Line #68 Main/Geisha


1	[[quoteright:299:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Omotenashi-Geisha-Tokyo-Japan_6698.jpg]]
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3	''Geisha'', also known as ''geiko'' or ''geigi'', are traditional Japanese female entertainers whose skills include music and dance, fine conversation, and tea ceremony. Geisha are easily recognizable by their hairstyle, their elaborate UsefulNotes/{{kimono}} and their white make-up.
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5	Geisha who have not yet completed their training are called ''maiko'' ("dancing girl/child") or ''hangyoku'' ("half-jewel", referring to them being hired for half price of a full-fledged geisha), and tend to be more colorfully arrayed than their adult counterparts, with different hair pieces for each month, and different styles according to the level of apprenticeship. A young/hangyoku maiko is apprenticed to an [[CoolBigSis ''onee-san'' (older sister)]], [[OneeSama a fully-fledged geisha]] whom she assists, resides with, and learns from. Traditionally, those who chose to marry had to retire from the profession, though today, some districts allow their geisha to marry.
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7	For a long time the role of the geisha has been seen as mysterious, exotic, and alluring. [[{{MistakenForProstitute}} Contrary to popular belief]], geisha are '''not''' prostitutes (that would be ''yuujo'' or "pleasure women", of which the top tier were the famous [[HighClassCallGirl ''oiran'' or ''tayuu'']], both predating geisha), but rather practitioners of the traditional arts, party hostesses and professional conversationalists, with stage names and distinct personal lives. On the other hand they weren't nuns either, as a geisha was free to be romantically and/or sexually involved with guests. Sex for money is off the menu though -- back in the day, even before prostitution was banned in Japan in 1956, prostitutes had to be licensed to work as such, and geisha were licensed as geisha; [[MyGirlIsNotASlut a woman couldn't hold both licenses, it was illegal]][[note]]Though it didn't, sadly, stop some more shady businesses (mostly in smaller districts) from doing so, as [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autobiography_of_a_Geisha Sayo Masuda]] learned the hard way.[[/note]]. That hasn't stopped them from being the object of many a fantasy.
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9	It is interesting to consider that [[{{Meido}} Maids]] can be considered a modern and {{Kawaiiko}} take on the job of a geisha: dancing, singing, playing games, talking with the customers. See also "YamatoNadeshiko", the archetype of Japanese femininity.
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12	'''Provide examples of:'''
13	* FemmeFatale: Often play the part in Japanese tales and older literature and modern media, but not to the extent that the [[https://people.clas.ufl.edu/jshoaf/japanese-dolls/floating-world/onnagata/ oiran]] did in theatre plays.
14	* GorgeousPeriodDress: Their costume is an obsolete style, and a great deal more showy than the modern fashions. Maiko, during their training, tend to be very brightly and colorfully dressed, while fully-fledged geisha are dressed in more understated colors.
15	* KimonoFanservice: The style they wear screams ''fancy'' in Kimonese.
16	* OnlyOneName: Geisha are typically known by just one name, which are [[StageName "professional" names]] often taken from poetry or classic literature. As geisha move up the ranks, they may sometimes [[MeaningfulRename change their names]] to reflect this.
17	* RavenHairIvorySkin: Black hair, white make-up, bright red lipstick.
18	* TrainingFromHell: They undergo demanding training, and some works like to exaggerate it.
19	* YamatoNadeshiko: Zig-zagged. The image of a demure, quiet and calm Nadeshiko is the Japanese ideal of a ''wife'', whose domain is the hearth. Geisha have the YamatoNadeshiko looks but ''aren't'' wives, so their talkative, flirty and unabashed attitude at a banquet is the opposite of that. The stereotype of geisha as servile doormats is mostly Orientalist fantasy, their obsequiousness stops at pouring sake for the guests (which they unload to the maiko, who as learn-by-seeing apprentices can't do a lot more than pouring sake and looking pretty).
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21	!! Examples:
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23	[[foldercontrol]]
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25	[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
26	* ''Manga/MademoiselleButterfly'' is about a young geisha in training called Butterfly and her romance with her childhood friend Chinatsu.
27	* In ''Manga/ZodiacPI'', the mystery revolving around Gemini focuses on a pair of twins (of course) who are also ''maiko.'' The solution to the mystery is that [[spoiler: one of the twins was wearing the wrong headpiece for the particular month -- she had used the headpiece to stab the man who was stalking her, and could no longer use it.]]
28	* Erika from ''VideoGame/PokemonRedAndBlue'' resembles this a bit. In ''Anime/PokemonTheSeries'', she even dressed like a Geisha at a few points.
29	** Sakura and her older sisters (Satsuki, Tamao, Koume and Sumomo), inspired by the "Kimono Girls" from the games, are also seen dressed as Geishas and performing activities like ikebana and tea ceremony, before changing into normal clothes and accepting Ash's challenges.
30	* [[spoiler: Hotaru Enjouji]] from ''Manga/{{Kizuna}}'' was this in the past. [[spoiler: She also was TheMistress of a powerful {{yakuza}} from Kyoto, but [[DeliverUsFromEvil ran away from him and his entourage]] when she got pregnant with her son Kei aka the {{seme}} of the story.]]
31	* Benio's friend Kichiji from ''Manga/HaikaraSanGaTooru''. [[spoiler: Benio herself tries to become one to support Shinobu's grandparents economically, but it doesn't work and goes into the news business instead.]]
32	* [[spoiler:Satsuki]] from ''Manga/ThermaeRomae'' is a part-time onsen geisha (like her mother was) and does traditional dances for the inn guests.
33	* Aria's mother in ''Manga/AkatsukiNoAria'' worked as a geisha before having her.
34	* The seventh ''Manga/CaseClosed'' NonSerialMovie, set in Kyoto, has the characters investigating in the ''Gion'' district and befriending the teahouse owner Tae Yamakura, the ''maiko'' [[spoiler: and Tae's adoptive daughter]] Suzu Chika and the geisha Kayo Ichi. [[spoiler: Suzu is one of the suspects of being a SerialKiller, specially since she's a former archer when at least one of the victims was killed with arrows, but she turns out to just be a RedHerring.]]
35	* ''Manga/ShouwaGenrokuRakugoShinjuu'' has Miyokichi, the FemmeFatale of the series in the days before Konatsu. In episode 4 she is seen with maiko hairclips but later she graduates to geisha.
36	* ''Anime/{{Tamagotchi}}'': This is what Yumemitchi and Kiraritchi transform into in ''Yume Kira Dream'' episode 28, where they have to use this transformation to get Super Yadokaritchi (a giant hermit crab Tamagotchi) to leave Ikaritchi's garage, which he was using as a shell to live in.
37	* ''Manga/OnePiece'': During the Wano arc, most of the members of the Straw Hat Pirates go undercover in various roles to recruit more samurai to their cause and/or get information. Nico Robin disguises herself as a geisha named "O-Robi", and hopes to be invited to the shogun's palace to entertain for him so she can snoop around. Despite being a newcomer, she does well enough in the role to become a popular geisha in that short amount of time and does indeed get invited to perform at the palace, and is successfully able to sneak away and gather a good deal of useful intel before she's eventually discovered.
38	* ''Manga/KiyoInKyotoFromTheMaikoHouse'' takes place in a geisha district of Kyoto. The main focus of the manga is on the protagonist's daily life as a caterer in a teahouse, as well as the life of the maiko, geiko, and those backstage who support their job.
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41	[[folder:Comic Books]]
42	* ''ComicBook/FiveRonin'': ComicBook/{{Psylocke}} is reimagined as a Oiran working at a brothel.
43	* ''ComicBook/{{Shi}}'': Although she's not one, Shi uses geisha's makeup (white face with bright red lips) and haircut as a form of {{homage}} of her heritage (she's half-Japanese half-American). In some artworks, she's seen dressed as one, in {{Stripperific}} form of course.
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46	[[folder:Film]]
47	* ''Film/RoboGeisha'' is the story of two sisters: Kikuyakko "Kikue" Kagusa, a Geisha who is renowned for her beauty, and Yoshie Kagusa, who works as a servant in the same teahouse as Kikuyakko. Yoshie suffers near constant abuse at the hands of her elder sister, who derides her lack of grace and potential for becoming a Geisha at every opportunity. While Yoshie for the most part tries to take this treatment in stride, at times her rage boils over and manifests itself in almost-superhuman feats of strength. Their lives change when the young heir of the Kagano Steel Manufacturing corporation notices one of these feats, and forces the sisters to become part of his private army of geisha assassins. Accepting their fate, the sisters quickly rise through the ranks of the geisha corps, constantly [[{{Cyborg}} replacing their human flesh with ever more deadly and bizarre mechanical body-parts and weaponry]], each hoping to out-do the other in their ongoing rivalry.
48	* ''Film/TheTwilightSamurai.''
49	* Because Chamberlain Oishi spent two years partying in the pleasure quarters [[ObfuscatingStupidity for cover]], any version of the story of UsefulNotes/The47Ronin--like, say, ''Film/The47Ronin'' (1941)--will show both geisha and prostitutes.
50	* Quite a few American movies of the 50s and 60s would show some geisha for exotic fanservice: from ''My Geisha'' with Shirley [=McLaine=] undergoing a geiko henshin to re-seduce her fiance to ''The Geisha Boy'' with Jerry Lewis (not as a geisha, thank goodness) to ''Theatre/TheTeahouseOfTheAugustMoon'' with Creator/MachikoKyo as the geisha "Lotus Blossom". She actually had some geisha training, so what you see is pretty authentic.
51	* In ''Film/GinzaCosmetics'', Yukiko used to be one, and she still dresses the part, and her date with Ishikawa reveals that she still has the gift for intelligent conversation. But she has fallen on hard times and has long since become a lower-rent bar girl and prostitute.
52	* ''Film/{{Enjo}}'': Tayama, the abbot at a Buddhist temple, impregnates his geisha mistress, much to novice monk Goichi's horror.
53	* In ''Film/FarewellToSpring'' this trope overlaps with HighClassCallGirl. The local geishas work as classic geishas; the five young men who are the central characters hire three geishas to sing and dance at a party. But they also work as prostitutes, as dialogue explains that a "Prostitute Ban" has made life more difficult for the local geishas.
54	* ''Film/ClothesOfDeception'' is another Japanese film that blurs the distinction between geisha and HighClassCallGirl. Creator/MachikoKyo (again) plays Kimicho, who dresses as a geisha and does the traditional fan dance and whatnot. But she also demands the money up front and sees more than one client, sometimes more than one in a day. When one client hesitates to come up with a large sum of money Kimicho is demanding, she bluntly says "No sex for you!". Her mother Kiju, a more traditionalist geisha who per the usual style was TheMistress to a single wealthy patron (Kimicho's father, in fact), disapproves.
55	* In ''Film/Zatoichi2003'', two late 19th century geishas find themselves caught in a {{Yakuza}} MobWar and received unexpected help from the titular BlindWeaponmaster. [[spoiler: One of them turns out to be a man, who says he's quite [[WholesomeCrossDresser comfortable being a woman.]]]]
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58	[[folder:Literature]]
59	* In James Clavell's ''Literature/{{Shogun}},'' Kikuchiyo is a forerunner to a geisha, with a manager, an apprentice, and an exceptional level of refinement in all the entertainment arts (including that of love). In fact, she is the inspiration for her manager, Gyoko (a now retired entertainer) to suggest to [[MagnificentBastard Toranaga]] a class of women exclusively for the performing arts.
60	* ''Literature/MemoirsOfAGeisha'' and its film adaptation tells the story of Chiyo, a little girl whose dirt poor family sells her in order to make ends meet. Some of her companions in fate end up being sold to brothels, but the pretty Chiyo is lucky enough to be bought into a geisha house to be a servant, and later, if she proves worthy, an apprentice, thus becoming the famous geisha Sayuri. Despite how the book gives the impression of being a biography and based on real life, it's pure fiction and contains its share of inaccuracies. The one most aficionados would name first is the auctioning of the virginity of maiko about to graduate as geiko.
61	** In fact, the book was "inspired" by the life of the real geisha [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mineko_Iwasaki Mineko Iwasaki.]] Iwasaki got so upset at the author, Arthur Golden, that she sued him and then wrote her own book (''Geisha of Gion'') to counter all the fictionalization.
62	* In non-fiction 1890 travel memoir ''Literature/AroundTheWorldInSeventyTwoDays'', Nellie Bly visits Yokohama and attends a performance by "dancing, or ''geisha'', girls." She is enchanted by their beauty and grace.
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65	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
66	* ''Series/TheMakanaiCookingForTheMaikoHouse'': The show is about two girls who aspire to become geisha, and a lot of attention is given to the grace and skills needed to become one, as well as the cultural intricacies of being a modern geisha (e.g. no cellphones or glasses).
67	* ''Series/NightAndDay'''s Jane Harper is working as a geisha by the time we finally re-encounter her in the flesh, a full year since her initial disappearance. She's now black-haired, amnesia-stricken, and in residence at a club called the Black Chrysanthemum, where it seems she is actually required to work as a prostitute.
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70	[[folder:Music]]
71	* The cover of Music/{{KISS}}'s 1977 album ''Love Gun'' is a painting of the band members standing at the entrance to what looks like [[AncientGrome a Greco-Roman temple]], and on the steps just below them are several scantily-clad women in whiteface who could possibly be geisha, although they have long hair and are not wearing kimonos. In fact, given that Gene Simmons's "demon" makeup is directly inspired by ''kabuki'' theatre, and [[GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff the massive popularity Kiss have enjoyed in Japan since their earliest days]], that could very well be what these women are.
72	* The album cover for Music/{{Sparks}}' breakthrough album ''Music/KimonoMyHouse'' had two geishas with one winking and another with her hair down.
73	* The Music/PsychoLeCemu's music video "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjW6nfPCcZU Yume Kazaguruma]]" shows in the chorus how geishas are performing their typical dances, accompanied of the other members of the band.
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76	[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
77	* In ''TabletopGame/RocketAge'' Julandri Courtesans are essentially Geishas [[InSpace on Mars]], while also holding true to some of the professional mistress stereotypes.
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80	[[folder:Theater]]
81	* Averted: Cio-Cio San in ''Theatre/MadameButterfly'' may ''look'' like a geisha, but isn't: she still lives with her family (a geisha would live in a geisha house) and is getting married, which in real life geisha are not allowed to do unless they retire.
82	* Yum-Yum, Peep-Bo and Pitti-Sing are three Maiko (apprentice Geisha) in Creator/GilbertAndSullivan's ''Theatre/TheMikado.'' The work is far from being accurate, and many productions exaggerate it, making these characters a pile of anachronisms and inaccuracies.
83	* In ''Theatre/PacificOvertures'', the number "Pretty Lady" is sung to a pretty Japanese girl whom the three sailors can't figure out is a geisha or not.
84	* Portrayed pretty accurately in ''Theatre/TheTeahouseOfTheAugustMoon'', with Sakini ''specifically'' explaining to Capt. Frisby that Lotus Blossom is not a HighClassCallGirl but provides entertainment, conversation, and companionship.
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87	[[folder:Video Games]]
88	* ''[[VideoGame/PokemonGoldAndSilver Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver]]'' features six Geisha (called "kimono girls" in the English version) who the protagonist meets though his or her journey, cumulating in an event where they use a dance ceremony to summon Lugia or Ho-oh depending on the version. (Who you have to try to tame.)
89	* Can be trained by daimyo in ''VideoGame/ShogunTotalWar'' and ''VideoGame/TotalWarShogun2'' games. They're pretty far up the tech tree, but if you get them they are excellent at assassinating targets - unlike ninjas their presence in a province is known to your target, but they cannot be openly killed because that would be considered dishonorable (the only ways to get rid of the threat is to either sic a ninja or send a geisha of your own for a MutualKill).
90	* The character design of Deande from ''VideoGame/{{Battleborn}}'' uses many traits common to the typical Geisha look - a waist ribbon from the back, pale white face makeup and the use of fans. Her small red lip makeup and hair done up with thin blades sticking out of no doubt were inspired by it as well. The thing she just really lacks is the kimono.
91	* Kokoro from ''VideoGame/DeadOrAlive'' series is a ''maiko'' in training by her mother Miyako, a retired geisha [[spoiler:who's also a scientist for [[EvilInc DOATEC]] and partner of Lisa Hamilton]]. She also sports the YamatoNadeshiko personality as well a pink kimono as her main outfit. Her ending in ''[[FirstAppearance DOA4]]'' hinted that she eventually will become a proper geisha in a future.
92	* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfTianding'' has Kaguya Kawashima, one of the bosses, who's a geisha ''kunoichi''. She's introduced performing on-stage in a high-class restaurant, before revealing who she is by dropping a canister of KnockoutGas in the building and leaping off-stage.
93	* ''Videogame/SoulSeries'': In all of Setsuka’s incarnations, she has been depicted as wearing a kimono or a similar robe. Her first design, as seen in ''VideoGame/SoulCaliburIII'', was similar to the Japanese courtesans known as Oiran, who wore cosmetics and clothing similar to geisha but tied their sashes in the front of their belts instead of wearing a backwards obi. This similarity was referenced in one of Setsuka’s kicks, “Oiran kick”.
94	* In ''VideoGame/SlyCooperThievesInTime'', at some point when the Cooper Gang [[TimeTravel time travels]] to ancient Japan, Murray had to [[DisguisedInDrag disguise himself as a Geisha]] in order to get some intel on the criminal they were fighting. All other Geisha were only seen on posters around the Geisha house.
95	* In ''VideoGame/BorderlandsThePreSequel'', The town of Concordia has a Geisha Bot named Sereena who works for Moxxi. She doesn't appear in the game outside of an Echo recording.
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98	[[folder:Web Animation]]
99	* ''[[http://www.watchme.tv/u2/?uid=619427579e7b067421f6aa89d4a8990c Yakkohan]]'' from GENCO's Charawood shorts is about two journeying tofu-shaped maiko sisters.
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102	[[folder:Western Animation]]
103	* Yumi's Lyoko form in ''WesternAnimation/CodeLyoko'' seems to be based at least in part on that of a Geisha, altered into that of an {{Kunoichi}}. (Until the fourth season where Jeremie's upgrade makes her look more like a Ninja.)
104	* The makeup that the AmazonBrigade team Kyoshi Warriors from ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' sport is influenced by geisha makeup in addition to using influences from Kabuki makeup, plus their outfits are Samurai-influenced. It's not surprising that their makeup is based on Avatar Kyoshi's makeup.
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Context Main / Geisha