Presentation Report

Course: Making of Modern Japan

Name: Saransh Srivastav
Enrollment Number: S173DHS42

Geisha: Evolution of Japanese Identity and culture over two centuries

The word geisha literally means performance person.  The Japanese view geisha as
professional entertainers.  However, the majority of the world thinks of a geisha as a white-
faced lady with her hair in a bun and a kimono on.  In the historiography of modern Japan,
the Geisha is often problematic figure. Her image as a symbol of Japan, its tradition, or
Oriental femininity has a robust presence in scholarly literature. Number of recent studies
have examined how the figure of the geisha has been constructed in movies, novels,
paintings, and prints on both sides of the Pacific. The centuries-old tradition of geisha is one
of Japan’s most recognized yet least understood cultural traditions. Geishas being social
companions, skilled in the arts of conversation, music, dance, literature and tea ceremony
have been and still are representation of Japanese culture. Every aspect of Geisha’s lives is
ritualized, from their very behaviour, very behaviour, their costumes, and their living social
relationships. This paper aims to show how the ritualized institution of the Geisha functions
as a means of transmitting and preserving the unique culture of Japan.

A Geisha spends many years learning to play various musical instruments, sing, dance and be
the perfect hostess in a party of men. She is supposed to be the illusion of female perfection.
A true geisha is successful because she projects a sense of unattainable perfection. Geisha's
makeup, hair, clothing and manner are calculated to indulge a man's fantasy of the perfect
woman, and men pay huge sums of money to host a geisha in their festivals. Many
Westerners confuse geisha with prostitutes. Those who understand the intricacies of Japanese
culture explain that a geisha is not a prostitute. When men hire geisha to entertain at a party,
sex has nothing to do with it. A geisha entertains with singing, music, dance, story-telling,
attentiveness and flirtation. She can speak about politics as easily as she can explain the rules
of a drinking game. In past, when Japanese wives were excluded from public life in general,
geisha were the women who could play the role of attentive female at business gatherings.

Geisha trace their roots to female entertainers in 18th century Japan, although some believe
their culture is linked to dancers and performers from the 11th century. We can trace the roots
of the geisha back to the 1200s with a group called the ‘shirabyoshi’. Although they were not
geisha by any means, they were similarly trained and educated in the arts. The mention of
geisha comes in sixteenth century. Since then geisha have gone through a variety of changes
in their roles and are now totally different from where they started out. The height of
the geisha's role was when poor families would sell their young women to the ‘okiya’(the
house where geisha live) and the okiya would provide young women to the tea houses to take
care of the powerful men. These influential men would choose from these ‘maiko’
(apprentice geisha) their favourites and sponsor them to be full geisha. The power men
would support the geisha financially and indirectly the traditional dance and arts that
the geisha performed.

A young woman's first step toward becoming a geisha is to apply and get accepted into
an okiya, a geisha house. Typically, a young woman spends about six years studying the arts
of music, dance, tea ceremony, language and hostessing. Geisha study the arts at
a ‘kaburenjo’,  a school dedicated to the training of geisha. Sometimes these schools also
house a theatre where geisha give their rare public performances. Musical instruments are
only one aspect of a geisha's artistic repertoire. She studies singing, traditional Japanese
dance (nihon-buyoh) and tea ceremony (sadoh), all of which she is expected to use in her job.
She studies flower arrangement (ikebana) and calligraphy (shodoh), because she is supposed
to be quintessential cultured woman. A geisha may specialize in one art form, such as singing
or dancing, but she should be proficient in all of them. Women aspiring to become Geisha
spends years studying not only to be an artist, but also to carry herself with grace. She learns
the proper way to speak in the accent of the district where she works, to walk in a floor-
length kimono without tripping over her hem, and to pour sake so that her kimono sleeve
doesn't dip into the cup. While attending ceremonies, geisha learns whom to greet first and
how low to bow when greeting each person.

In Kyoto, girls often begin their geisha training at a young age by joining an okiya, or geisha
house. There are three stages of training: shikomi, minarai, and maiko. As shikomi, girls
serve as house maids. Housekeeping (over) duties are purposefully made difficult in process
to prepare them. After passing an intense dance exam, shikomi become minarai. Minarai no
longer have chores, but rather focus on training in the field, where they learn skills such as
light conversation and how to interact with guests. They usually are not invited to parties, but
attend as guests of senior geisha. They can be hired, but may only charge a portion of the
price of a full-fledged geisha. Girls are minarai for only a short period of time before they
become maiko, or apprentice geisha. Maiko intensely shadow a senior geisha mentor and
teacher, or onê-san. The relationship between maiko and onê-san is extremely important.
Maiko learn the arts of serving sake, clever conversation, and general comportment from
their onê-san. An apprentice may be a maiko for months or years before becoming a
professional geisha.

Geisha being high-cultured, professional entertainers are paid for their social company at
parties and other functions, often held at special restaurants known in Kyoto as “tea-houses.”
Geisha are expected to remain single. Traditionally, wealthy men known as danna, or patrons,
support a geisha’s training and other expenses, which can be very costly. The original geisha
were men, and they entertained all over Japan. Because of social restrictions, women could
not entertain at a party. These men kept the conversation going, gave artistic performances
and flattered guests at parties thrown by noblemen and other members of the upper class. In
the 1700s, women calling themselves geisha first appeared in the "pleasure districts" of
Japan. There are many takes on the origins of the female geisha. Geisha were not affiliated
with the brothels, the people running them received no money from the geisha's wages. In
order to curtail the geisha's popularity and get the focus back on registered brothels, the
government set very strict rules for geisha concerning their style of dress, how and where
they could entertain and the hours they could work. To make sure sex was not part of the
party, geisha were not allowed to be hired singly. But instead of reducing the geisha's
success, these restrictions only made them more sought after.

As time went on, particularly during the poorest times in Japan, the success of the geisha led
many impoverished parents to sell their young daughters to a geisha house (okiya). These
children trained from the age of five or six to become successful geisha and repay
the okiya for the cost of their training.
Geisha was also a way that helps a disappointed woman to have a new hope again. She
wanted to rise herself in social status way but it’s lower inhumanity way. She tried hard to
learn to be a geisha, the moving-arts. She called herself an artist. But the way she did is just
to temp the men as her customers, to make herself valuable. She waited for someone to be her
Danna the geisha supporter for all her life. Much of the time, a geisha's danna would already
be married to another woman. Historically, marriage and romantic love were viewed as two
separate entities in Japanese Culture; very seldom were they one and the same." A marriage
was between two respectable Japanese families not two people hopelessly in love. For this
reason, most Japanese men sought mistresses for sexual and sometimes loving relationships

Western writers often write that there was an abundance of rivalry and competition between
geisha and wives; which, if it were true, could support their thesis that geisha are prostitutes.
Interestingly, any true altercations between geisha and wives were actually quite rare. Wives
would actually feel more threatened by the idea that their husband might have an affair with
some one other than geisha. In the documentary, The Secret Life of Geisha (1999), a modern
geisha client and his wife are interviewed. The wife divulges that she would not be happy if
she found out her husband had an affair with any ordinary Japanese woman, but that she
would not mind if he had an affair with a geisha. She actually said that if her husband had an
affair with a geisha, she would consider it as "an honour”, When the woman's husband heard
this statement, he simply chuckled awkwardly in response.

The geisha of Japan have played a significant role in defining the culture of the country. 
They leave a distinct mark on the minds of the international world. Their unique mannerisms
and high demand as entertainers have allowed them to be a part of the Japanese culture for
the last four centuries. Even with the coming of westernization and orientalism in the Island
the tradition continues. The geisha have become symbolic of traditional Japan much like a
painting from a lost age. Western observers tended to focus on Japan’s perceived exotic
features and aestheticized its traditional culture and fetishized its people. The Western
imagination of Japan focused on two approaches: the country could be characterized either in
terms of its aesthetic, elegant qualities, or through the martial cultures. They always
attempted to understand the profession of the geisha from a western paradigm, and inevitably
failed to comprehend both the cultural and social mores of Japan and the impossibility of
westernizing the understanding of the complex roles that geisha play within the society. 

Bibliography

 William May, The Gei of Geisha: Music, Identity and Meaning, 2017, 107-26.
 Cean Bussey, Geisha and Ritual Kinship supporting Art
 Stanley, Amy. "Enlightenment Geisha: The Sex Trade, Education, and Feminine
Ideals in Early Meiji Japan." The Journal of Asian Studies72, no. 03 (2013): 539-62.
 Wester Wagenaar, Japan: A new face of orientalism.