger geisha, longer for the older... though I'm unsure when that distinction is arrived at.

• Dress: The kimono is always something highly colourful... but what is interesting is the obi (belt) that is always brighter than the kimono she is wearing. Okay, I find it interesting.

Somewhere, my girdle is killing me,
Andrew Joseph
This blog's tile is by Sparks, from their album Kimono My House. The song title matches even if the song itself doesn't. HITLERONKEYBOARDS