Japan’s geisha battle to protect their future

[Disir]

On a chilly evening earlier in November, geisha Kikuno and her two apprentice maiko host an event that gives guests an opportunity to experience a dinner party with traditional female entertainers.

The atmosphere at Sushi Isshin, a restaurant in Tokyo’s Yushima district, is boisterous as the guests chat among themselves or with their neighbors. The entertainers, who are visiting from Nara, invite the guests to sip on sake and enjoy a full-course sushi dinner served by second-generation owner Hirosada Okamoto.
Japan's geisha battle to protect their future | The Japan Times

That has some interesting tidbits of personal histories in there.





However, a hush descends on the crowd when the three hostesses begin their performance, with Kikuno dancing gracefully to the soft plucking sound of the shamisen.

The guests applaud enthusiastically once the performance comes to an end, and the hostesses turn their attention to games. The games aren’t particularly difficult, but they’re often accompanied by a song and the loser is required to down a cup of sake. With Kikuno leading proceedings, the guests laugh loudly as each loser throws back their drink. It’s a scene reminiscent of a college party, albeit with wildly different participants.

At the conclusion of the evening, the guests shuffle out onto the street contented. Kikuno also looks satisfied, having proven to be a charming host with a dry sense of humor.

The evening is part of her Kagai Restoration Project in Ganrinin, which she launched in 2012 to revitalize geisha culture in Nara’s Ganrinin district, where she has been the only active traditional female entertainer for the past 15 years.

 

[ThirdTerm]

The evening is part of her Kagai Restoration Project in Ganrinin, which she launched in 2012 to revitalize geisha culture in Nara’s Ganrinin district, where she has been the only active traditional female entertainer for the past 15 years.

Nara is a nearby prefecture of Kyoto, which is less known for foreign visitors. The historic Gion district of Kyoto is well-known for Japanese geishas, where there are still over 1,000 geisha girls working in the district. I don't think it's absolutely necessary to run the geisha business in Nara. Geisha girls are similar to comfort girls in the wartime era, who were engaging in sexual activity in exchange for payment, and many geisha girls worked at comfort stations back then. Geisha girls also volunteered to become concubines of rich Japanese men.

Kneeling on a mat-covered floor, Geisha Kikuno bows in front of the small audience gathered before her. Accompanied by a singer crooning in Japanese, Kikuno — dressed in a black kimono adorned by floral accents, her face powdered white — rises and begins a slow and graceful dance.

You’d expect this scene to be taking place in Japan — specifically, in an ochaya (tea house), where geishas entertain their guests within a hanamachi (geisha district). But it was actually staged much more locally: at a Japanese arts center in Manhattan’s Flatiron District last fall. Far beyond the mere purposes of cultural education, this production had — and continues to have, with others anticipated in 2016 — a greater mission.

https://nypost.com/2015/11/24/meet-the-woman-whos-bringing-geisha-culture-to-nyc/

.

 

[waltky]

Uncle Ferd has many fond memories...

... of time spent with geisha girls...

... whilst on R&R.

 

[Unkotare]

The evening is part of her Kagai Restoration Project in Ganrinin, which she launched in 2012 to revitalize geisha culture in Nara’s Ganrinin district, where she has been the only active traditional female entertainer for the past 15 years.

Nara is a nearby prefecture of Kyoto, which is less known for foreign visitors. The historic Gion district of Kyoto is well-known for Japanese geishas, where there are still over 1,000 geisha girls working in the district. I don't think it's absolutely necessary to run the geisha business in Nara. Geisha girls are similar to comfort girls in the wartime era, who were engaging in sexual activity in exchange for payment, and many geisha girls worked at comfort stations back then. Geisha girls also volunteered to become concubines of rich Japanese men.

Kneeling on a mat-covered floor, Geisha Kikuno bows in front of the small audience gathered before her. Accompanied by a singer crooning in Japanese, Kikuno — dressed in a black kimono adorned by floral accents, her face powdered white — rises and begins a slow and graceful dance.

You’d expect this scene to be taking place in Japan — specifically, in an ochaya (tea house), where geishas entertain their guests within a hanamachi (geisha district). But it was actually staged much more locally: at a Japanese arts center in Manhattan’s Flatiron District last fall. Far beyond the mere purposes of cultural education, this production had — and continues to have, with others anticipated in 2016 — a greater mission.

https://nypost.com/2015/11/24/meet-the-woman-whos-bringing-geisha-culture-to-nyc/

.

Inaccurate

 

[Marion Morrison]

The evening is part of her Kagai Restoration Project in Ganrinin, which she launched in 2012 to revitalize geisha culture in Nara’s Ganrinin district, where she has been the only active traditional female entertainer for the past 15 years.

Nara is a nearby prefecture of Kyoto, which is less known for foreign visitors. The historic Gion district of Kyoto is well-known for Japanese geishas, where there are still over 1,000 geisha girls working in the district. I don't think it's absolutely necessary to run the geisha business in Nara. Geisha girls are similar to comfort girls in the wartime era, who were engaging in sexual activity in exchange for payment, and many geisha girls worked at comfort stations back then. Geisha girls also volunteered to become concubines of rich Japanese men.

Kneeling on a mat-covered floor, Geisha Kikuno bows in front of the small audience gathered before her. Accompanied by a singer crooning in Japanese, Kikuno — dressed in a black kimono adorned by floral accents, her face powdered white — rises and begins a slow and graceful dance.

You’d expect this scene to be taking place in Japan — specifically, in an ochaya (tea house), where geishas entertain their guests within a hanamachi (geisha district). But it was actually staged much more locally: at a Japanese arts center in Manhattan’s Flatiron District last fall. Far beyond the mere purposes of cultural education, this production had — and continues to have, with others anticipated in 2016 — a greater mission.

https://nypost.com/2015/11/24/meet-the-woman-whos-bringing-geisha-culture-to-nyc/

.

Inaccurate

Well, the source is nypost, who also claim Sean Spicer chews 20 sticks of Big Red and swallows them before noon everyday.

So there's that.

 

[ThirdTerm]

Geisha girls were called "caged birds" (kago no tori) in Japanese because they were sold like expensive products by their starving families in exchange for a large sum of money and they were then deprived of their freedom. While working in prostitution, they were locked up in geisha houses by their masters. Comfort girls from the 1930s to the 1940s were working under the same system of human trafficking and this is not a culture which is worth preserving for Japan. The NY Post and the media in general are misleading by representing geisha girls as Japan's cultural heritage, whitewashing the dark side of the geisha business.

 

[Unkotare]

Geisha are not prostitutes, tourist.