What do geisha look like

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.

Today, the training of geisha remains broadly the same, although it is probably shorter. In addition, apprentices must of course embrace this career voluntarily; apprentices are now on average 17 or 18 years old when they begin their training. The geiko have to repay the cost of their training , costs that accumulated over the years and which were therefore often exorbitant, by working for the okiya.

Thus, any income they made did not return to them and this is still the case today. Once their debt is paid, they can continue to work for the okiya or strike out on their own. However, being a geisha is an expensive business, with the costs of the clothing, the hair and makeup alone, but also the repayment of a commission to the okiya , which served as an intermediary. The lucky ones find a rich patron who can bring them some financial stability, called a danna. The geisha profession still suffers from an association with prostitution, especially in the West.

However, geisha are not, and were never prostitutes and the reputation of the okiya , is only distinguished on the excellence of its entertainment, traditional Japanese arts. In the eighteenth century, numbers of geisha were in the thousands, sadly this is no longer the case. There are less than geisha now. The difficult training, the obligation to sacrifice their youth, the inability to start a family or get married unless you leave the profession , and the lack of privacy, are among some of the deterrents.

There is a way to catch a glimpse of a geisha for free in Tokyo and Kyoto, the birthplace of geisha. In Gion , Pontocho , Miyagawacho, Kamishichiken or Shimabara , you can sometimes see geisha and maiko out in the streets, as they walk between appointments. Japan Experience can help you enhance your trip with activities during your stay in Japan.

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Participants at a geiko dinner eat and drink while being entertained by the maiko and geiko. The task of the maiko and geiko is to engage in witty conversation with their guests, while keeping everybody's glasses filled. Another element of a geiko dinner are a whole range of games in which the loser usually has to drink up another glass of beer.

The cultural highlight of the evening is the geiko's performance of a seasonal dance, accompanied by traditional music, typically played on the shamisen by another geiko. The total number of geiko and maiko present depends on the party's size and the customer's budget. Geiko dinners have always been exclusive and expensive, high class events. But like other businesses, the ochaya have been suffering from the economic downturn in recent decades. As a result, they have become less restrictive, and it is now possible for almost any tourist with a sufficient budget to have a dinner with a geiko thanks to travel agencies and hotels serving as the go-between.

There are even a few companies which target foreign tourists without Japanese language skills, such as Voyagin. If you book through a travel agency, the typical cost for a full-fletched geiko dinner is around 50, yen per maiko or geiko plus the cost for the meal which is typically between 10, and 30, yen per person. Since English conversation is not among the skills learned by geiko they are supposed to communicate in Kyoto dialect , some services can arrange an interpreter at an additional cost.

There are also various other ways for people with a smaller budget to experience the geiko culture. The easiest is to watch a daily performance at the Gion Corner , a theater which targets foreign tourists with performances of a wide variety of Japanese arts , including a maiko dance.

During the month of April, the Miyako Odori is an even better opportunity to watch dance performances by maiko and geiko. Gyoku means a sphere or a jewel. Senkou means incense. To name something indirectly using other words is a form of beauty in the Japanese language, as it is for many other cultures. To become a geisha requires a lot of time and money. The danna would pay and take care of the geisha throughout her life. Therefore, it was high social status to become a danna.

It showed that they had enough money to be a patron of a geisha. Their relationship was not inherently sexual. Many people confuse geisha with oiran - shown in the image above - who were high-class sex workers. It is true that some geisha did sex work, but technically they were entertainers. If you want to give feedback on any of our articles, you have an idea that you'd really like to see come to life, or you just have a question on Japan, hit us up on our Facebook , Twitter , or Instagram!

The information in this article is accurate at the time of publication. Nationwide Japanese Culture.