When I read the book, “Memoirs of a Geisha”, I felt like I stepped into a new and mysterious world of beauty and art. Karyukai as they call it, is the flower and willow world where geiko and maiko live. Though Iwasaki Mineko claimed that the book has some wrong ideas about the karyukai, I was still intimidated about their lives as artists who serve and entertain guests with chanoyu or tea ceremonies, kyomai or Kyoto-style dances, shamisen playing, etc. So I searched for more information about them.
Maiko are generally apprentice geiko, and you can easily distinguish them apart with their physical appearance. Maiko wear hairstyles called wareshinobu during their junior years and ofuku during their senior years, while geiko wear a more elaborate tsubushi-shimada hairstyle (actually a katsura or wig since the hairstyle requires a really long hair). In addition to that, maiko wear a lot of hair ornaments or kanzashi, but as they mature, hair ornaments become less and simpler. First year maiko have only their lower lip painted with red and shidare or fluttering silk petals hanging in their hanakanzashi, but they will soon start to paint their bottom lip and remove the shidare in their hair ornament once they enter their second year. They also wear okobo or high wooden clogs with bells that give an additional dainty look to their appearance, compared to the simple lacquered zori of geiko. One important thing also is that maiko wear red embroidered eri or collar that gradually turns to white until their maturation to geiko, who wear simple white collar. Maiko also wear this unique darari obi, while geiko only wear the simple taiko musubi in the back. And lastly, maiko wear long-sleeved kimono compared to the short-sleeved kimono of geiko.
So in general, maiko supposed to have a doll-like appearance which represents their lack of maturity in the arts. They rely their beauty with the help of the flamboyant designs and colors of their kimono and ornaments. On the other hand, geiko are supposed to look more mature since they have mastered their arts, and so, they are more lady-like and demure in appearance because they rely more on their own true beauty.
There are five hanamachi or flower/geiko districts in Kyoto: Gion Kobu, Gion Higashi, Miyagawa-cho, Pontocho and Kamishichiken. Gion Kobu is the most popular I think, with the Ichiriki teahouse and being the main setting in Memoirs of a Geisha.
I also have some favorite geiko and maiko in Kyoto, some of which are popular because of their unique beauty and skills in arts and dancing. Here is Ichimame of Kamishichiken during the Baikasai in her sakkou hairstyle. The day after that, she debuted as a geiko. She was quite popular as the only maiko with a blog that she used to update regularly during her maiko times. However, some months after her debut, she quit.
The blog is currently updated by another maiko of the Ichi teahouse, Ichimomo. Ichiteru, newest geiko in Kamishichiken, was actually inspired to be maiko because of Ichimame’s blog. I’m looking forward for Ichiteru’s success in her geiko career.
Interestingly, maiko and geiko are so popular that they always appear on commercials and adverticements. There are two maiko featured in this Japanese KFC commercial: Kimiharu and her sister (biological sister) Kimika of Miyagawa-cho district. Both of them had already turned their collars. (The man in the video is Nakatsu of Hanakimi)
Featured in this BBC documentary, “Geisha Girl”, is Yukina who went to Kyoto for her dream to be a maiko after seeing them perform in TV. She’s now known as Kikuyu from the Hanafusa okiya (all their names here start with kiku meaning chrysanthemum). She is now a geiko. Watch the video here.
Videos by GameOnBBC and osbourn_15.
Photos by Onihide of Flickr. Please visit his site.
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