Tsushima Escapades: Epic Trip, July 2010: Dinner with Maiko

Aside from trekking up and down Mt. Fuji, the most memorable part of the Epic Japan July 2010 trip was probably the dinner with maikos. (Very, very sadly, due to timing U.B. was unable to come... I went a little wild with picture-taking, however, so hopefully this will show what it was like).

I know not all my family members know about maikos/geishas, so in brief: it`s not your "Memoirs of a Geisha" image. Maiko and geisha (more often called `geiko` in Kyoto) are basically artists. They intensively study traditional Japanese dance and instruments like the koto and shamisen. They`re also trained to converse fluently in all manner of topics, from art to politics, and do so in a manner that will put their guests at ease. They can be flirtatious and coy and play drinking games. And they do all of this while wearing about 30 lbs of kimono and accroutements on their slim bodies, without sweating off the white make-up latered on their faces, and being graceful the whole time. Oh, yes, and they represent the epitome of Japanese beauty.

Up until the night of our dinner, the most alluring thing about maikos, for me, was their elusiveness. I`d lived in Kyoto for months and seen many `fake` maikos, tourists who pay a couple hundred dollars to dress up like a maiko for a day and wander around famous temples looking chitzy. I`d even seen, on rare occasions at just the right twilight-time in the backstreets of Pontocho and Gion, maikos flitting from their taxis into high-class establishments. But I`d never been able to leisurely spend time watching a maiko perform with their carefully-cultivated grace. Those high-class tea-house establishments where maikos get paid thousands of dollars for a half-hour of their time? ...way beyond my price range, of course, and also mostly only open to well-trusted clients... there`s a saying about them that goes something like, "You can never come here for the first time." Basically, you need to be invited to a party there by someone else (who has, in the distant past, been invited by someone else) and then, maybe, you`ll be able to book a room yourself in the future.

So, touristy as it was, I jumped at the opportunity to go to a "group maiko dinner"-- a bunch of strangers in a room, each party at their own little table, with a couple of maikos working the room.

I hadn`t planned on going to a maiko dinner in Kyoto, though-- we just saw a pamphlet at the hotel and decided to go then-- so while I had plenty of now-grungy Mt. Fuji-climbing gear, I didn`t have fancy clothes for a dinner with maiko. It would`ve been beyond mortifying to show up in jeans, so the group decided to help me out by spending half of a day shopping. In Kyoto. For someone of generous, American proportions.

I am so glad that P, shopper-extraordinaire, was there, or I may have ended up wearing goodness-knows-what... something tentlike, no doubt, and probably in leopard print. P and C basically scavenged Shijo and Teramachi and found me a complete outfit, accessories and boots included, only cost a small fortune. Here it is laid out and ready to be put on--

...and here are us ladies, dressed and ready for our night out!

I shall begin, as always, with the food. We were at a high-class restaurant/ryokan in Gion, so of course it served kaiseki-ryori, the fancily-arranged, daintily-flavored sets that Kyoto is famous for. Ours came bound in a pretty red laquered box with a flower petal on top (and oh, yes, that`s white wine in the background-- it was nomihodai, or all-you-can-drink).

The first layer included a mini-chawan-mushi (steamed egg custard) and shrimp, among other tidbits.

While the next layer had bits of sushi.

After we`d had a chance to sample our meals, the maikos came in. Actually, there were two maikos and one geisha. There are many differences between them, some of which you can see in the pictures; basically maikos are younger and sort of like geishas-in-training, generally 16-20 years old. Their hairdo is all really their hair (geishas generally use a wig), and the kimono, hair, and makeup styling are a bit different from a geisha`s. It`s louder with more color and bits of glamor.

Here are the two maikos from our evening. The one on the left in green was younger (~16) while the one on the right, in blue, was on the verge of becoming a geisha (~20). There were subtle differences in their outfits, too, because of the different stages in their maiko career: one just starting, the other getting ready to finish.

The maikos started with a synchronized fan dance to show off their beauty and grace.

My camera couldn`t quite keep up.

Then someone associated with the hotel brought out a microphone and explained some of the features of the maikos` and geisha`s outfits. The whiter a maiko`s inner robe, for instance, the older she is (and the sooner she will become a geisha). The older maiko in blue had a fully-white inner robe with pale embroidery, while the younger maiko`s inner robe was red with white embroidery. And oh, my, they were gorgeous.

Another point was made about make-up; the younger maiko`s lips are only half-painted red, while the older maiko`s lips are fully painted.

The older and younger maiko`s hairstyles also differed fairly dramatically.

...I loved how the obi looked layered, too.

Here was our geisha that evening, who played shamisen and sang while the maiko danced. Her hairstyle and kimono are incredibly subdued compared with the maikos.

I mean, just check out all the things stuffed into this young maiko`s hair--

Then my favorite part of the evening came--the maiko came around to pour us drinks (beer, as is traditional at Japanese drinking parties) and chat. Here is P with the younger maiko:

...and the younger maiko pouring me a drink :)

Seriously, a once-in-a-lifetime chance.

C and P were curious about the maiko`s life, so I played translator and fielded questions. I was brimming with questions and excitement, too, but was a little overwhelmed to be sitting beside a maiko. I kept thinking that people who usually do this are super-rich; I was basically sitting next to an artistic courtesan, a living cultural icon. She had more grace in her pinkie finger than I had in my whole body.

So C and P asked about the maiko`s life. She skillfully dodged certain questions ("Are you allowed to have a boyfriend?"), but we found out quite a bit about other things. I thought that most maikos and geishas were from the Kyoto area, having grown up around the culture, but she was actually from a prefecture near Tokyo. Her family had come on a trip to Kyoto when she was younger, and she fell in love with the culture. Also, she had to apply to a geisha house through a process more rigorous than most high school entrance exams; while the numbers of maiko/geisha are dwindling, it`s still an incredibly competitive process to be accepted as a maiko-in-training. And then, of course, once you`re accepted, it`s even more work to learn traditional dance and music. She spends hours a day practicing.

It was a little difficult speaking with the maiko because maikos and geishas have their own dialect. You know, like different parts of America speak in different ways? Well, Kyoto has its own dialect, and --separate and distinct from that-- is a maiko/geisha dialect, including using completely different words for some things. Our little maiko was used to speaking a very different way near Tokyo, and she said one of her biggest challenges was learning to speak the dialect properly. It`s a softened, quirkily cute manner of speaking.

The maikos are also very busy in the evening. She said that our appointment was her first of the evening; she had two other parties to go to afterwards. I read another geisha`s memoir afterwards which said 30-40 years ago, the really popular maikos might have 6-7 engagements in one night.

After coming around to chat, it was time for drinking games. The two maikos demonstrated; there was a round disc which is manipulated in certain ways, and if you mess up then you have to drink a small glass of beer.

After demonstrating, the maikos came around to get audience members to participate. P went from our group to try.

....and she lost. Here`s the maiko pouring her beer.

I really loved it when the maiko in blue laughed-- so beautiful!

The next game was a full-body version of rock-paper-scissors, made into tiger-samurai-grandmother. The samurai beats the tiger. The tiger beats the grandmother. Oh, yes, and the grandmother beats the samurai. You lose against another guest, you drink! I tried playing this game.