GEISHA

Geisha: it means something different to everyone today; it can call to mind "prostitute", a popular rock band, rice, porcelain, and any other number of images that do not touch the reality of who and what geisha are. Until recently, not much was known in the West about geisha except certain facts and many conjectures: they were known to entertain men in public and private events, their white faces and red lips have become the image of "Japan" visible on travel books and posters, and "geisha" is synonymous with "prostitute" for many. This essay will attempt to give a short history of geisha in Japan and analyze how geisha have been seen, and are now seen, in both Japanese and Western societies.

Geisha: Description and History
Description

"Geisha" is a word that means "one who practices / lives by their gei (art)." Through this simple definition we can establish the history of who the geisha are and how they have been seen. Gei specifically refers to the arts of playing the shamisen (a three stringed instrument), drums, traditional dancing and singing, the tea ceremony, calligraphy, and the art of conversation.
The geisha establishment as it is today was formalized in the late 1800's. It consists of neighborhoods called hanamachi where there are teahouses, artisans, noodle shops and okiya - the houses where geisha live. In the okiya there lives the okamisan (the "mother" who runs the house), along with her family and the various geisha, maiko's and tamago's. Young girls are taken into the house at various ages, and perform various chores whilst observing the geisha and maiko (geisha-in-training). They are called tamago, which means "egg" and is indicative of their level of training. When they reach 17 they can become maiko, and begin training in earnest to be geisha. The maiko take lessons in the shamisen, dancing and the other arts of the geisha. They can go to geisha parties, but are not expected to be as socially poised as geishas. Maiko are very recognizable by their elaborate hairstyles, white face makeup and red lip (maiko only put red lipstick on their lower lip). There are other signs as well, having to do with how they wear their kimono and tie their obi. Once a maiko is ready, at around age 20, she goes through the erikae ceremony; erikae means "turning the collar" and refers to one part of how her dress changes when she changes from maiko to geisha. Before the "modernizing" influence reached Japan, maiko also underwent mizu-age, a ceremony that revolved around their losing their virginity to the highest bidder. This is now forbidden. When maiko become geisha, their makeup becomes subtler, their hair is tied in a bun and their kimonos, while still elegant, become less colorful. Maiko are comparable to beautiful bright butterflies; geisha are those same butterflies but have matured into a more elegant, experienced, composed and subtle species.
Geisha work by entertaining guests at expensive teahouses, where they will perform, pour drinks, tell jokes and stories and generally "keep the party going." Their presence is prohibitively expensive (a modern change; their services were cheaper in their heyday) and they entertain la crème de la crème of Japanese society. Their main income comes from the teahouses and their patrons. One thing to note is that while the main time of training in the arts occurs during the maiko period, geisha continue to improve upon their artistic skills throughout their professional careers. This is due to their goal of realizing perfection in their art and also to their participation in yearly dance performances. The geisha participate in the dance performances, which usually costs them a lot of money, for the prestige and love of the art. Due to the high cost of their lifestyle (each kimono can cost 10,000 USD, not counting their obi's and tabi's (socks) which are handmade and also expensive) many geisha rely on "patrons." These men provide the geisha with kimonos and money, and in return receive more special attention; whether this includes sexual favors is dependant upon the geisha's wishes.
It would be instructive to provide a quick note here about the economics of being a geisha. Training a maiko up into being a geisha is very expensive. The okiya must provide her with all of her kimono and lessons and pay for the multitude of expenses she incurs; over 80 years ago one of these expenses could have been the okiya's cost of acquiring her, whether through a "slave trader" or through paying her parents directly. Due to this expense by the time a maiko had become a geisha she owed her okiya an immense amount of money. She paid this off by working as a geisha; thus it worked as a kind of bondage system. If a geisha wanted to retire, she usually had to come up with the remainder of the money she owed her okiya. She could usually do this in one of two ways: by working as a geisha for many years or by having a wealthy patron "buy her out." If a geisha worked for many years she could manage to save enough money to open a business or okiya.

History

The geisha's arts were developed in the Tokugawa period (1600-1868) in Japan, but geisha as such didn't really flourish until the Meiji era (1868-1910's). Geisha were originally men called in to entertain in the "flower and willow world" (karyukai), also called the "water world" or the "floating world," which contained prostitutes, entertainers and their patrons. Soon all geisha were women, however, and while they were prohibited from competing with the prostitutes, there is evidence that they did. Geisha and prostitutes separated their activities after the geisha became more popular and were called to entertain at other teahouses and outside the walled confines of the flower and willow world. Geisha came to occupy the top levels of the water world, and were the leaders in defining chic fashion and the arts in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Part of the reason for this popularity was the important role geisha played in the changing of government from Tokugawa to Meiji; the revolution was planned in the teahouses of Gion and Pontocho. The geisha involved remained silent about the revolution and even occasionally protected the revolutionaries from the officials. The revolutionaries rewarded the geisha's support by patronizing them after the successful change of government (Liza Crihfield: The Institution of the Geisha in Modern Japanese Society thesis (Stanford University, 1978), page 65.)
With the coming of the Taisho and Showa periods (1920s to '30s), Western material culture and ideology was imported into Japan. The geisha at first tried to modernize along with the rest of society, but soon realized that they would lose everything that made them special and become just another type of jokyu (bar hostesses and café girls) if they did. This period was one of confusion for the geisha, and with the coming of World War 2, the geisha establishment was even disbanded for some years. After the war, the geisha returned to their old neighborhoods, but not in the same numbers as they had had before. Increasing competition with the Westernized jokyu led to the geisha forfeiting their place as the queens of the fashionable world and instead became the preservers of the traditional arts and entertainments. The situation was complicated by the fact that "The geisha were dismayed at the number of prostitutes who called themselves "geisha girls" for the benefit of the American troops, and the G.I.'s of course, were unaware of such nuances." (Crihfield, page 100) This confusion of true geisha with prostitutes had long-lasting repercussions, as will be discussed later. Nowadays the true geisha numbers have dwindled even further and there is some doubt as to how much longer the geisha can maintain their unique way of life.

Through Japanese Eyes
Geisha as Artists vs. Geisha as part of the sex industry

Geisha consider themselves true artists. A quote from Mayumi, a geisha, shows how seriously they take their art: "A geisha contains her art within herself, and because her body has this art, her life is saved. That is the power of art - the salvation of one's soul." (Jodi Cobb: Geisha: the Life, the Voices, the Art. (New York : Alfred A Knopf, 1997) page 23). Geisha judge each other on the basis of their artistic talents; their scorn for onsen geisha is mostly based on the perceived lack of training and devotion to the arts shown by the onsen geisha. (onsen mean "hot springs" - it refers to "geisha" who entertain at resorts) Mayumi sums up her opinion of patrons with: "A man becomes a geisha's patron as a secondhand way of acquiring art. He just acquires the person who performs the art." (Cobb, page 100.) This shows that the geisha is the canvass and creator of art rather than purely a manifestation of it; she gives someone the potential to experience art and through this art experience the nature of true beauty. This idea of experiencing beauty is generally at its most potent in the appreciation of physical beauty: the beauty of the geisha herself as well as her mastery of song, music and dance. This also shows another aspect of the geisha lifestyle; art is not the geisha's only attraction or concern, as one geisha says:
"High praise in the geisha world is the expression komata no kereagatta hito. It originally described the beautiful shape of the hairline on the back of the neck. But because we put the makeup on our necks to mirror the shape of the genital area, it now means a geisha with a lovely genital area, a 'beautifully lined place,' who has also developed her gei to a high degree. It is the perfect combination of erotic beauty and high artistic achievement. It is what we aspire to." (Cobb, page 60.)
This quote shows the difficulty of quantifying geisha in a single category; they are artists and they are also powerful women desired by men. In their profession they have combined the two in a seamless fusion.

Geisha and Japanese Fashion

During the Tokugawa period geisha were regulated by "sumptuary laws" which closely restricted what they could wear. These laws were an attempt to separate geisha and prostitutes; the prostitutes wore many-layered kimonos, and a profusion of hair ornaments. Geisha were commanded to wear plainer kimonos and few hair ornaments. In the Meiji era, not only did the rising popularity of geisha influence the political and social realms, they also heavily influenced contemporary fashions trends. Women all over Japan followed these trends. Geisha even started some kimono patterns and ways of wearing kimono. Of course, once the Westernization of fashion began and geisha decided to stay "traditional" the role of geisha in contemporary fashion almost completely disappeared; where once the kimono was the sole costume, and therefore the slight nuances in the way it was worn marked stylistic artistry, Western clothes and influences together with the more transient ideas of fashion began to supercede the Japanese tradition of subtle variation in costume. (General information from Liza Crihfield Dalby: Kimono: Fashioning Culture (New Haven : Yale University Press , c1993))

Western Perceptions
Geisha as Asian harem women?

The Western obsession with the image of the harem woman is well known. Are geisha the Asian equivalent of Middle Eastern harem women? In a way, yes. The mystique that surrounds the geisha institution, not just for Westerners but also for Japanese as well, shrouds the realities of the geisha world. However, combined with this mystique is fragmented and often wrong information. The example of the American GI's not knowing the difference between prostitutes calling themselves "geisha girls" and actual geishas (who the GI's probably didn't see much, if at all) is telling. Due to the exclusivity of access to geisha, curiosity has been rampant about what really happened/happens at "geisha parties;" this has probably led many to place their own ideas/longings in the place of knowledge and so the "worst" sexually is assumed to occur - that geisha are simply "entertainers" until the end of the evening, when their "entertainment" becomes more intimate. So in Western perceptions, geisha are similar to harem women in that they are accessible only to a few men and they are seen as sexual objects for these few. Whether this is true or not has not changed Western fascination with geisha. With the immense popularity of Arthur Golden's Memoirs of a Geisha, thousands, maybe even millions, now have Golden's version of geisha life. This popularity has spawned many other imitators who are jumping on the "geisha bandwagon." An interview with the retired geisha Mineko Iwasaki, the acknowledged source of much of Golden's geisha information, shows her unhappiness with Golden's interpretation: "The book is all about sex," she complains. "He wrote that book on the theme of women selling their bodies. It was not that way at all." However, women selling their bodies is a theme that sells well to the West.

Examples of Western Images of the Geisha

The quintessential image of the geisha is her white face, red lips, dark eyes and elaborate hair. This image is on travel posters, guidebooks to Japan and in innumerable other public relations spaces. It is synonymous with cherry blossoms, Mt. Fuji and "Japan" and is considered part of Japan's cultural heritage.
Not only do geisha "sell" Japan, but they are also prominently displayed on many products; for example, in Norway there is the "geisha girl" rice brand. Another example is "geisha girl" porcelain:
"Geisha girl porcelain was made for export in the late nineteenth century in Japan. It was an inexpensive porcelain often sold in dime stores or used as free premiums. Pieces are sometimes marked with the name of a store. Japanese ladies in kimonos are pictured on the dishes. There are over 125 recorded patterns. Borders of red, blue, green, gold, brown, or several of these colors were used. Modern reproductions are being made."
A web search on "geisha" is just as likely to produce results of "geisha girl" sex portals as pages on the musical "The Geisha." This was a "'musical comedy' called The Geisha, by Sidney Jones, dates from 1896 and was by far the biggest hit of that decade, its popularity outstripping everything else, even The Mikado, throughout Europe." These examples show not only the fascination that the West has with the image of the geisha, but also how enduring this fascination has been, from 1896 to today.
One contemporary example of the image of the geisha is in the American movie "Star Wars: Episode 1: The Phantom Menace." While there are many "borrowings" from Asian cultures (and other cultures), some highly controversial and others easily accepted, the most interesting "borrowing" in the movie (for the interests of this paper) is the appearance of the character Queen Amidala. Her wardrobe and hairstyles are acknowledgely influenced by Asian fashions, present and past. The influence of the geisha can be seen most clearly in her white face, red lip, some of her elaborate headdresses and her kimono outfit. The white face and red lips are one of the world-renown geisha traits. Amidala wears incredibly complicated hairstyles in each scene, many of which are influenced by ancient Chinese Imperial styles, but two of her styles in particular are very similar to maiko hair. Maiko's wear their hair in large stiff configurations made possible by the combing of hot wax through their tresses. Various hair ornaments are added to create a wonderfully decorative look, which happens to have the side effect of creating a bald spot by the age of 20. Amidala wears her hair in a very maiko fashion in one scene; in another she wears a white headdress that creates the same effect but uses cloth and beads instead of hair to create it. Lastly, one of Amidala's outfits, the one that compliments her white headdress, is a kimono. Nowadays kimonos are rarely worn in Japan; geisha are practically the only women who wear them everyday. Thus Amidala's styles borrow directly and indirectly from the geisha fashion tradition.

Conclusions

Geisha have had a complex and ever-changing relationship with Japanese and Western societies. Aspects of this relationship have always included misperceptions, politics, fashion, mystery and glamour. From being the arbiters of fashion and art the geisha have now become the proud guardians of the arts and traditions of a bygone era. Geisha have been sometimes seen in the West as mysterious, harem-like women, sometimes as unique artists. Whatever the impression, their image has been used to sell books, travel guides, rice, porcelain and many other commodities. Their symbolic value is more important than their artistic value to Western society.
Japanese society has somewhat of an ambivalent view towards geisha. Even moving between Japanese localities the perceptions of geisha change. For example, in the more traditional city of Kyoto geisha are accepted as culturally talented people while in the modern city of Tokyo, Japanese are more likely to view geisha as "prostitutes," highly paid ones at that.
What are the reasons for these different perceptions? Again, the fact that little is readily known about geisha in either society probably helps popularize mistakes, but I suggest that the main culprit is inter-societal influence. When Japan modernized during the Meiji Restoration not only were Western technologies imported; Western "eyes" were also brought in, which viewed Japanese culture from a Western perspective. This, combined with the influx of American people and culture following the Second World War, led to a change within Japanese self-perception in regards to geisha. Geisha lost some of the respect of their society and "prostitute" came to stereotype them, especially in the more Westernized cities like Tokyo. This was helped by the occurrence of "geisha-girl" prostitutes who "served" the American GI's. This interaction wasn't only one-sided, however; the West gained a valuable stereotype of Japanese society, one of its favorites, as can be seen in the "Star Wars" geisha influences.
Thus in the person of the geisha one can see clear examples of how Western and Japanese stereotypes, cultural knowledge and artistic perceptions meet and intermingle.