Geisha: MAIDENS OF PLEASURE

                                 

When we hear the word "Geisha" was followed by a series of images. These thin women wrapped in beautiful kimonos, walking fast, short little steps along the narrow streets of Kyoto, with his face painted white, looking like a mime or a Pierrot, staring, lost in her own thoughts.After the disappearance of the figure of the samurai, the geisha with sumo wrestlers are the only example of Japan's past. The Geisha still with the passage of time, after more than 400 years, and this continues to cause fascination, and many questions about it. The most awaited festival every year in Gion, is the cherry blossom, to see out in all its splendor to all maiko geisha and their hanamachi.
The word comes from the phonemes GEISHA Chinese "Gei", meaning art, skill, and "Sha" meaning person. That is what represents a Geisha, a person with skill in various arts.
In olden times, specifically in the Edo era to the Meiji Era, this word is used to refer to any person who belonged to the arts (poetry, theater, painting), but extended to other sectors (religious, sports, teachers foreign languages, and even to refer to the surgeons of the time), also was known by this name to those acting in a closed or private, which is perhaps what is also close to the idea of ​​a Geisha. The Geisha appears in the Edo Era, also known as the "machi geisha", the Urban Geisha.
The predecessor of the Geisha, are Odoriko, who were the dancers, but if we go back years ago, we might draw their roots from the "kabuki odori" (street theater dancers).These dancers, beautifully dressed in silk kimonos, really were mostly men, and were responsible for the samurai dance before, performing the tea ceremony, serving sake, and playing the shamisen (string instrument like the guitar but with three strings, and a very melodic sound), this dance was known as Okuni.While its roots linked to the kabuki theater, we can infer that there also comes the tradition of painting his face blank.In the Edo period, those with economic power were the merchants. They sought ways to distraction, which represent the sites where they were growing kabuki. Arts were not only growing, but also prostitution, making certain harmful sites. The Tokugawa shogunate was not welcome kabuki performances in the Yoshiwara district, because they were the causes of which were started "new practices of pleasure." This led to the prohibition of all activity and distraction was established in what is called "pleasure districts." In other words, prostitution is not prohibited but was confined to these sites, and under government control.
In 1779, the Geishas were recognized as artists, and adopted the system "Kenber" to oversee the geisha in the area, and restricted the number below 100 artists, thus protecting the geisha who fell into prostitution . The kenban, is still operating today as a kind of union of the geisha.
Geisha and maiko lived in "hanamachis" (city of flowers, hana = flower, machi = city), which were authorized cities to be inhabited by them. Currently, there are five communities in Kyoto: Ponto-cho, Gion-Kobu, Gion-Higashi, Miyagawa-cho, and Kamishichiken. The Kyoto geisha spoke in dialect "kiotense" which is still spoken today. In kiotense geisha is geiko.
Many prostitutes tried to imitate the style of the geisha, but had no artistic training from them. They dressed in kimonos, with too much makeup and trim excess hair, so for new edict of the Tokugawa shogun, and to protect the image of the geisha, it forced them to moderate their costumes and makeup to differentiate prostitutes.
Perhaps for this reason that for a time confused the geisha with them, because they were also in the houses of "red lights", but the fact is we can not say that geishas were prostitutes.
They were responsible only to distract the men, with pleasant conversations, dancing, and playing the shamisen. Geisha and maiko dancing Tachikata were called, and those engaged in playing an instrument, Jikata.The time of the geisha and maiko with every man, half incense sticks, when it had finished its time consuming.
Geisha and maiko, had a pact of silence, so any man could be comfortable with the conversations that keep ahead of her, or her.


In those areas of pleasure, as they were called, came numerous ochaya, which are the teahouses where geisha serve their clients