Saturday 24 January 2009

Training to be a Geisha

Training to be a Geisha

The white face, dark eyes and hair, and blood-red lips: both foreigners and the Japanese are fascinated by these beautiful and mysterious women.

Makiko is training to be a geisha. Not many girls want to become geishas in Japan today. Makiko’s parents wanted her to go to college, study medicine, and become a doctor. But Makiko’s grandfather paid for her training and bought the kimonos she needed. It’s very expensive to become a geisha. You have to have a different kimono for each month of the year, and today a kimono costs three million yen – that’s about $30.000.

It’s a hard life for a trainee geisha. She has to leave her family and move into a special boarding house called a “Maiko house.” Here, she has to learn traditional Japanese arts such as playing instruments, the tea ceremony, flower arranging, singing, and dancing. She has to take many difficult test and exams. Only the best will pass everything and become geishas many year later.

We asked Makiko to describe exactly what a geisha does.

“A geisha has to serve customers and also entertain them. She has to sing and dance and make good conversation.”

Does she enjoy her life as a trainee geisha?

“I love it, but it’s hard work. Sometimes I get tired of wearing the kimonos, and I want to put on a pair of jeans and go to school like a normal teenager. But I can’t have a normal life now. I don’t mind. I feel very lucky.”

And what about later – can she have a family?

“Of course. A geisha can have relationships like anybody else, and she can get married when she chooses.”

In Japan today there are fewer than a thousand geishas, but thy play an important role in preserving Japanese culture and history.

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