Geisha: traditional guardians of dance and music in Japan
Geisha has long been one of a few distinct words that instantly conjure up an image of Japan. But today, few Japanese people have actually experienced geisha. While many people's impression of geisha is vague images of graceful women in kimonos attending banquets or parties, few know that geisha are professional artists who preserved shamisen music and passed it down through the generations and contributed to the development of Japanese dance.
The disappearance of traditional social meetings
Foreign readers may not be very familiar with the professional traditional artists called ''geisha'', but nowadays it is not unusual for even older Japanese to not be familiar with what a geisha actually does. This situation unfortunately reflects the deterioration of this profession.
At least until the 1960s, every town, large or small, had traditional restaurants called reutei where customers could arrange parties or banquets. These banquets were not just occasions to enjoy delicious cuisine but were also essential places for social interactions or business networking, and it was accepted that geisha would be employed to assist the host in entertaining his guests.
Geisha in Tokyo's Akasaka district in the 1960s (Image courtesy of Jiji Press)
But after the 1970s, the landscape changed with the departure of the generations born in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries who had led Japan's post-war economic recovery and with the opportunity for success for those born a few decades later who dreamed of social change. By the 1980s, hotels and nightclubs increasingly became popular venues for banquets and parties, and the decline of geisha areas known as kagai or hanamachi, areas where ryotei were permitted to hire geisha for entertainment, began to decline. The first disappearance of kagai were those in small areas in provincial cities that were frequented by local politicians and prominent businessmen, and this also led to the decline of the ryotei favored by customers in those areas.
In subsequent years, in 1993, politicians began abstaining from meeting in Ryōtei when then-new Prime Minister Hosokawa Morihiro announced an end to the practice for his administration. The business leaders of the immediate postwar generation who had risen to prominence by then followed in the footsteps of political leaders and followed suit. Such changing tastes served as a wake-up call for the Kagai areas of Tokyo and other major cities, where they had flourished for more than a century, and marked the beginning of their decline.
But even over a long period of time, a few kagai areas associated with the culture of the Edo period (1603-1868) have managed to survive, and geisha in those areas wear costumes dating back to the heyday of this tradition. But as these female artists have virtually disappeared from the scene, it has become rare to find a Japanese man who has had the experience of having a geisha pour him a drink.
Singers, dancers and romance brokers
She was tasked with highlighting the role that geisha played in upholding traditional culture. The first thing that comes to mind is their contribution to preserving shamisen music and passing it on to subsequent generations and supporting the development of Japanese dance.
Geisha wear their specific costumes and style their hair at a rehearsal before the annual Azuma Odori dance and music performance ceremony in Shinbashi Enbujo in May 2019. Azuma Odori is an annual ceremony in which geisha showcase their singing and dancing. (Photo courtesy of Jiji Press)
The word geisha originally means someone who is skilled and accomplished in an art form. Authors of renga or haikai poems, prominent Noh performers, kyōgen burlesque performers, and others who made a living in the performing arts were referred to as geisha. As Yoshiwara , a licensed pleasure district founded by the shogunate in 1618, flourished, the word came to be used to refer to the men who acted as intermediaries between the ladies of the district and their customers. Art in those days meant all forms of entertainment from poetry composing and tea ceremony to flower arranging, incense appreciating and more. In particular, folk songs accompanied by the playing of the shamisen became essential entertainment at banquets, and the main role of the geisha was to play the shamisen.
By the mid-18th century, unlicensed prostitutes from outside Yoshiwara began robbing neighborhood women of their business. The shift has raised concerns among brothel owners in Yoshiwara, prompting them to make unlicensed prostitutes promise that they will no longer engage in prostitution. In return, they decided to officially recognize and supervise these women as guerrillas alongside women already working in the system. This is perhaps the beginning of the official kenban registry office system that handled geisha's duties and payments for their services as artists. The number of geisha increased dramatically, and male geisha came to be called hokan or taikomochi instead.
The primary role of female geisha during the Edo period, similar to that of their male predecessors, was to play the shamisen. But among their other jobs was to act as intermediaries at the client's request in order to arrange a romantic date between the client and one of the prostitutes, essentially acting as an intermediary for the task.
Fashion rules
To distinguish them from concubines, Yoshiwara geisha followed a specific dress code: they wore a short-sleeved kimono emblazoned with a crest, a white collar, in contrast to the red collar worn by concubines, and an unadorned woven obi sash tied at the back. They were not allowed to wear nagajuban, a type of clothing worn under a kimono, because they were forbidden from removing their outer clothing and showing anything underneath to customers. They also had to style their hair in a specific way similar to that of young women. This dress code gave them a somewhat neutral appearance to show that they were not providing sexual services.
Geisha play an important role in preserving shamisen music and transmitting it across generations. Photo during a rehearsal for Azuma Odori in May 2019 (Image courtesy of Jiji Press).
Geisha dress began to be emulated by the growing number of machi-geisha as women working in informal pleasure areas such as Fukagawa and Yanagibashi, and eventually all geisha in Edo came to dress this way. Since the late 19th century, the costume has remained largely unchanged except for the wearing of fancy nagajuban and obi, and has become the standard uniform for geisha in Tokyo and the rest of the country.
So far I have given a description of the situation in Kagai, the capital. I'm not very familiar with kagai in Kansai and other areas, but except for the fact that before the anti-prostitution law was enacted in 1957 in some prefectures it was also permitted for geisha to provide sexual services in licensed premises, I think they were basically similar to those in Tokyo.
Geisha, or geiko as they are called, originated in the Kansai region, in the lively areas that developed near major temples, and kagai banquets in more recent times derive from events rooted in ancient festival-based beliefs when geisha made sacrifices to the gods and sang and danced to attract divine favor.
From the days of male geisha in the pleasure districts of Yoshiwara until the late 19th century, singing and dancing were part of the entertainment in Tokyo's kagai venues. As soon as the banquet guests have gathered, the geisha appears and begins singing seasonally appropriate nagata, tokiwazu, or kiyomoto poems, accompanied by playing the shamisen tuned in the sansagari mode, making the sound elegant and exciting. Once the party reaches its climax, songs are performed accompanied by plucked shamisen strings, and finally, festive songs are performed. This has been the typical form of entertainment for the Kagai areas of Yanagibashi and Shinbashi since the days of Yoshiwara. The entertainment party ends with the performance of haota (short love songs) or dancing by female apprentice geisha or male dancers. It was rare for geisha to perform dances.
Japanese dance would not have developed without geisha. At a rehearsal for Azuma Odori in May 2019 (Photo courtesy of Jiji Press).
Living National Treasures of Kagai
Playing the shamisen has been an essential skill for Tokyo geisha since the Edo period. Not only did female artists have to master an encyclopedia of typical nagata, tokiwazu, and kiyomoto poems, but they also had to master other genres such as haota and kota (folk songs). We might imagine the geisha singing and playing in front of the assembled guests as they do today. But on the contrary, the job of geisha in those days was to encourage the guests to enjoy singing themselves, so they had to be willing to participate in any song the guests might request.
The shamisen is said to have been introduced to the main Japanese islands from the Ryukyu Kingdom between 1558 and 1570 at a time when the feudal lord Oda Nobunaga was unifying the country. In Kamigata (Kyoto and Osaka region), biwa hoshi, blind musicians who play the biwa (lute-like instrument) or other stringed instruments, began to provide entertainment at banquets or to play the koto or other stringed instrument. The qanun or stringed instrument played with a bow called kokyo, in combination with the shamisen. Meanwhile, in Edo, the performers of nagata songs or jūrōri who sing in kabuki plays became masters (emoto) and their performances became more elaborate with the passing generations.
At the same time, both male and female geisha continued, although on a much smaller scale, to perform the ancient styles of jōrōri chants of the ancient ichubushi, katobushi, and miyazonobushi types accompanying theatrical performances, and ogibushi, a type of nagata singing performed at banquets in Yoshiwara and other kagai venues. These singing styles survived the political turmoil of the last decades of the 19th century and are still with us today.
The role played by wealthy and educated clients called danna in supporting this art must certainly not be overlooked. Geisha, skilled at providing humor to these selfish, volatile men, have kept generations of them focused on helping to preserve and transmit these hidden forms of singing. Thanks to the Dana's support, two Shinbashi Kagai - one an Ichubushi singer and the other a Miyazunbushi - were designated as living national treasures by the government in the 1960s. Another Ichiobushi singer from Kagai, Asakusa, was designated a living national treasure in 2007.
Two geisha from Shinbashi bring joy to the opening of the new Kabukiza Theater in April 2013 (Photo courtesy of Jiji Press).
Meanwhile in Kansai it was standard practice for geisha to perform dances at banquets, something they had been doing since the 17th century. By the late 19th century, Gion geisha began appearing at Miyako Odori's dance recital, and other Kyoto geisha also performed dance performances in theaters within the kagai areas in which they operated. The owners of Ryōtei in Shinbashi imitated this idea in the first decades of the twentieth century, inviting officially certified “emoto” dance teachers to give lessons to geisha and nurture particularly talented dancers at banquets. From this system emerged dancers who were former geisha in the Shinbashi area, and thanks to wealthy business supporters, it was possible to perform amazing performances. These women led the “New Dance” movement that arose in the first decade of the twentieth century, and thanks to them dance that had until then been seen as part of Kabuki theater became an independent art called “Nihon Buyō.”
Financial support for the arts from Gisha
Until at least the 1940s, various forms of traditional culture were maintained by kagai support groups called renjo who supported kabuki and other performances in large theatres. Working with Mitsukoshi and other leading kimono fabric manufacturers of the time, the support groups created increasingly attractive kimono accessories that were quickly adopted by ordinary women across the country. Traditional arts and crafts, which were not considered worthy of government preservation efforts until the first decades of the twentieth century, were only able to survive thanks to the financial support of geisha as consumers.
But when the kagai places lost their liveliness, very strong opinions emerged - even among geisha - that their job was merely to sing and dance. The art of conversation that geishas practice by facilitating conversation between the host and guests and showing interest as a means of communication are skills that do not seem to have received enough attention.
It must be acknowledged that generational change has created a different mentality among the guests and that people have forgotten that Kagai banquets are meant to reproduce memories of ancient festivals. People nowadays think that these gatherings are just for drinking and having a good time. They seem to have forgotten that these banquets were once an arena for serious intellectual dialogue where participants sometimes enjoyed friendly harmony while enjoying the arts, and at other times their opinions clashed with each other when engaged in serious conversations. And the geisha cannot be blamed for this alone.
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