As promised, Today I am featuring modern Geisha ( and maiko).
I particularly enjoy this tradition not because I'm a Japanophile ( though I do watch my fair share of anime and the what not), but because of the concept of the geisha.
Geisha are all about a languishing in an illusion of beauty, richness and prosperity.
They are an exercise in visual hedonism, born of men's desire to spend time with painfully beautiful, pleasant voiced, kind, talented, graceful women who can anticipate and answer their every need. This type of woman obviously does not exist in real life, and can only exist as a career in a society predominantly ruled by the wishes of men.
As that no longer rings true for modern japan, the Geisha is becoming less popular and the lifestyle is dying out.
There was rumor that young women were sold to Geisha houses to be apprentices in the past but that was extremely uncommon and most likely due to the popularity of the book Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden. Today, young women get permission from their families to become Geisha and begin their training around age 15 or 16.
For information on modern geisha: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geisha#Modern_geisha
One of my (non Japanese) friends recently expressed interest in becoming a geisha. I found someone who asked the question on a forum.
Here is the best response:
It's highly unlikely that you will ever become a geisha, no matter how willing you are to do the training. To my knowledge, there have only ever been two non-Japanese geisha. The first, Liza Dalby ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liza_Dalby ), worked as a geisha in Pontocho for a couple of years while she did her Ph.D. research. The second is currently working in Tokyo under the name Sayuki (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sayuki) . Right now we're not sure if she's going to stay forever or only until she gets what she needs to write book or make a documentary, but my guess is she's the real deal. Both Dalby and Sayuki came to the geisha world already speaking fluent Japanese and already able to perform at least one traditional geisha art (Dalby played shamisen, Sayuki plays flute). Both of them also already had first-hand experience with Japanese culture and knew a lot of the cultural basics a young Japanese person wanting to become a geisha would take for granted. Sayuki apparently graduated from a Japanese high school and Dalby is an anthropologist who specializes in Japanese cultural studies.
If you really want to become a geisha, the first thing you need to do is study more about them. Training starts at 15 or 16, after a girl is able to leave compulsory schooling and move to a geisha house. You also need to begin studying the Japanese language, Japanese culture, and at least one traditional Japanese art now. I suggest a musical instrument like the shamisen or flute, along with something like tea ceremony (but skip the flower arranging -- you want to study a performance art). Since I doubt you'll be able to move to Japan before you're 18, you probably won't be able to be a maiko/hangyoku, so dancing isn't something you would need to know in depth. Instead, focus on becoming a jikata geisha -- one of the women who provides musical accompaniment for dances, along with playing party games, keeping conversation lively, etc. Remember too that Japan often will not allow foreigners to get work visas unless they have at least a bachelor's degree, and since being a geisha is work you will probably need that degree to get in. Once there, you would go to the geisha registry offices in either Tokyo or Kyoto to see if they would be willing to take you. Even with training and fluent Japanese, though, I doubt you'll get into a geisha house in Kyoto, and even Tokyo could be a tough nut to crack. Therefore, you should have a backup career choice in mind and you should make sure to study for that as well. Basically, as much as I hate to say it, you have to be realistic about this and unfortunately that means understanding and accepting that foreigners have extremely low chances of becoming real geisha.
Yup. Rather harsh, aye?
Anyway, The music at the top of this post is from one of my favorite animes, Samurai Champloo. It is set in Fudal japan but has a really cool modern hip hop soundtrack that really sets it apart in quality from many other animes of the same genre. Since today's post is about the past set in the future, I thought it would go well to have something with the future set in the past. :D
P.S. If you're really intrigued by Geisha and the lifestyle, I highly recomend you check out the following books:
1. Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur golden.
Plot: How nine-year-old Chiyo, sold with her sister into slavery by their father after their mother's death, becomes Sayuri, the beautiful geisha accomplished in the art of entertaining men, is the focus of this fascinating first novel. Narrating her life story from her elegant suite in the Waldorf Astoria, Sayuri tells of her traumatic arrival at the Nitta okiya (a geisha house), where she endures harsh treatment from Granny and Mother, the greedy owners, and from Hatsumomo, the sadistically cruel head geisha. But Sayuri's chance meeting with the Chairman, who shows her kindness, makes her determined to become a geisha.
2. Geisha by Liza Dalb
In the mid-1970s, an American graduate student in anthropology joined the ranks of white-powdered geisha in Kyoto, Japan. Liza Dalby took the name Ichigiku and apprenticed in the famed Pontocho district, trailing behind "older sisters" bemused by this long-legged Westerner intent on learning their arts and customs. In Geisha, this observant ethnographer paints an intoxicating picture of the "flower and willow world" to which she gained entry. "Why are you studying geisha?" asks one slightly belligerent older sister. "Geisha are no different from anybody else." Not quite, says Dalby dryly, pointing out that geisha and wives play utterly divergent, though complementary, roles in traditional Japanese society. "Geisha are supposed to be sexy where wives are sober, artistic where wives are humdrum, and witty where wives are serious."
3. Giesha: A life by Mineko Iwesaki
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