Geisha - Arts

Arts

Geisha begin their study of music and dance when they are very young and continue it throughout their lives. Geisha can work into their eighties and nineties, and are expected to train every day even after seventy years of experience.

The word geisha literally means "artist" and late in the eighteenth century this could have described an array of Japanese women artists: Shiro, purely an entertainer; kerobi, a tumbling geisha; kido, a geisha who stood at the entrance to carnivals; or joro, a prostitute and the type of woman that professional geishas have been wrongly mistaken as for many years.

The dance of the geisha has evolved from the dance performed on the kabuki stage. The "wild and outrageous" dances transformed into a more subtle, stylized, and controlled form of dance. It is extremely disciplined, similar to t'ai chi. Every dance uses gestures to tell a story and only a connoisseur can understand the subdued symbolism. For example, a tiny hand gesture represents reading a love letter, holding the corner of a handkerchief in the mouth represents coquetry and the long sleeves of the elaborate kimono are often used to symbolize dabbing tears.

The dances are accompanied by traditional Japanese music. The primary instrument is the shamisen. The shamisen was introduced to the geisha culture in 1750 and has been mastered by female Japanese artists for years. This shamisen, originating in Okinawa, is a banjo-like three-stringed instrument that is played with a plectrum. It has a very distinct, melancholy sound that is often accompanied by flute. The instrument is described as "melancholy" because traditional shamisen music uses only minor thirds and sixths. All geisha must learn shamisen-playing, though it takes years to master. Along with the shamisen and the flute, geisha also learned to play a ko-tsuzumi, a small, hourglass-shaped shoulder drum, and a large floor taiko (drum). Some geisha would not only dance and play music, but would write beautiful, melancholy poems. Others painted pictures or composed music.