Japan's oldest geisha turns 99

Japan's oldest geisha marks her 99th birthday

ATAMI, Shizuoka -- Japan's oldest active geisha, Kokin Nee-san, celebrated her 99th birthday.

Kokin has been a geisha for more than 80 years. She still practices playing the shamisen and singing kouta songs at least once a week even now, keeping her ahead of the country's 2,800 younger geisha.



"I've gotta do my best for the customers," she says, adding that she hopes to be able to give a performance on her 100th birthday next year.

Kokin was born in 1909, then served as an apprentice geisha in Kofu after graduating from elementary school. Kokin celebrated her 99th birthday this week because of the old practice of counting ages as starting from 1 at birth.

Spring Kateigaho International Edition

Mainichi Daily in English

KIE gives an insider's view of rarely seen Kyoto

Kyoto's esoteric world of intricate conventions and traditions can sometimes be intimidating, especially in the hanamachi, the world of the geisha. But the spring 2007 issue of Kateigaho International Edition (KIE) (on sale March 1) provides a glimpse through the eyes of insiders that makes more accessible the ancient capital's world of geiko, as geisha are called in Kyoto.

KIE explores often unknown nooks and crannies of Kyoto -- with a strong emphasis on the city's geisha districts of Ponto-cho, Miyagawa-cho and Gion -- and finds insightful clues into what has made Miyako tick over the past 1,200 or so years.

"We have taken representatives of Kyoto's geisha world and got them to give a 'Best Picks of Kyoto,' " KIE'S Editor-in-Chief Takeshi Kudo says.

KIE's "guides" are an exotic cross-section of the 21st century version of the city. They include a Canadian who gave up the hurly burly world of professional soccer to become a Kyoto connoisseur and multi-faceted entertainer together with his Japanese wife, who is herself a former tayu, historically the most artistically adept inhabitants of Japan's floating world.

Kudo points out that the spring 2007 issue contains a bonus pictorial guide on how to dance like a Miyagawa-cho geiko, with dozens of the outstanding photos Kateigaho is known for accompanying an explanation of the seasonal elements involved in the dance.

"By covering a story to this extent, we can show readers the correct manner and customs involved in Japanese dance, even if the meaning isn't always fully passed on," Kudo says. "It's a page for a little bit of added fun."

KIE's Sales Division Manager Takeharu Suzuki agrees, adding that "this is a special containing information even the average Japanese wouldn't know of."

Also providing a slice of Kyoto life are the remarkable four generations of geiko from the Hatsunoya, a Ponto-cho geisha house whose founder has provided a direct line of performers that now includes her great-granddaughter.

Kyoto's traditions would be nothing without the long lines of artisans who have provided the talents that have kept the conventions alive, even when it would seem other choices would mean less strain.

Learn from KIE about the fascinating stories involved in the decade-long creation process of the exquisite, decorative boxwood combs the geisha use in their hair, folding fans, and the wagasa paper umbrellas still now a favorite in the ancient capital.

Adventurous types can also get an extremely close to home look at centuries-old living through KIE's introduction of a supplier to the geiko who also dresses up tourists like the geiko and maiko (apprentice geisha), using completely authentic cosmetics and costumes.

KIE's spring 2007 edition also contains an extensive -- and removable -- map and guide of some of the best wares available in Kyoto with geiko and maiko providing recommendations for 60 businesses that may be of interest to foreign visitors.

"These are places maiko and chaya recommend for eating. It's not just high class establishments, it's a bit of everything from Western food to Japanese food to cakes," Kudo says. "You can find places where geisha shop and geisha hang out."

From Kyoto to kabuki, where KIE tracks the Opera National de Paris performance of Ichikawa Danjuro and Ichikawa Ebizo. KIE goes behind the scenes at the Palais Garnier as the father-and-son superstars bring the common theater of the Edo-era (1603-1868) to the traditional home of entertainment for the French nobility.

Other features in the spring 2007 issue include KIE showcasing how the new head of one of Shikoku's best known Shinto shrines is taking a so far unseen approach to preserving cultural artifacts.

KIE also gets a bite of the action in the seasonal delicacy scene in Western Japan, giving readers a year-round calendar to get the tastiest treats on offer throughout the country.

Combined with the eye-grabbing galleries, whose charms this issue also feature a show of uniform-inspired fashions, KIE's spring 2007 is a feast for the senses, with its hands-on approach to tackling Kyoto and the literally mouth-watering look at some of Japan's incredible edibles. (Text by Ryann Connell, Photos courtesy of Kateigaho International Edition)

Kateigaho International Edition http://int.kateigaho.com/
March 1, 2007

The link at the bottom of the article features more photos: Special Photo Preview

Gion Corner in New Languages

Gion Corner will now feature an audio guide in 5 languages to introduce the traditional arts of Kyoto - English, Spanish, French, Chinese, and Korean, says the Kyoto traditional arts promotion foundation. Gion Corner, as you know, features seven traditional performances like koto and Bunraku in 45 minutes for 2800 Yen.

While in the past Japanese tourists formed a large portion of visitors, the number of foreign travelers - who used to account for almost half - have rapidly increased.

Photo: Mameyuri and Mamesaho

Source: Kyoto Shimbun 京都新聞 2007年3月1日

藤花 ~Fujika

Fujika is a former gei-maiko from the illustrious Gion Kobu. Her autobiography based on her blog has been published in Taiwain.

Fujika is actually a renegade geisha. In the mid-1990s a maiko openly sued her geisha-mother and went independent. Fujika is a geiko who followed her into a maiko-for-hire gig. There was no follow-up on the story, but their business partnership seems to have lasted a few years until the maiko got too old to play the part.

It explains why Fujika's book isn't published in Japanese, but only in Taiwan.

Life at Night blog

芸妓ハンメイル ~ Geisha fan mail

Mail - I loved it as a kid. Getting it, sending it - good old fashioned United States Postal Service snailmail - all of it. I was a philatelist and my father still has envelopes from Hong Kong with the upper right hand corner torn out from where I had harvested his Queen Elizabeth II stamps. I knew how to spell Lichtenstein at age twelve.

I still feel a little thrill holding a package or postcard from a country I've never visited, so I can understand the eagerness young people have at the prospect of a message from a foreign place. Now imagine that you are a young trainee in traditional arts and something of a minor celebrity, a walking tourist attraction if you will. Now turn the adoration into fan mail.

It's not impossible to figure out the address of an okiya from the other side of the world (if I did it, surely you can). The difficult part is when fans write mail in earnest to the person of interest, they often expect a positive response in return. This can create considerable burdens for celebrities. Calculate in your head roughly the amount of free time a maiko/geiko has between classes and engagements and you'll remember why being a art-person is a character-defining lifestyle in Kyoto.

But one can hardly count on a busy arist to respond like a penpal, especially if you have no prior relationship with her. Chances are good that her okaasan intercepts anything that arrives through the mail and filters it to her accordingly ("Oh, you got a congratulatory card from America, but it's not in Japanese so I'll just put it in the pile with the others and you can look at it later" or something). It might be best to channel your energy into going to Kyoto to congratulate these women in person, where their art and charm really shines through. They seem to like entertaining regular customers as much as they like meeting new, interesting people. [The secret is: they want you to keep coming back.]

I channel my energy into supporting artists - buying their CDs, paying full price to their events, and respecting their right to privacy. It's one thing to post online for the world to see who is and is not associated to a geisha's particular okiya (they themselves post it for the world to see, therefore it's okay). But I'm not about to surrender their home addresses or class schedules or listings of their engagements for the common internet stalker.