Toggle navigation. Travel Experiences. Page updated: November 2, Contact us : info mai-ko. Readers of this article also read Geisha are like sumo wrestlers! Before becoming an apprentice, a young woman grows her hair very long so that it can be shaped into the elaborate hairstyles of a maiko. She wears at least five different styles, each one signifying a different stage in her apprenticeship. For instance, a new maiko wears a hairstyle called wareshinobu, which incorporates two strands of red ribbon that signify her innocence.
An adult maiko wears a style called ofuku. This change was once determined by mizu-age, or a maiko's first sexual experience, but now it is simply a function of time. The switch usually occurs when the apprentice turns 18 or has been working for three years.
Apprentice geisha spend hours at the hairdresser every week to maintain their hairstyle. They sleep on special pillows blocks that have a hole in the middle so they don't ruin their hair while they sleep.
When a maiko becomes a geisha, she switches her red collar for a white one and her maiko kimono for a geisha kimono. A geisha kimono is simpler in appearance and easier to deal with. Black is also used around the eyes and on the eyebrows. After turning 30 years old, a geisha can wear make-up for special occasions only, the idea being to make room for their natural beauty. Geisha only wear silk kimono , closed by knotting a wide belt in the back, called an obi.
The shape of the knot depends on the age of the geisha; a knot with a long train is displayed by a maiko , while a shorter knot will be used instead for an older confirmed geisha.
Similarly, bright colors and patterns are usually by worn younger maiko. The outfit is completed with white socks tabi and wooden sandals geta. To put on a kimono is a complex task and fabrics are heavy, so often a professional dresser attends to the geisha and helps dress them.
This is the only man allowed to enter the okiya , the house where geisha live. Kimonos are traditionally handmade and are of great value.
They often cost several thousand dollars. Geisha wear their hair in very sophisticated chignons held by traditional combs. As it takes so long to style, their hair must be kept perfect over several days, so they sleep by resting their necks on small supports. Geisha are distinguished by their manners. Their need for refinement at all times makes it impossible for them to do things like have lunch at fast food places, go shopping in regular clothing stores or supermarkets, or even use a plastic bag for shopping.
During meetings with customers, they must entertain them while showing the utmost restraint and without ever lapsing into vulgarity. In the past, women managing the geisha houses bought young girls under 10 years from poor families in the countryside. Called the okaasan mother , she took care of all their education and training until adulthood. At the beginning of their training, the girls were to perform everyday household chores mainly in the okiya and attend to the geisha; intensive and hard work requiring extreme obedience.
The girls then begin their intensive training in the arts. In the course of learning, many went on to specialize in a particular art, dance was often considered the most noble. The two geisha sisters were bound by the relationship, and the elder passed on her knowledge to the younger, and gradually, introduced her into the closed circle of geisha.
To succeed, the novice had to get noticed, and thus build her own customer base. When they were ready, they entered the geisha profession and organised their own appointments. An event particularly marked by a change in collar, in a ceremony called erikae.
The red collar of an apprentice is abandoned in favor of white, reserved for confirmed geisha. Those that live in the geisha houses develop mother-daughter relationships with the geishas that run the house and refer to them as "mother.
Maikos endure a strict military-like training that takes up most of their time. They study etiquette, the ways of men, walking with quiet, shuffling steps, and traditional arts such as the tea ceremony, flower arranging, calligraphy and classical fan and umbrella dancing and learn to play the banjo-like the samisen.
Maiko are taught to eat tofu and fish with touching the food to their artfully lacquered lips and learn to bow by kneeling with their body straight so that just the tips of their outstretched fingers touch the tatami. They are not supposed to touch their palms of forearms to the floor.
During winter training they have to stand out on a balcony and sing. During the summer heat they have to serve hot tea while wearing their full geisha regalia. Many maikos say they often think about quitting during their training. Maiko training in Kyoto is very strict. Those who come from outside Kyoto have to acquire a Kyoto accent. Geisha apprentices from Tokyo can't talk to their families on the phone out of worries that her Kyoto accent would be tarnished. Only about of one of 10 trainees actually becomes a maiko.
These days the training is much less rigorous than it used to be. Girls start much later than they used to and are allowed to take a day off if they are tired or have a hangover. If the training is too hard the girls quit. An Akasaka geisha can be likened to a peony. I want my younger colleagues to feel the vigor and flamboyancy of a peony. One geisha told the Daily Yomiuri, "Our function has always been that of mediators for customers conducting business, We maintain utmost obedience to them.
If one customer says crows are white, we just smile and agree. In this sense, we are no different from hostesses. We give love to people, give water to flowers. 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. You have to drink every day. The customers are usually drunk and they try to get us drunk.
Geisha are taught to go uh huh, uh huh and not offer their opinions. A Tokyo geisha told Cobb, "In this world the man holds the higher position, and the woman follows him. That's the way it should be. I must help and support him but not let him know.
This a woman's virtue: to be strong on the inside but not let it show. One geisha told the New York Times, "There is a technique to good listening. It may sound impolite to wives, but men have a world that wives cannot understand.
Men release their inner self in a place like this and then go home. You can only do that after your 40s. It's taboo to talk about everyday stuff. Geisha activities and movements are carefully crafted. The way her body sinks to a kneel, or she uses just the fingertips of her right hand to slide open wood-framed Japanese doors. Dancing and instrument playing are expected to be heartfelt. Geisha work at nightly parties that often go into the wee hours of the morning.
They receive generous wages and tips but they also have pay thousands of dollars for expensive silk kimonos and other clothes and items.
Geishas are not allowed to marry so many of them take older lovers "for financial and emotional support. Most geishas go by a single professional name.
Some geishas have specialties. Golf-geishas are particularly skilled in chatting with clients about golf. Others are good at playing games that men find amusing. Those that dance, sing and play an instrument are taught to do so with an expressionless face.
In the old days geisha often lived and worked at the same place. This is no longer the case. One geisha told the Japan Times, "Nowadays we are like regular office workers and the okiya is an office to which we commute from the suburbs.
A typical day for a typical geisha begins at around am with breakfast followed by errands, household chores and singing and instrument practice and maybe some dance exercises. She takes a bath and begin preparing for work at around pm. Work usually ends around am and about an hour is needed to remove the make up and take off the kimono.
The routine day in and out does a take its toll. A Kyoto geisha told Cobb, "I'm tired of people's eyes. I'm tired of pretending to be someone I'm, tired of flattery. I would love to be thought of as a frank and honest person, speaking and acting as I really feel. But this business won't allow that. One geisha in Atami told the Asahi Shimbun said she became a geisha for the money after she was forced to quite her company job because of health problems and she needed to pay off a car loan.
The endless nights of cigarette smoke and singing over many years also take their toll. Many veteran geishas have a gruff, deep voice. Some even have polyps on their throat.
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