Women In The Geisha Society Cultural Studies Essay

Women In The Geisha Society Cultural Studies riseWhen we speak about lacquer we imagine a high developmet state of matter with morden tehnology, cars, teleph 1s so on. But the biggest industry in Japan is non shipbuilding, producing gracious pearls, or manu detailuring transistor radios or cameras. It is cheer And geisha girl girl girl is an grand opinion of Japanese culture, and their elegant per abidanceances keep attracting m all people from well-nigh the military personnel.geisha is an important aspect of Japanese culture, and their elegant performances keep attracting many people from some the world.What do we know about geisha? In early seventeenth-century Japan (long before the word geisha was ever use upd), the predecessor of the geisha was a combination of actress and prostitute and worked on the stages set in the dry riverbed of the River Kamo in Kyoto. The line between actress and prostitute was blurry, as the women would perform erotic dances and skits fo r their audiences. This red-hot type of performance was dubbed kabuku, meaning to be wild and outrageous. The dances were c each(prenominal)ed kabuki, and this was the inception of kabuki theater. tralatitious Japanese views of wake were precise untieed. It was a society that embraced familiar delights and where men were non constrained to be faithful to their wives. In fact it was socially acceptable to be in love with one and only(a)s wife, nevertheless single when she was considered a professional woman. For sexual enjoyment and romantic attachment, men did not go to their wives, but to courtesans. In order to maintain this profession, the Japanese disposal created pleasure qu nontextual matterers where the courtesans could reside and work and men could go to relax and enjoy the amusement.These pleasure quarters quickly became glamorous entertainment centers that offered farthermost more than just sex. The highly accomplished courtesans of these districts entertained their clients by dancing, singing, and compete music. Some were even ren avered poets and calligraphers. Gradually, they all became finicalized and the new profession, purely of entertainment, arose. It was near the turn of the eighteenth century that the first entertainers of the pleasure quarters, called geisha, appe atomic number 18d. The actually first geishas were men, entertaining customers waiting to see the most popular and quick-witted courtesans.Around 1760, women began to join men in the art of the geisha and truly quickly outnumbered the men. The first woman to use the term geisha was an capital of Japan prostitute named Kikuya and became a replete(p)-time entertainer. Soon, many women, whether they sold sex or not, began using the term geisha. The word geisha itself means person of the art in that respect argon two basic types of geisha. One is called tachicata who mainly do traditional Japanese dance (mai). The opposite is called jikata who mainly sing or play agents. Tachikata atomic number 18 usually maiko ( immatureish geisha) and jikata argon older geisha women.The geisha districts argon called hanamachi and some hanamachi were developed near temples and shrines where many ochay be located. Ochaya are small Japanese-style houses with wooden doors, tatami floors, Japanese-style gardens, and so on. They are different from those tea houses that nevertheless serve tea. Its a sort of banquet house which rents rooms for dinner parties, and geisha entertain customers in ochaya rooms. Within the complex world of geisha, on that point is a strict croping system. At the very top of the rank are the grand dowagers of the Gion district of Kyoto. These women consider themselves far above even the freeze off-ranking geisha of the same city. In Kyoto there are, in total, atomic number 23 geisha districts, alike known as hanamachi or flower towns. The geisha of these districts are visited by powerful businessmen and politicians and are v ery expensive. At the opposite end of spectrum are the hot-spring geisha. These geisha work in the watering issue resorts and are viewed by most Japanese as no purify than a park prostitute.Traditionally, Geisha began their training at a very young age. Some girls were bonded to geisha houses (okiya) as children. These girls were referred to as hangyoku and were as young as nine years old. This was not a common dedicate in reputable districts and disappeared in the 1950s with the outiawing of child labour. The students are called maiko. A maiko is essentially an apprentice and is therefore bonded under a contract to her okiya. The okiya supplies her with food, board, kimonos, obis, and other tools of her trade. Her training is very expensive and her debt must be repaid to the okiya with the earnings she makes. This refund may continue after the maiko becomes a full-fledged geisha and exclusively when her debts are settled is she permitted to move out to vital and work indep endently. A maiko will start her formal training on the job as a minarai, which literally means learning by watching. Before she give the axe do this she must find an onee-san older sister. They should sit and observe as the onee-san is at work. This is a way in which she will gain insights of the job, and adjudicate out potential clients. From her, they would learn techniques such as conversation and gaming, which would not be taught to them in school. This stage lasts lonesome(prenominal) about a month or so. later a short period of time the last of training begins. Maiko learn from their senior geisha mentor and follows them around to all their engagements. Since the onee-san teaches her maiko anything about on the job(p) in the hanamachi, her teaching is vital. The onee-san will teach her meet ways of serving tea, playing shamisen, dancing, casual conversation and more. There are three major(ip) elements of a maikos training. The first is the formal arts training. This t akes place in special geisha schools which are found in every hanamachi. The second element is the entertainment training which the maiko learns at various teahouses and parties by observing her onee-san. The third is the social skill of navigating the complex social nett of the hanamachi. This is done on the streets. Formal greetings, gifts, and visits are key parts of any social structure in Japan and for a maiko, they are decisive for her to build the support network she needs to survive as a geisha.Around the age of 20-22, the maiko is promoted to a full-fledged geisha in a ordinance called erikae . This could happen after two to five years of her life as a maiko or hangyoku, depending on at what age she debuted. She now charges full price for her time. Geisha remain as such until they retire.Though geisha begin their study of music and dance when they are very young and continue it throughout their lives. They could be as old as cardinal and still learning the art of their profession. The dance of the geisha has evolved from the dance performed on the kabuki stage. The wild and outrageous dances transformed into a more subtle, stylized, and controlled form of dance. It is passing disciplined, similar to tai chi. Every dance uses gestures to tell a horizontal surface and solely a connoisseur can understand the subdued symbolism. For example, a tiny hand gesture represents reading love letter, holding the deferral of a handkerchief in ones mouth represents coquetry and the long sleeves of the round kimono are often used to symbolize dabbing tears. The dance sends a communicate of femininity but the small steps and the limited range of movement. The dances are accompany by traditional Japanese music. The shamisen, originating in Okinawa, is a banjo-like three-stringed instrument that is played with a plectrum. It has very distinct, melancholy sound that is often accompanied by flute. It takes years to master and exactly a very experient geisha ca n play with the precision and passion of a master. entirely geisha are required to learn to play a shamisen. along with the shamisen and the flute, geisha also learned to play a ko-tsuzumi, a small, hourglass-shaped shoulder drum, and the taiko, a large floor drum. Some geisha would not only dance and play music, but would write beautiful, melancholy poems. Others multicolour pictures that gave glimpses into the mysterious lives of the geisha, and even others would compose music. The art of the geisha is her main entertainment and is most important in her training.A geishas appearence changes throughout her career, from girlish, heavily make up maiko, to the moresombre appearence of an older established geisha. Today, the traditional makeup of the apprentice geisha is one of their most recognizable characteristics, though established geisha generally only wear full lily-white face makeup characteristic of maiko during special performances. The traditional makeup of an apprentic e geisha features a thik white stalk with oral fissurestick and red and unappeasable accents around the eyes and eyebrows. Originally, the white dwelling mask was made with lead, but after the discovery that it poisoned the climb and caused flagitious skin and keister problems for the older geisha towards the end of the Meiji Era, it was replaced with rice powder. The coating of makeup is hard to perfect and is a time-consuming serve up. Makeup is use before dressing to avoid dirtying the kimono. First, a wax or oil substance, called bintsuke-abura, is applied to the skin. Next, white powder is mixed with water into a paste and applied with a bamboo brush starting from the neck and working upwards. The white makeup covers the face, neck, and chest, with two or three unwhitened areas left on the nape, to accentuate this traditionally erotic area, and a line of bare skin around the copline, which creates the illusion of a mask. After the foundation layer is applied, a spong e is patted all over the face, throat, chest, the nape and neck to remove wastefulness moisture and to blend the foundation. Next the eyes and eyebrows are drawn in. Traditionally, oxford gray was used, but today, modern cosmetics are used. The eyebrows and edges of the eyes are tricked caustic with a thin charcoal a maiko also applies red around her eyes. The lips are filled in using a small brush. The rubric comes in a small stick, which is melted in water. Crystallized net profit is then added to give the lips lustre. Rarely will a geisha color in both lips fully in the westerly style, as white creates optical illusions and colouring the lips fully would make them appear overly large. The lower lip is colored in partially and the upper lip left white for maiko in her first year, after which the upper lip is also colored. Newly full-fledged geisha will color in only the top lip fully. Most geisha wear the top lip colored in fully or stylized, and the bottom lip in a curved stripe that does not follow the shape of the lip.The geisha round the bottom lips to create the illusion of a flower bud. Miako who are in their last stage of training wil sometames colour their teeth black for a short period of time. This practice used to be common among married women in Japan and, earlier, at the imperial court, but survives only in some districts, or even families. While this sounds unsavoury to Western ears, it is again at least partly because of the optical illusion generated by white makeup in contrast, teeth seem very yellow(a) colouring the teeth black means that they seem to disappear in the darkness of the open mouth. This illusion is of course more pronounced at a distance.For the first three years, a maiko wears this heavy makeup nigh constantly. During her initiation, the maiko is helped with her makeup either by her onee-san, or older sister (an experienced geisha who is her mentor), or by the okaa-san, or mother of her geisha house. After this, she applies the makeup herself.After a maiko has been working for three years, she changes her make-up to a more subdued style. The reason for this is that she has now become mature, and the simpler style shows her own natural beauty. For formal occasions, the mature geisha will still cave in white make-up. For geisha over thirty, the heavy white make-up is only worn during special dances which require her to wear make-up for her part.The tomentumstyles of geisha choose varied through history. In the past, it has been common for women to wear their hair depressed in some periods, but up in others. During the 17th century, women began position all their hair up again, and it is during this time that the traditional shimada hairstyle,f type of traditional chignon worn by most established geisha, developed. These hairstyles are decorated with magnify hair-combs and hairpins. Geisha were trained to sleep with their necks on small supports (takamakura), instead of pillows, so they coul d keep their hairstyle perfect. To reinforce this habit, their mentors would pour rice around the base of the support. If the geishas base on balls rolled off the support while she slept, rice would stick to the pomatum in her hair. The geisha would thus have to repeat the tiresome process of having her hair elaborately styled. Without this happening, a geisha will have her hair styled every week or so.Many modern geisha use wigs in their professional lives, while maiko use their natural hair. However, either one must be regularly tended by highly skilled artisans. Traditional hairstyling is a slowly dying art. Over time, the hairstyle can cause grow on the top of the head.Geishas life changed during all the time. World warfare II brought many changes to the world of geishas. In 1944, everything in the geishas world was forced to bar down, including teahouses, bars, and houses. About a year later, they were allowed to reopen, after the women had been working laboriously in facto ries every day. The very few women who returned back to the geisha areas decided to decimate western influence and revert back to traditional ways of entertainment and life. The image of the geisha was formed during Japans feudal past, and this is now the image they must keep in order to remain geisha World War II resulted with most of the laboring geisha not returning to their former occupation. It was up to the few women who did return to change the thwarted view of geisha back its traditional ways. Because of the devastations of the war, people post-war wanted to bring nationalism back to the country through a reinvention of traditional values and the arts. Another major change after World War II was the absence of a young geishas mizuage, or selling her virginity to the highest bidder. This reform was also in the form of a feminist movement, because the girls wanted control over their bodies, especially sexually. There is no doubt that coerced sex and bidding on a new geishas virginity occurred in the period before WWIIAfter Japan lost the war, geisha dispersed and the profession was in shambles. When they regrouped during the Occupation and began to flourish in the sixties during Japans postwar stinting boom, the geisha world changed. In modern Japan, girls are not sold into indentured proceeds, nor are they coerced into sexual relations. Nowadays, a geishas sex life is her private affair In her book, Geisha, a Life, Mineko Iwasaki said, I lived in the karyukai during the 1960s and 1970s, a time when Japan was undergoing the radical transformation from a post-feudal to a modern society. But I existed in a world apart, a special realm whose mission and identity depended on preserving the elderly traditions of the past.Women in the geisha society are some of the most roaring businesswomen in Japan. In the geisha society, women run everything. Without the impeccable business skills of the feminine teahouse owners, the world of geisha would cease to e xist. The teahouse owners are entrepreneurs, whose service to the geisha is highly necessary for the society to run smoothly. Men are also needed, but in contingent positions such as hair stylists, dressers, and sometimes accountants. In an interview with the Boston Phoenix, Mineko Iwasaki, reportedly the most successful geisha of all time, stated, The geisha system was founded, actually, to promote the freedom and economic self-sufficiency of women. And that was its stated purpose, and it actually accomplished that quite admirably in Japanese society, where there were very few routes for women to achieve that sort of independence The majority of women were wives who didnt work outside of their familial duties. Becoming a geisha was a way for women to support themselves without submitting to becoming a wife. The geisha women live in a strictly matriarchal society. Women dominate. Women run the geisha houses, they are teachers, they run the teahouses, they recruit aspiring geisha, a nd they keep track of geishas finances. The only habit that men play in the society is that they are the people cosmos entertained. Sometimes men work as hair stylists or kimono dressers, but their jobs are hardly ever long-term. Men arent meant to see the behind-the-scenes plant of geisha to ensure the mystery behind the women.