The word geisha is made up of two kanji which stand for “art” and “person.” These two symbols elucidate the role of a geisha: she is an artist with excellent poise, who excels in conversation, dance and music. In short, everything a person needs to entertain and make guests feel comfortable and welcome.
How Do Girls Become Geisha?
Becoming a geisha is a long process, and typically geisha training starts in early childhood. Traditionally, the daughters of geisha were raised as geisha, although there were exceptions. Some geisha houses did buy girls, and daughterless geisha could adopt a young girl as her daughter and successor. Girls in training are known as maiko, or “dance child.” Maiko are apprentice geisha so to speak, and it is their job to follow an experienced geisha, observing and learning from her.
This mentor-geisha is called onee-san; literally, “sister.” Maiko follow their onee-san to work, but receive only half the pay of a geisha. Although there is no set amount of time that a girl must be a maiko, a girl past her 21st year is considered too old. If a girl who wishes to be a geisha is already 21, she will go through an appropriate amount of time training, and then debut as a geisha rather than a maiko.
Geisha are easily recognized by their pencil-thin eyebrows, chalk-white face makeup, blood-red lips and beautiful kimono tied with fancy obi. Elaborate hairstyles are another feature of geisha. Some maiko who are about to become geisha blacken their teeth. The idea is that the black teeth will blend with the blackness of an open mouth, leaving them “invisible.”
Where do Geisha Live?
The Japanese have a word for the world the geisha live in: Karyuukai, or the world of flower and willows. It’s very poetic, and helps convey geisha’s purpose: a beautiful flower to admire. The districts geisha reside in are known as hanamachi, or flower-towns, and there are several well-known ones: Gion district in Kyoto is particularly well-known, as are Asakusa and Shimbashi in Tokyo.
What do Geisha do?
Contrary to many people’s beliefs, geisha are not exotic prostitutes. A geisha is trained to entertain people. They are taught poise, traditional song and dance, and how to play a variety of instruments, including the shamisen (Japanese lute), the shakuhachi (Japanese flute) and even drums. Conversation is an important art for geisha to learn because it is important never to insult or offend their guests in conversation. One could think of geisha as a very refined actress.
Today, there are only around two-thousand geisha in Japan, as opposed to near 80,000 in 1920’s Japan, when geisha were in their heyday. Geisha still train in traditional dances and instruments, paint themselves in elaborate makeup and wear kimono. The only real difference is that four-hundred years have passed. The geisha it seems are as timeless as Mt. Fuji, always changing, but always staying the same.
Read more about geisha
More details about geisha life
For a fictionalized but true-to-life account of geisha, read Arthur Golden’s Memoirs of a Geisha.
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