I knew of some people who went to Japan and to tea houses...they say the Geisha are walking works of art...so breath takingly beautiful, with the dancing and pouring the tea, and the kimono
Women and children are allowed at zashiki now. Mineko Iwasaki described grandfathers holding banquets for their newborn grandchildren and how many geisha would sneak out of the mens' zashiki and into the womens'.
Now they do cause of the great demand of foreigner tourists. The number of japanese costumers decreased cause nowadays there are many ways to entertain yourself & not everyone enjoys the geisha s parties, then they had to open their world to gain costumers, & of course to earn money to carry on the geisha traditions. Some of the ochaya & okiya are still exclusive & refuse their geisha entertain tourists or in some big party halls but mostly they do now :)
I have loved and respected Geisha for a long time. I just love learning about them, and their everyday life....I know this career choice is impossible for me (I'm not japanese, too old), but still, I can't help but wonder.........
from japan guide website: "The services of geiko are expensive and exclusive, traditionally requiring an introduction from an existing customer. In recent years, however, some travel agencies and hotels have started to offer lunch or dinner packages with a maiko to any tourist with a sufficient budget. There are even a few companies which target foreign tourists without Japanese language skills."
Yeah it's not a secret at all. But maybe foreigners find it difficult to understand the world of Geisha because they are so unique. There are prostitutes/escorts in any country but there isn't anything else like a Geisha.
oh it takes a lot of money to do banquets at an ochaya, so of course they can be picky over their clientele! and obviously it's for all genders and ages.
In fact no. Traditionaly, women who didn t make part of the geisha world were not really welcomed in Ochaya. In anycase, there is a few years ago, absolutely no japanese women would have had the idea to try to enter an ochaya as they know it s men entertainment. They knew they had nothing to do there and even today japanese women still think like this. BUT now, geisha even entertain tourists SO they couldn t continu to refuse women, then most of their female costumers are foreigners.
That's the reverse, because it's for men, the geisha are girls. Actually, the original geisha were men, so the first women to do it were called "women geisha" (or so I read). Zashiki are still mostly attended by men it seems, but other events, bigger parties, seasonal dances etc have a large proportion (I think a majority) of women attending
@shishie4811 Why in the world would you throw a party for a baby with geisha? Women traditionally did not go to ochaya parties, but increasingly you do see them.
i wonder if this information is kind of out of date, because a newer documentary i saw said that geishas now even entertain in big party halls so they are not so very exclusive and hard to see. someone correct me if im wrong
