Painted with white makeup, wearing gorgeous kimonos, curled black hair, this is the world's view of Japanese geisha, as a profession with a history of hundreds of years, geisha brings the most feeling to the world is ambiguous and mysterious, and even once thought that geisha and ancient Qinglou women, can be with guests Spring Festival once, now there are very few geisha in Japan, and has become the national essence of Japan, becoming a place that many people want to explore when they travel to Japan, so the ambiguous profession of geisha, How did it become Japan's national essence step by step?
Geisha performance
The origin of geisha
The origin of geisha is varied, but it was formed in the Edo period of Japan, in the early years, in order to rebuild the temple, a priestess from Nejima Prefecture all the way to Kyoto, hoping to get more donations, in order to attract people, she reformed the traditional chanting dance and became more enchanting, so that many Qinglou women who have seen her dance have followed suit.
Modern Japan Boats
Because this dance was different from the past, it soon attracted a lot of attention, and some teahouses began to invite some men and women to perform this dance in order to attract more lower-class samurai to consume, and in order to increase taxes, the shogunate at that time drew some specific places to dance for them in addition to prohibiting private prostitution, but it didn't take long for the shogunate to ban the popularity of this dance on the grounds that this dance was indecent.
However, the lower class samurai and commoners already liked this dance, so some men began to dress up as women to dance again, and the continuous reform of the dance made the art of geisha mature, and the geisha in geisha means male dancer.
Geisha photo
After the 18th century, geisha began to gradually become a legal profession, some geisha houses would specifically recruit young folk women to learn to sing and dance, specializing in singing and dancing in some high-end tea houses and various geisha houses, and at the same time, in order to compete with secret prostitutes, high-class tea houses began to agree with each other, stipulating that geisha would not sell themselves, and with the existence of a geisha registry, the first female geisha recorded was a woman who appeared in Fukagawa in 1750, called kikuya, which was the beginning of the separation of geisha and prostitutes, Therefore, the early geisha were actually no different from the Qinglou women, but they sold their arts and did not sell themselves later.
Of course, geisha were only spread in areas such as Fukagawa and Yoshiwara at first, but it was not until 1813 that Kyoto officially recognized geisha as a professional profession, and geisha began to spread, and even during the Meiji Restoration, the geisha industry began to apply the standards of the entertainment industry.
Flower Geisha
Since separating from the prostitutes, geisha have begun to modify their attire to distinguish themselves from them, knotting the traditional kimono straps at the back, and the clothes are uniformly white, and the kimono also has strict rules, and different styles and colors have different symbolic meanings in the geisha industry.
Knowledge of geisha
Performance classification
The classification of geisha performances can be roughly divided into two types, called cubes and places.
Maiki and geisha
Cube: Mainly dance performances, because dancing is relatively easy, so Cube's performance is performed by some junior geisha and maiki.
Place: It is a performer who can sing songs such as Chang Song and Kiyogen, and play taiko drums, shamisen, etc., because the performance is relatively difficult and requires a long time of training to be competent, so the performers who perform this kind of performance are all highly qualified geisha.
Others: In addition to singing and dancing, geisha also perform traditional Japanese art performances such as tea ceremony, incense ceremony, etc., and even chat with guests to add atmosphere.
Japanese geisha
Geisha dress
hairstyle
Senior geisha would comb a hairstyle called Shimada Kushi, which was used by unmarried female geisha and prostitutes in ancient Japan, which lasted until the early Showa period until it gradually disappeared after World War II, and today only geisha in Japan have this hairstyle. Of course, the young geisha combs a girly peach cut hairstyle.
Shimada Kazuki
Peach cracking
kimono
Geisha also wear kimonos, but they wear kimonos with cuffs closed, and in the eyes of the Japanese, the back of the neck is a very sexy part, so the back of the geisha's kimono will reveal the back of their white neck. In addition, the costumes of geisha are very gorgeous and very high-quality, and they usually cost 500,000 yen to make, and there is no ceiling.
Back of the neck and neck
In addition, Kyoto's geisha costumes are the most famous, and modern geisha are also mainly based on Kyoto, and the straps of their kimonos are very long, even reaching five meters, because the weight is very heavy, and some men need to help in the back.
White foundation
For many people, the first thing a geisha sees is a thick white foundation, no matter what kind of geisha, the face will be coated with a heavy white foundation, why is this so? The history of white foundation has been popular since the Heian period, when Japanese women were made of rice flour and water to give their faces a porcelain-like luster.
Heavy white foundation
As for why geisha are used, because there was no electricity in ancient Japan, candles could only be lit at night, so that guests could clearly see their facial expressions, and geisha would paint their faces white, so that guests could see their rich facial expressions in the dim candlelight, so it has been handed down.
Geisha Road
In ancient times, the cultivation of geisha needed to start from an early age, generally from the age of 10, they learned more content, and very strict, learning content including culture, etiquette, language, decoration, poetry, musical instruments, and even bowing, pouring wine, etc., every move, every word and deed have strict requirements, everywhere reflects nobility and stability.
Geisha in action
Its Chinese mainly studied history, especially Chinese history, after all, the Japanese upper class at that time was very respectful of Chinese history, and when all the knowledge was completed, they also needed to follow the geisha seniors to learn how to observe words and colors, how to speak elegantly and appropriately and treat guests, at this time they could only pour wine for guests, they could not speak.
After a few years of study, generally at the age of 16 to officially start as a geisha, the initial geisha can only be called maiko or hantama, until you learn shamisen, tea ceremony, ikebana and other more advanced arts can be officially called geisha, geisha career is very short, generally after about 30 years of age geisha will end their career, if you want to continue to work as a geisha after the age of 30, you will be demoted and become a young geisha foil.
Yoshiharu Nakamura
Today, because the Child Welfare Law and the Labor Standards Law were enacted in 1947, prohibiting children from leaving school and entering the workforce, Japanese geisha practitioners today have to wait until they graduate from junior high school at the earliest.
How geisha became the quintessence of Japan
Ancient times had a low status
In ancient times, the status of geisha was relatively low, many geisha were sold or abducted by human traffickers because of poverty since childhood, although they became geisha after food and clothing, but after old age and decline can only end miserably, although in essence geisha are selling arts and not selling themselves, but these geisha in order to earn more money, there are a lot of secret prostitution behind the open geisha.
Dressed up geisha
Some excellent geisha will also have some high-ranking officials and noble pursuits, will form a delicate relationship, such as male guests will be responsible for the geisha's food, clothing and geisha various performance remuneration, then correspondingly, this geisha can only receive this customer, this relationship is also allowed in the industry, known as the Dana system, the so-called Dana is the meaning of the lord and the son.
Become a concubine
Of course, the best way out for geisha is to become a concubine, because of the low status, rarely become a regular wife, and must give up their geisha work after marriage, but because of the various training of geisha in the early years, both in terms of talent and temperament and social skills, there are also many geisha who have become regular wives, including Ito Hirobumi's wife Umeko, Kido Takayo's wife Matsuko, and so on.
Ito Hirobumi and his wife Umeko
It has become the national essence of Japan
In the early years, although the status of Japanese geisha was low, it was not spurned, the main reason was that after the defeat of Japan, social order was disordered, and many Japanese prostitutes would wear kimonos and pretend to be geisha to earn dollars in the hands of American soldiers.
The joy of American GIs
However, with the development of the economy, there are fewer and fewer women engaged in the profession of geisha, and it takes a lot of cost and energy to train a good geisha, so the geisha itself is becoming more and more precious in Japan, and there are currently only more than 200 geisha in Kyoto, and geisha are also one of the few people who can inherit almost all the traditional arts of Japan, so in modern times, it has become a great thing to become a geisha, and the status of geisha has risen.
Geisha in anime
Nowadays, Japan regards geisha culture as a traditional Japanese cultural heritage, and integrated into other cultures, Kyoto will be geisha experience program as a popular way to travel, attracting many people to experience geisha culture, at present, Japanese geisha have also formed their own internal professional rules, that is, do not attend birth, only sell arts do not sell themselves, guests are also introduced by acquaintances or understand the art of geisha can be, colleagues geisha are not allowed to get married, if you get married, you must announce your withdrawal with great fanfare. So as not to affect the characteristics of geisha purity.