An evening with the Geiko

Most of us would have read about the Memoirs of the Geisha, enjoyed the film as well. I had the opportunity to interact with two.

We were a group of 26 for whom this was a surprise parting party planned along with a performance. From what I understood, its extremely expensive to see a performance from a Geisha but since this was a sponsored gift we got lucky :)

There were three of them there, an ex Geisha, a Geisha and a Geiko. The ex-Geisha was the one who spoke to us about how it all works. She told us that today the number of girls who like to be Geisha has reduced drastically, the ones who are interested have to join in at a tender age of 12/13, this is when their training starts, after about 3-4 years of training, they become Geikos, that's Geisha in the making and by about 19/20 they are Geishas.

Geishas are trained to be individuals whose company is enjoyed by the rich men in Japan. They can participate in intellectual discussions, entertain with style and serve with the the highest grade of proficiency.

We spent over 2 hours with the Geisha and the Geiko and they spoke to us about a lot of things other than how they are brought up, they told us a little about the games they indulge in, the time they take to dress up, its about 2 hours every evening, the kind of make-up they use, the different symbols on their robes. We asked them what do Geishas do when they are no more Geishas and they told us, they get married, infact the ex-Geisha who was there is married with two kids. They told us, being a Geisha is most often a matter of pride as it shows the level of ones education and stature. They are powerful and command a lot of clout in important circles, though this clout has reduced over time as the society has changed.

Overall it was an experience to remember. I have put a link to the video, hope you enjoy it. The one in the brown robe is a Geiko while the other one is a Geisha.