Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray.
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Speaker 1: From house Stop Works dot Com. Hey there, and welcome
Speaker 1: to the podcast. This is Kristen and this is Molly.
Speaker 1: So Molly. I don't know about you, but I think
Speaker 1: in eleventh grade, maybe tenth grade, there were two books
Speaker 1: that were going around, um My, all the girls in
Speaker 1: my grade. Everyone was passing around Divine Secrets of the
Speaker 1: Ya Ya Sisterhood, which I will just bury and let rest.
Speaker 1: And Memoirs of a Geisha. I remember that one. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I think they made it into a movie a couple
Speaker 1: of years ago, and um, everyone just loved it. They
Speaker 1: were like, oh, you gotta read Memoirs of a Geisha.
Speaker 1: So I borrowed my friend's copy read it and thought
Speaker 1: it was just this magical world. Um. But come to
Speaker 1: find out that the person who the memoir was based
Speaker 1: on actually we wanted to ended up suing the author
Speaker 1: because of all the misrepresentations of the life of a geisha. Right.
Speaker 1: She thought that he kind of missed the mark. And
Speaker 1: I think it's very easy to miss the mark with geisha. There.
Speaker 1: I think they're pretty misunderstood. A lot of people seem
Speaker 1: to associate them with prostitutes, right, um, But the fact
Speaker 1: of the matter is they are prostitutes at all. Um.
Speaker 1: But people are still enamored with this idea of a
Speaker 1: geisha because they have, you know, the the kimono and
Speaker 1: the white makeup and just look like just like something
Speaker 1: out of another time. That that are still around and
Speaker 1: they're mostly concentrated today in Kyoto and Tokyo, but tourists
Speaker 1: have become so obsessed with trying to get a photo
Speaker 1: of them that the government officials in Kyoto have had
Speaker 1: to put up signs telling people to leave the geishas alone. Right,
Speaker 1: And so I think that people think they're getting this
Speaker 1: photo of, you know, an extravagant Japanese prostitute. But today
Speaker 1: we're going to take sort of a more accurate look
Speaker 1: at what geisha's job description actually is, right, And um,
Speaker 1: I just caught myself Molly saying geishaw's But in fact,
Speaker 1: geisha is both singular and plural, so I should have
Speaker 1: said geisha. So you're on out geisha geisha And now
Speaker 1: you know, I'm just gonna go ahead and say that
Speaker 1: while we did look up how to pronounce a lot
Speaker 1: of these Japanese words. I don't know if we're going
Speaker 1: to get them all exactly right, but we will give
Speaker 1: it a solid effort. We are going to try. So.
Speaker 1: Geisha is the Japanese word for a person of art
Speaker 1: and uh. Basically, a geisha is a professional hostess who
Speaker 1: spends many many years mastering musical instruments, singing, dancing, and
Speaker 1: all of the art of being a perfect hostess. And
Speaker 1: that word is key, Kristen. Perfect. They basically have to
Speaker 1: be the representation of the perfect woman. Yeah, this all
Speaker 1: hearkens back to the time when Japanese women were really
Speaker 1: excluded from mainstream society and um, the original geisha's geisha
Speaker 1: or actually meant because women wouldn't have been allowed to
Speaker 1: be associating with with businessmen like they do today. That's correct, Christen.
Speaker 1: So there are a few theories on how geisha became
Speaker 1: sort of female rather than male. One story is that
Speaker 1: there are these female artists who wanted to steal business
Speaker 1: from prostitutes to by hiring themselves out to sing and dance.
Speaker 1: Instead of hiring a prostitute for your party, you would
Speaker 1: hire geisha. And another one has a failing prostitute taking
Speaker 1: a job as a geisha to makes an extra money,
Speaker 1: and she was more successful as a geisha than she
Speaker 1: was as a prostitute. So I mean, I don't know
Speaker 1: what that says about her, but basically I think that's
Speaker 1: where the sort of association with prostitution came up. Is
Speaker 1: just they were aiming for the same business, right. But
Speaker 1: but the government actually set up really strict rules for geisha, um,
Speaker 1: concerning how they had to dress and where they could
Speaker 1: go in the hours that they could keep, kind of
Speaker 1: to delineate them from prostitute. But that only made them
Speaker 1: more popular because it made them sort of more restricted,
Speaker 1: more unavailable, more exotic. Uh. So this was a very
Speaker 1: popular career choice for women, especially when they didn't have
Speaker 1: many paths to travel as working women. Yeah, a lot
Speaker 1: of a lot of poor families would send their send
Speaker 1: their daughters to h geisha houses to to learn the
Speaker 1: art and eventually of like take over the geisha house.
Speaker 1: So let's talk a little bit about, um, the training
Speaker 1: process of becoming a geisha, because uh, it takes about
Speaker 1: as much time become a geisha as it does to
Speaker 1: be trained as a doctor. It's very intensive, like you
Speaker 1: think you left college with a four year degree in music,
Speaker 1: try being a geisha who spent six years studying the
Speaker 1: arts music, dance, tea ceremony, language, hostessing. That's it's a
Speaker 1: lot of study. It is a lot of work. And
Speaker 1: when a potential geisha first arrives at the okiya or
Speaker 1: the tea house or geisha house, she she first becomes
Speaker 1: an apprentice. You have to go through much like a doctor,
Speaker 1: you have to go through a period of apprenticeship learning
Speaker 1: all of these things before you can do the real deal.
Speaker 1: And it's all sort of overseen by I kind of
Speaker 1: like a house mother and a big sister. So you
Speaker 1: come in and you are in this very uh female
Speaker 1: dominated society, and that's how you're gonna learn these very
Speaker 1: traditional arts. Um, you're gonna study singing, as we mentioned,
Speaker 1: in traditional Japanese dances, tea ceremony, flower arranging, calligraphy, a
Speaker 1: variety of instruments. I think there's what like a three
Speaker 1: stringed banjo and other other types, and maybe like a
Speaker 1: flute or other wind instrument that a that a geisha
Speaker 1: might study as well. Yeah, that's the thing I remember
Speaker 1: for me. Memoirs of Agnations. She was always playing her
Speaker 1: shamasen the three stings three stringed banjo, right, because they
Speaker 1: have to be perfect. Um. Even once you become a
Speaker 1: mako or an apprentice Geisia, you then start having to
Speaker 1: wear sort of prep clothes where these oversized kimonos with
Speaker 1: with sleeves that reach all the way down to the
Speaker 1: floor so you can learn how to pour tea or
Speaker 1: saki without getting your sleeve into the tyr saki. And
Speaker 1: you you wear these really elaborate head dresses that are
Speaker 1: very heavy, very confining shoes. It's not an easy and
Speaker 1: easy outfit to wear. Yeah, you're all sort of decked
Speaker 1: out in this and you have to know all these
Speaker 1: things so that if you're called on to do any
Speaker 1: of them, you can just do them in a drop
Speaker 1: of a hat. And this is um. One thing that
Speaker 1: Geisha learned that I wish that I could learn somehow
Speaker 1: is they have these classes where you learn how to
Speaker 1: flatter a shy man, an arrogant man, or disinterested man.
Speaker 1: Like you learn how to deal with every single type
Speaker 1: of guy you're going to possibly encounter in your line
Speaker 1: of work. And that's just that takes some skill to
Speaker 1: be able to deal with every type of person in
Speaker 1: a society, right, because, as we mentioned earlier, the ultimate
Speaker 1: role of a geisha is to reflect this illusion of
Speaker 1: perfect the perfect woman, yes, the flattering woman at a party.
Speaker 1: So when you're in the midst of your training, when
Speaker 1: you are a mako, as Kristen said, you're going to
Speaker 1: go out to these parties with your older sister and
Speaker 1: kind of observe, learn how to play the part of
Speaker 1: the perfect hostess. And then eventually, after years of being
Speaker 1: the apprentice geisha, you can become the full fledged thing,
Speaker 1: a full fledged entertainer. It's um symbolized and a lot
Speaker 1: of ceremonies where you change your collar, you drink sake
Speaker 1: with your older sister um, and then you can be
Speaker 1: hired out for these parties. And it is not cheap
Speaker 1: to be hired out for a party. No, a geisha
Speaker 1: party can cost between two and three hundred dollars per
Speaker 1: guests for every two hours to the geisha at present,
Speaker 1: and for that reason, because it's such a high price
Speaker 1: tag um, Japanese businessmen use geisha parties to impress potential
Speaker 1: clients and really kind of kick back with the boys
Speaker 1: because it's a chance to break away from the more
Speaker 1: rigid aspects of Japanese society, all while showing how wealthy
Speaker 1: and cultured you are to have these lovely ladies coming
Speaker 1: in and entertaining. Right. But Mala, you can't. You can't
Speaker 1: just call up a geisha and hey, Geisha, let's have
Speaker 1: a party now. It's very it's very strict. If you
Speaker 1: want a geisha to host a party, you have to
Speaker 1: either go through the geisha house or call a tea
Speaker 1: house where Geisha and Chane and the each gates. She
Speaker 1: kind of has a booking agent, if you will, that
Speaker 1: will send her out to different appointments. And it kind
Speaker 1: of sounds glamorous to go to parties and entertain for
Speaker 1: two hours and walk home with hundreds of dollars. But
Speaker 1: it is a lot of work. You know, you are
Speaker 1: working every minute to make sure every guest feels special.
Speaker 1: They always have a full clup of sake, you know,
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, you gotta stuff everything and dance
Speaker 1: and sing and play a Shamison and Molly the kicker
Speaker 1: for me. You can't eat, no eating at the party.
Speaker 1: You just can't eat while while they work. So they
Speaker 1: have to be on point all the time, I mean
Speaker 1: for all of this hard work geishaw will receive a
Speaker 1: number of generous tips, probably from from these businessmen. Uh
Speaker 1: but Molly, that kind of still sounds like a form
Speaker 1: of at least escorting maybe, right, That's what was going
Speaker 1: through my mind. This, you know, does sound a bit
Speaker 1: like prostitution. But actually there's sort of a very uh
Speaker 1: rigid dating code in the gaish A world. When you
Speaker 1: find a man, it's a it's a fairly monogamous thing.
Speaker 1: He's sort of your patron, uh, he's termed the Dana
Speaker 1: of you, and there's a very uh specific ceremony perform
Speaker 1: where you kind of unite yourself with this guy, very
Speaker 1: similar to a marriage, and you're faithful to him until
Speaker 1: a time when you perform another ceremony that says, you know,
Speaker 1: we're not exclusive anymore. Yeah. So there are options, formal
Speaker 1: options for a geisha to have a monogamous sexual relationship
Speaker 1: with a client. But it's not like you're probably gonna
Speaker 1: go home with the client every night. You don't have time. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Part of the reason you have no time, Christen, is
Speaker 1: that there's a lot of work involved in just getting
Speaker 1: ready for one party. And this is another reason why
Speaker 1: I don't think that gays should probably become immedia millionaires
Speaker 1: from all these tips and this hourly wage. So much
Speaker 1: of their time and money goes to their upkeep. If
Speaker 1: you're a living work of art, then you've got to
Speaker 1: look like a living work of art all times. Right
Speaker 1: on top of the money that goes back to the
Speaker 1: geisha house, the geisha also has to buy very expensive
Speaker 1: kimonos and makeup and hair accessories to make themselves into
Speaker 1: that that gorgeous doll. Right, so let's go through a
Speaker 1: little bit of what getting ready to entertain might be like.
Speaker 1: It's not like you just get dressed by yourself. You
Speaker 1: were putting on these very heavy robes. You've got to
Speaker 1: have basically a dresser who knows how to do underlayers
Speaker 1: and overlayers and tai sasha certain ways. Then it's time
Speaker 1: for makeup. And you know a fun fact. Originally the makeup,
Speaker 1: that white makeup they put on was poisonous, yeah, but
Speaker 1: now it is It is harmless um and and it
Speaker 1: starts with a layer of oil and then wax on
Speaker 1: the face to smooth out all all imperfections. And then
Speaker 1: on top of that goes the white powder that we
Speaker 1: think of when we think of the geisha makeup, and
Speaker 1: then you apply the red lipstick just to the lower
Speaker 1: lip if you're an apprentice, if you're an apprentice ran
Speaker 1: once you're full fledged geisha, it's both lips. And if
Speaker 1: you don't notice the lip thing, you can tell um
Speaker 1: which kind of geisha is a witch based on their hairstyle,
Speaker 1: because these women spend hours at the hairstyle is getting
Speaker 1: a very specific type of hairstyle to note to note
Speaker 1: their status. Um. In fact, some women will sleep on
Speaker 1: special pillows have a hole in the middle so they
Speaker 1: don't ruin their fancy hairstyles while they sleep. Just pretty
Speaker 1: pretty ingenious, I guess, um. But another way I'm like
Speaker 1: to tell the difference between an apprentice geisha and a
Speaker 1: full fledge geisha is to look at the neckline. Uh.
Speaker 1: They actually call the ceremony when an apprentice becomes a
Speaker 1: geisha the changing of the collar, because a geisha will
Speaker 1: actually reveal her neckline with the kimono, unlike the apprentice.
Speaker 1: Because the Japanese fine a woman's decline to be very
Speaker 1: very alluring. So there's that. There's the color of the
Speaker 1: color also plays a role, and the hairstyle, which again
Speaker 1: we can't really describe very well on a podcast, but um,
Speaker 1: basically they're saying a man be of to walk into
Speaker 1: a room and look at the hairstyles of all the
Speaker 1: women and know who is here. And then another interesting
Speaker 1: thing I noticed from looking at photos of geisha's if
Speaker 1: you look at the back of a geisha's neck, you'll
Speaker 1: see a little bit of skin that they leave, um
Speaker 1: without the white makeup on it, just below the neckline.
Speaker 1: I thought was kind of looked like almost two triangles
Speaker 1: right below or sorry, right below their hairline on their neckline. Now,
Speaker 1: isn't this description getting ready present and one of your
Speaker 1: favorite books Kristen? Well, Molly, In fact, it is. There's
Speaker 1: a lot of details on the of this in Memoirs
Speaker 1: of a Geisha, which, as we mentioned, it's you know,
Speaker 1: it's not exactly uh perfect history, but it is a
Speaker 1: fun read. And if you do happen to go over
Speaker 1: in Japan, will you see a geisha today? That's what
Speaker 1: the New York Times was saying that, you know, you
Speaker 1: can't threaten the geisha and their natural habitat they're on
Speaker 1: their way to work. But what is a geisha like today, Well, Molly,
Speaker 1: a geisha today isn't isn't that much different from a
Speaker 1: geisha up back in the day. I mean, they still
Speaker 1: do the scope through the same process of training that
Speaker 1: involves mastering music and dance and uh current events and
Speaker 1: everything to make them into the perfect hostess. Right, there's
Speaker 1: just far fewer of them, uh. You know, in the
Speaker 1: height of the geisha period in the eighty thousand registered geisha,
Speaker 1: and the number has steadily dropped to now they're probably
Speaker 1: around only a thousand geisha left in Japan. And that's
Speaker 1: probably one of the reasons why Kyoto's had to put
Speaker 1: up those warnings to stay away from the geisha, because
Speaker 1: since there are so few of them, people are just
Speaker 1: camped out waiting to see the elusive geisha going to
Speaker 1: one of her appointments. But you know, when we were
Speaker 1: researching this, one fun thing that you found is, you know,
Speaker 1: if you're sitting there with your camera, be sure you've
Speaker 1: got like a real geisha in your site. Because a
Speaker 1: very popular tourist thing to do right now in Japan
Speaker 1: is to go to a studio where they essentially for
Speaker 1: three hundred bucks about you know, they'll dress you up
Speaker 1: in the kimono, they'll do your hair, put on the
Speaker 1: makeup and take photos of you dress as a geisha. Um.
Speaker 1: It's supposedly a pretty booming industry around Kyoto. And for
Speaker 1: an extra fee, they'll even let you walk around the
Speaker 1: streets as though you are a geisha. UM. So that's
Speaker 1: if that's your thing and you've got a few hundred
Speaker 1: bucks laying around, you might be able to live your own,
Speaker 1: your own life as a geisha. So I think that
Speaker 1: that does sort of show that people understand that it's
Speaker 1: not just glorified prostitution. People recognize it now as a
Speaker 1: piece of Japan's history, something worth emulating, something worth driving
Speaker 1: for to be sort of this, you know, beautiful, educated,
Speaker 1: cultured woman. And there was an article recently in the
Speaker 1: Guardian newspaper that reported a small resurgence in geisha. They're
Speaker 1: they're saying that since Japan is trying less and less
Speaker 1: to be uh to emulate Western culture, they're coming back
Speaker 1: to embracing this idea um of of the geisha, and
Speaker 1: a lot more girls are signing up to to be
Speaker 1: trained as geisha. It's pretty interesting if you want to
Speaker 1: learn more about how that process works. You've got a
Speaker 1: great article on our site, how geisha work by Julia Layton,
Speaker 1: and if you want to send me or Molly question
Speaker 1: or comment, you can email us at mom stuff at
Speaker 1: how stuff works dot com. For more on this and
Speaker 1: thousands of other topics, is that how stuff works dot com.
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