The History & Art of the Geisha (FULL MOVIE)

[Music] [Music] the words Japanese and inscrutable seem to go together remarkably well as far as the Western world is concerned even in the 21st century mystery still surrounds much of Japanese society and although modern day travel has opened up access to the Far East this is one culture that's more than happy to keep the secrets of the past precisely where they belong however it's a well-known fact that human beings are curious creatures and something that is enigmatic will by its very nature also be fascinating throughout history Westerners have been drawn to Japan its people and its customs in an endless quest for knowledge and a taste of the nation's oriental splendors and naturally the Japanese geisha the intriguing subject of this film is one of the biggest draws of them all [Music] mention geisha and for most people an image of a white-faced red-lipped black-haired kimono clad beauty will instantly spring to mind but then ask for a definition of what a geisha actually is and beyond the pretty picture you'll usually find that they know little else now although we're about to embark on a journey of discovery to reveal some of the mysteries surrounding the history and art of the Geisha like a good magician will not destroy the magic allowing you to remain forever spellbound by these delightful creatures so before we begin we really need to explain what a Geisha is the Japanese characters for the word geisha literally translate as person of the Arts which is quite different to the often misconstrued definition of the Geisha as a lady of the night there are without doubt connotations of prostitution attached to the art of the Geisha but this is far from being the case in reality and certainly does the true remaining practitioners of this art form a grave injustice geishas are not prostitutes and spend an entire lifetime learning their skills of wit wisdom and how to make polite conversation a pretty face will certainly do the Geisha no harm but a keen intelligence will take her a great deal further in this most traditional of professions which has through the centuries become an intrinsic part of Japanese history [Music] Japan itself is situated on the western edge of the Pacific Ocean it's interesting to note that the name Japan is of western for to be more precise English origin it's what's known as an exonym a name for a country that was invented outside that nation the actual Japanese name for Japan is both Nippon and nihon Nippon is used for most official purposes including money postage stamps and international sporting events Nihon is a more casual term and most frequently used in contemporary speech in translation both the names Nippon and nihon literally mean son origin and this is the reason why Japan is often referred to as the Land of the Rising Sun due to the country's eastward position in relation to the Asian continent the English word Japan is a simplification of the name that came to the west from early international traders the famous 14th century explorer Marco Polo whose journey through Asia lasted 24 years reaching further than any of his predecessors beyond Mongolia to China was the first person to record the Mandarin Chinese word for Japan see Pangu this was then adopted by Portuguese traders in the 16th century and it's thought these same Portuguese traders were the first to bring the word to Europe it was originally recorded in English in 1577 and spelled GI a PA N and of course the English found it much easier to pronounce the word as Japan though Nippon or Nihon are still by far the most popular names for Japan from within the country recently the foreign words Japan and even sea Pangu from Marco Polo's day have been used in Japanese mostly for the purpose of foreign branding on export goods so should you find yourself visiting Japan today you might well wonder with Western ieave it a what is it a Geisha actually does if she's not a prostitute well her job rarely involves anything more sexual than showing the bare skin around the NAP of her neck she must ensure that her clients are happy pandering to their every whim with the dignity and grace of a swan oddly a Geisha will be far more highly valued if she has a quick wit rather than a stunningly beautiful face a clever tongue will always make its mark more so than transient beauty even though beauty is treasured it can be manufactured the geishas elaborate makeup can stun a client but an air of grace and polite intelligence conversation will always make her client come back for more when a young girl begins the journey towards becoming a Geisha she may well rely on her looks and her innocence but that will only entertain a client for so long she needs charm an attentive attitude and an ability to ensure that her client thinks he is enthralling and entertaining her with every word he speaks a Geisha will never let a glass go unfilled or a request go unheeded she is that rarest of commodities the perfect hostess [Music] when there is a lull in the evening which is inevitable a Geisha will suggest games to play all of which are designed to be funny silly flirtatious and on occasion downright rude they will have a huge repertoire of games to choose from as they are taught them to be used in the same way as they are taught dancing the art of the tea ceremony to sing and play instruments and many other things let's face it their main objective is to make middle-aged Japanese men feel young again with the games they choose most games end up with someone being made to drink sake traditional rice wine as a forfeit taboo subjects are talked about openly at geisha parties and will send the room into fits of laughter and the subtlety needed to handle such topics with decorum most definitely comes with experience [Music] if a dance has been requested this will be the highlight of the night a Geisha dance is taken very seriously indeed not only by the Geisha but also by her clients a proper geisha dance has to be requested beforehand to allow the accompanying musicians to be in place with the drum the flute and the shamisen each dance tells a story and each distinct dance move must be performed exactly these dances are a precise ballet of movements gracefully woven together and are considered highly sophisticated in Japanese society a Geisha generally works in the evening which allows her the daytime hours to hone and perfect her skills the old western expression says that a woman's work is never done and if she happens to be a Geisha never a truer word was spoken [Music] now while we're on the subject of words geisha which translates as mentioned before as a person of the Arts was first used to describe men who entertained the higher classes through a mixture of song dance and proficiency in the arts by the end of the 17th century women had taken over the role that the men had enjoyed and the numbers as well as the status of Acacia rapidly began to rise in fact geisha quickly became skilled in many traditional Japanese arts including dance music tea ceremony flower arrangement calligraphy poetry etiquette conversation and naturally all the social graces as well many years of rigorous training were required before a Geisha could be regarded as proficient and a true treasure of Japanese culture [Music] [Music] the marked interest in geisha during recent years is no doubt due in part to one man's enlightening book simply called Memoirs of a Geisha which was published in 1997 ironically this book has sparked a worldwide quest for knowledge of the Geisha just at a time when this most ancient of professions had become all but extinct with numbers of real geishas barely reaching a thousand as Japan has an estimated population of over 125 million people finding a real geisha is like looking for a needle in a haystack [Music] [Applause] [Music] the image of the Geisha has always been popular and is synonymous with Japan itself the painted white face the jet-black hair and the ruby red lips usually staring out from behind an elaborately decorated fan on many travel brochures and guides but not many people actually take the time to look beyond the image American author Arthur Golden's best-selling book kick-started a huge resurgence of interest in the whole concept and way of life of the Geisha his first person narrative concerns a Japanese woman who lives in Kyoto Japan Memoirs of a Geisha has now been turned into a major Hollywood film as well as having been translated into more than 20 languages selling more than 4 million copies in English alone golden holds degrees in Japanese history and art history with a specialization in Japanese art which shows that his fascination with Asian culture goes deeper than just a first-time novelist trying to score big with a new twist on the usual rags to riches fairy tale nevertheless when he freely admitted that most of his inside information came from a retired geisha he met while studying in Japan who he named he made what can only be described as an error of judgment [Music] geishas are always sworn to secrecy which makes it all the more intriguing that one of them broke ranks to give up some well guarded secrets of an age-old profession the Geisha have always entertained the rich and powerful and throughout history have been known for their secrecy to many patrons a Geisha party is an ideal place to strike up business relationships and exchange trade secrets there have been certainly Asia throughout history who have broken their code of silence and have been shunned for it even in some instances receiving death threats as a result this is precisely what happened to the geisha involved in Golden's memoirs and she has in turn taken out a lawsuit against the author as she was promised anonymity in the eyes of the community the geisha who break the code of silence aren't true geisha because the genuine article will always keep quiet whatever she has experienced in the course of her work the relationship between geisha and client is based on mutual respect trust and loyalty and this incident just goes to prove how difficult it is for Westerners to get a glimpse of geisha life without jeopardizing the livelihoods of any geisha prepared to speak to them it's impossible to consider what makes a successful geisha without dividing this incredible profession into its three component parts history training and ceremonies we'll start with the history of the Geisha and discover how it all started long ago and far away of course one of the most forgotten facts about geishas is that the first practitioners of this ancient craft were men male geishas were called taiko mochi and are still active today although in very reduced numbers indeed these male geishas were very much like the English court jesters of the medieval age entertaining the equivalent of the English kings and queens in Japan the reason that male geishas were rapidly superseded by females in the exact same role was simply because of their target audience the majority of Japanese males who employed geishas actually preferred women to take this very deferential role so male geishas who perform traditional dances routines storytelling and entertainment were edged out in favor of more traditionally feminine attributes however there was one area of the early Japanese jesters duties for which the men were very much better suited as they also acted as attendants to their feudal lords Japan was run on a feudal system from the 12th century all the way through to the 19th century this system required a society to be divided into different classes at the top sat the Emperor all pomp and circumstance who wielded great respect but little power the next person beneath him in the social order was the Shogun a military leader with all the power and all the control as generally tends to be the way of military leaders the most famous and most successful of these Shogun's was called Tokugawa a great general who had defeated all of his rival warlords in a great battle in 1600 before then Japan had been a country plagued by bloody and violent Wars and civil unrest through generations of his family the Tokugawa Shogunate ruled Japan with a military dictatorship which ran right through until 1868 this period is called the Edo period and gets its name from the capital city of Edo which is now better known as Tokyo Edo was just a small fishing village to begin with surrounded by marshland and rivers but Tokugawa had positioned a castle there some ten years earlier this tiny village would be the focal point of his military administration and eventually it would expand and expand like a giant balloon before bursting open to reveal the great city of Tokyo [Music] life in Tokugawa Japan was strictly hierarchical with the population divided into four distinct classes samurai farmers craftspeople and traders while the Tokugawa shoguns ruled Japan much the same as Nobles did in Europe lands were distributed to the Shogun's loyal and faithful servants who were called daimyo the daimyo then granted lands to their warriors the samurai known to us all because of their incredible bravery and truly magnificent swords [Music] so the male Geisha tea ceremony connoisseurs and artists to a man both advised and entertained their Shogun Lord before peace prevailed in the 1600s they were sounding boards for military strategies and fought at the side of their Lord in an age of constant battles and Wars of course this advisory position held by the male geisha became redundant when there were no more battles to fight or civil wars to be won and there was a new role to be played which suited the women equally as well as the men they changed from being advisors to becoming pure entertainers and a number of them found employment with the high-class Japanese for the next two and a half centuries the Japanese were able to develop a unique culture that would remain largely untainted by foreigners this was because shogun tokugawa fenced in the japanese population like cattle sealing off the country to any outside influence no foreigners were allowed to enter Japan and no Japanese inhabitants were allowed to leave the only exception was the remote southern port of Nagasaki only here were Chinese junks and Portuguese ships allowed to trade [Music] with the feudal system in place Japan became ordered and this created harmony and prosperity oddly the wealthiest beneficiaries of the class system who would turn out to be the merchants who many of the higher classes like the samurai and the Shogun himself would view as parasites in reality these merchants were essential to the welfare and continued prosperity of the country although they didn't produce anything of worth like the farmers they did pass on the goods that were grown and made skimming a healthy profit off the top as they sold them on journeying from province to province [Music] even though they didn't pay taxes they were aware that the Shogun would find some unreasonable excuse to confiscate all of their acquired riches so the merchants became the playboys of their day spending money as fast as they could make it in order to avoid it being taken away from them and what was the main luxury they spent it on yes you guessed it geishas of course [Music] now the term geisha had not at this point been officially coined however the collective population of the lowest level of the feudal system were known as Kawara mano which translates as riverbed folk this was because they all lived in the squalor and ghettos of the dry riverbeds and banks just outside Japanese cities and therefore just outside the reach of the law the riverbed folk consisted of jugglers jesters prostitutes dancers courtesans musicians and tea serving wenches [Music] shogun tokugawa became most concerned as this freedom and wild behavior was generating civil disorder unheard of in traditional japanese society [Music] there was one remarkable erotic dancer who caused a mass brawl in the streets and as a result women were banned from giving such sexually explicit performances in public this certainly didn't please the population and although female entertainers disappeared from the stage for a while they soon started to emerge in Samurai households giving private performances or as teachers of music and dance these were the early roots of the Geisha culture which would come to fruition just a century later [Music] another way around the problem was for men to take the women's role and male troops were soon performing similar routines some even dressed as women as there had been no ban on men performing in public interestingly the Japanese viewed both homosexual and heterosexual love as two sides of the same coin with many young male performers being prostitutes as well the Shogun realized making prostitution legal was the only way to control hedonism so he created pleasure quarters which quickly grew to the size of small towns here any male citizen could visit to indulge in the pleasures of his choice in Japanese society at that time marriage was nothing to do with love and more to do with social status an alliance between families that was arranged by the head of each household this was due to the rigid structures of Confucianism the main religion of 17th century Japan which demanded an unquestioning obedience to Authority the father of the household was like the Shogun of the country and was accorded as much respect and loyalty as the Emperor of Japan himself a woman was expected to obey her father then her husband and if her husband died before she did her son it was a rigid male-dominated society which treated women little better than domestic servants so sexual relations between a married couple tended to be for the production of a male heir to continue the family line and aside from that the man of the house was allowed to indulge himself to his heart's content at the pleasure quarters in fact it was actually frowned upon if a husband didn't visit the pleasure quarters and chose to stay home with his wife and children from the very beginning of the pleasure quarters there were also entertainers on hand often these performers would sing risque and wry bald songs to amuse the patrons it was within the pleasure quarters that the word geisha is thought to have been first used to describe these singers the instrument that marked out these early geishas from any other entertainer was the shamisen this was a 3 stringed wooden instrument that had the appearance of a banjo they are still used to this day even made by the traditional method of stretching animal skin over the sound box although unlike the banjo the shamisen makes a low melancholy sound guaranteed to melt the hardest of hearts and aroused the senses a wise pleasure quarter entrepreneur began a system of actually registering the geisha who sang in his establishment and even from these early beginnings the performing geishas were subject to strict rules and regulations geisha were not permitted to leave the pleasure quarters to entertain the only time that this rule was lifted was for New Year's Day while they could leave the quarters on this day they had to be back inside the gates by 4 o'clock in the afternoon geisha were strictly prohibited from wearing extravagant clothing and they were limited to plain non figured cloth with their crest their collars were to be of white material the hairstyles were to be of a uniform style and they were only allowed to wear three ornaments in their hair one calm and two hairpins one longer than the other to avoid familiarity with their guests the Geisha had to be hired out in groups of three this was reduced to two in later years and she was not to sit next to the guests unless there was absolutely no other choice if a Geisha was suspected of being too intimate an inquiry would be held and the offending geisha could be suspended for a couple of days the hours that they were allowed to work were strictly limited from midday until ten o'clock in the evening although this was later increased to midnight in conjunction with these rules those who recruited geisha were encouraged to choose rather ordinary plain looking women to help curb competition between courtesan and geisha artistically skilled and talented women were also thought to be much more suitable for this role [Music] the regulations themselves became widely used in all of the pleasure quarters and were quickly considered standard practice of course the wise entrepreneur didn't do this out of the kindness of his heart he also set up an inspection station which took 30 to 50 percent of the geishas fees this made the gentleman in question very wealthy indeed but rather than hinder the Geisha these set rules helped pave the way for a whole new era of prosperity for the young women and their minders more important still the Geisha clearly became distinguishable from a prostitute if a Geisha chose to enter into a relationship with a client that was legally classified as misconduct not prostitution but this was a free choice for the Geisha and not something they were forced into slowly the Geisha began to take over the pleasure quarters and this new breed of woman these geisha were witty free-spirited independent and intelligent they provoked thought and could hold their own in any conversation with ease while exude an artistic skill from every pore when pleasure quarters were introduced there were roughly equal the numbers of male and female geishas but by the 1800s there were over three times the amount of females in relation to the males the nineteenth century could rightly be described as the Golden Age of the Geisha however for the rest of the world the developing culture of the Geisha was hidden away just as was Japanese society as a whole the country had effectively cocooned itself away and where once Civil War had ravaged this noble country there was now peace and tranquility [Music] [Laughter] [Music] the first foreigner to pry the locked doors of Japan Open was Commodore Matthew Perry of the US Navy in 1853 in command of four black hulled steam driven frigates he docked near Edo which is now of course modern Tokyo and was met by representatives of the Tokugawa Shogunate they told him to carry on to Nagasaki which was the only Japanese port open for trading to foreigners and that was only small and limited but Commodore Perry refused he threatened force with the combined power of his four frigates the Mississippi the Plymouth the Saratoga and the Susquehanna unless he could come ashore and deliver a letter from the President of the United States of America Millard Fillmore the Japanese military forces were so out of date and unprepared that they could do nothing more than allow Commodore Perry to deliver the letter he vowed to be back for an answer while the Japanese lived in fear of the return of these black ships as they had been christened the ships became a symbol of threatening Western technology and colonialism the black of the title referring to the color of the ships themselves and the black smoke that billowed out of the coal-fired engines that drove them through the water the following year Commodore Perry returned this time with seven of these so-called black ships to establish formal diplomatic relations between Japan and the United States of America this was dubbed the convention of Kanagawa and forced the opening of the Japanese ports of Shimoda and hakoda a four American trade thus ending a 200 year policy of seclusion and self enforced isolation by Japan though Commodore Perry refused to deal with Japanese officials and demanded to speak with the Japanese head of state he didn't realize that he'd only spoken with representatives of the Tokugawa Shogunate and not the Emperor however the Shogun was the real power in Japan at that time as mentioned before and for the emperor to interact in any way with foreigners was out of the question within five years similar treaties were negotiated and signed with other countries including Great Britain and Russia [Music] the influx of the West into Japan was one of the major contributing factors to the rise of the Geisha and the reason behind a change in leadership the current Shogun was just 12 years old and his court in Edo made all his decisions for him which included conceding any rights they had to independence to the approaching West with its ever-present black shadow of ships looming on the horizon national survival and national pride were at stake [Music] so much so that for the first time in centuries the warlords disagreed with the Shogun the emperor finally made his views known and vowed to keep Japan's borders close to the outside world being as the emperor never normally took a stand where the politics of his people were concerned this was a major revelation and inspiration however all became lost when the Shogun's aides signed all the treaties with other countries without the knowledge of the young Shogun himself or the Emperor [Music] this created understandable unrest among the samurai and the warlords of Japan who all gathered in Gion the geisha district of Kyoto and they plotted to overthrow the Shogun the Western nations all of whom had signed their treaties to trade with Japan realized that there was an immense power struggle between the Shogun and the dissatisfied rebels oddly even though it was the rebels who disagreed with being invaded by the West the west sided with the rebels and supplied them with arms and ammunition the turning point of these events happened when the old Emperor died and was replaced with his son Emperor Meiji who was barely sixteen years of age eventually the rebels captured the Emperor and named themselves the Imperial Army abolishing the Shogun and using the emperor as their figurehead [Music] [Music] the geishas have been the backbone of this revolution providing comfort and support for the newly christened Imperial Army many of them falling in love with the rebellious samurai and warlords who used the geisha district as their home the most powerful and youngest of the soldiers was called Tokyo chic Edo and when the emperor was safely installed in Eidos palace of the fleeing shogun and a doe itself renamed tokyo he married his faithful geisha companion and she became the most powerful woman in Japan a simple geisha had risen to the top of Japanese society and many other geisha also made significant marriages above their social class during this period of revolution [Music] the new Meiji government although initially opposed to trading with the Western nations suddenly embraced them wholeheartedly the Emperor declared that Japan would no longer be in his words the Frog looking at the world from the bottom of the well you he bowed that Japan would adopt the best the West had to offer and thus embarked on a love affair with all things for him one of the first things that happened was a pleasure quarter was built specifically for the non Japanese visitors with tea houses serving as the meeting place for clients to make their appointments with geishas half of these cases were male and this was of no consequence to the Japanese they saw all love as pure and didn't have the prudish insecurities and fears of the Western nations where homosexuality was often punishable by death [Music] the Meiji government were keen to show the world that they were as enlightened civilized and modern as their foreign counterparts and so they passed the prostitute and geisha Emancipation Act this law prohibited the sale and trade of human beings of course as geishas had played such a huge part in bringing about the formation of this new government the rules weren't so strictly enforced when it came to their own arrangements the Geisha community continued to prosper but away from their acknowledged home of Kyoto when the Revolution had taken place the Emperor the courtiers the samurais the warlords and everyone else had decamped to the new capital of Tokyo and left Kyoto to fend for itself so this ancient and abandoned capital decided to fight back against Tokyo and introduced an international exposition to showcase the traditional arts and crafts that had become much admired abroad since the trade doors had been opened [Music] [Music] their main attraction was to bring out the Geisha with their beautiful costumes and keen intelligence for the Western visitors the geisha were mysterious intriguing and like nothing they had ever encountered before here you see a Western photograph of a child dressed in geisha costume which epitomizes the confusion that the visitors felt as they tried to translate the phenomenon when they returned home once a year the public would be granted the spectacle of seeing the mysterious and secretive geisha to their famous dances it was and still is a sight that draws huge crowds so much so that it was eventually increased to twice a year [Music] but what does the life of a Geisha entail how does a female enter this age-old profession you [Music] it is true that in more recent times the tradition that held Japan together has eroded and many girls looked to the West for guidance rather than to their ancestors tradition is a big part of the Japanese way of life but it seems to be fading this is why a sighting of a Geisha is as rare as the Loch Ness monster in Scotland they still exist but in small numbers and can only be afforded by the most successful of businessmen fewer seek out the life of the eternal beauty and artisan of old Japan only a couple of girls apply each year and even fewer will decide to stay on to become fully fledged geisha they often fail to realize that the Geisha life while glamorous on the outside is actually a life of hard work and dedication [Music] but back in the 1800s it was the most tangible way out of poverty for many females not that they had much choice as to whether they wanted to enter the world of the Geisha or not as they were essentially sold at a young age by their parents into a Geisha House [Music] the very first step to becoming a geisha is to be accepted into a Geisha family and live in an okiya which is a japanese-style house that has a banquet room for rent and dormitory type rooms where the Geisha live alongside the in training apprentices once they have been accepted they enter into a family-style hierarchy involving a mother called an au Kisan of the house who is usually a retired geisha an elder sister called oniisan who is a fully fledged working geisha and then there are the young sibling apprentices who are entering the life of the Geisha via their training [Music] the bond between elder sister and young sibling the Geisha and The Apprentice is one that they both will keep for life in the district of the Geisha everything is female oriented and run by women as it has been for centuries with the male role being that of dressers wig makers and other artisans this is a rarity even by today's standards although the ironic thing is that they depend on the male's business as clients to be an independent entity [Music] the mother of the house who is in western terms more of a headmistress or a guardian of the apprentices doesn't provide the room and board or the supervision of the Geisha training for free she pays out for everything and then when the apprentice becomes a Geisha they have to start paying back all the money that has been spent because of the years of training involved this can take years to pay back ensuring that the Geisha stays in the same house for a very long time the apprentice geishas initially contribute to the okiya by doing household chores the mother later acts as a manager or agent of the Geisha to repay all the money she's paid out by extracting a hefty profit from the geishas appointments when the apprentices reach the age of 16 they are promoted to the rank of Maiko and this is when they begin their rigorous training in the arts by a company in a geisha from the okiya to her appointments in order to get to know the customers and learn social graces Maiko dress in long-sleeved kimonos wear very tall wooden clogs dawn and elaborate hairstyle and only apply red lipstick to their upper lip when a Maiko turns 20 a ceremony is held called area J which means changing of the collar that transforms her into a Geisha [Music] the districts where most geisha live and work are known as hamachi which means flower town in Kyoto there is a district called Jian which has always been famous for its geisha and is still popular today in Tokyo the best-known districts are located in Shinbashi Akasaka and Yanagi Bashi the cost of hiring a Geisha is very high and is based on her experience and expertise clients are billed per person attending the function which averages out at about five hundred dollars for a two hour appointment [Music] the tea houses where the Geisha entertained their clients are separate from the houses where they live these two like the okiya are run by retired geishas and have usually been in service for many years one of the most important rituals of the Geisha is the tea ceremony which a Geisha will attend classes in and will take many years to perfect even the client requires knowledge of the gestures and phrases expected of them mention tea anywhere in the world today and it's the English afternoon variety that tends to spring to mind elegant china cups and saucers napkins the requisite number of cucumber sandwiches and cakes all combined with genteel conversation will be the order of service however the Japanese tea ceremony is a very different affair influenced by Zen Buddhism immersed in delicate ritual and deep inner meaning [Applause] [Music] by comparison and English afternoon tea is by its very nature both feminine and frivolous and the majority of men will only take tea in this fashion when forced to do so unlike the Japanese men who prized their tea ceremony highly [Music] ironically you'll find many English tea sets adorned with Japanese imagery and if you're ever fortunate enough to handle one be sure to check the bottom of the cup or there's often an embossed image of a Geisha just one word of warning though if you've been given it full of tea do make sure you drink it first [Music] for many Westerners the items required for Japanese tea ceremony are quite unfamiliar and fine teacup handles are nowhere to be seen [Music] tea-drinking was introduced to Japan from China in the ninth century by a Buddhist monk this does go some way to explaining the spiritual importance of tea ceremony at first the tea was used for medicinal purposes and then gradually the practice developed for pleasure [Music] the tea used for the ceremony is powdered green tea and although we can buy green tea in the West there is much more to this process than introducing boiling water to a tea bag just consider all the items required for tea ceremony and you soon appreciate why it can take a Geisha years to learn this most traditional of Arts here's a brief rundown of the essential components [Music] the Chuck end is a piece of white cloth of a rectangular shape and usually made out of linen or hemp which is used for the ritual cleaning of the tea bowl the fukusa is again a piece of cloth but this time more square in shape and made of the finest silk this is used for the ritual cleaning of the tea scoop and is usually plain of a single color and often purple orange or red the tama literally means shelves and refers to all types of wooden or bamboo furniture used when preparing the tea the precious items required can be stored inside and the hosts will kneel in front of it the label made of bamboo is a long simple device used in certain ceremonies for the transference of the water from the fresh water container to the kettle as well as to and from the iron pot the largest ladle can be seen when the guests of a tea ceremony go through the ritual purification process before they enter the tea room itself [Music] the tea bowl comes in a vastly differing range of colors sizes and shapes with different styles used for thick and thin tea in summer the bowls are usually more shallow which allows the tea to cool down rapidly whereas the opposite is true in the winter when a deeper Bowl is used because of the colder weather tea bowls are usually christened with a personal name by whoever made them and whoever owns them or in a separate ceremony conducted by the tea master it said that some tea bowls used in ceremonies are over 400 years old however this would only be on very special occasions and not for an ordinary tea ceremony with regular customers the best bowls are thrown by hand and some bowls are extremely valuable the irregularities and imperfections are often featured prominently as the front of the bowl because they are something to be prized showing individuality and originality if a tea bowl is broken its painstakingly repaired in a long process using natural ingredients mixed with lacquer the lacquer itself has a dark color but powdered gold is often added to the mix with additional designs sometimes painted on to the tea bowl using this method no two tea bowls are alike which makes peach tea ceremony something even more special for the participants the tea is kept in a tea caddy and there are two types the Natsume is a short tea caddy which has a rounded bottom and a flat lid made from untreated or lacquered wood the other style of tea caddy known as the cha array is tall and thin with a lid made of ivory and an underside decorated in gold leaf instead of wood this tea caddy is made of beautiful ceramic and stored in its own decorative bag tea scoops are carved from a single piece of bamboo with a nodule in the approximate center they are used to scoop tea from the tea caddy into the tea Bowl [Music] tea whisks are carved from a single piece of bamboo there are thick and thin whisks for thick and thin tea once a year in the month of May all the old and damaged whisks are ritually burned in a local temple instead of being thrown away [Music] all the tools for tea ceremony are handled with exquisite care they are scrupulously cleaned before and after each use and before storing some components are handled only with gloved hands the tea ceremony is performed very slowly and deliberately starting with the cleaning and laying out of each of the utensils the tea bowl the whisk and the tea scoop the Geisha will then place a small amount of green tea powder into the bowl and add the appropriate amount of hot water after which she will quisque the tea using set movements [Music] [Music] many of the movements and components of tea ceremonies evolved from the wearing of the kimono the traditional dress for the Geisha for example certain movements are designed with long kimono sleeves in mind to keep the sleeves out of the way or to prevent them from becoming dirty in the process of making serving or partaking of tea other movements are designed to allow for the straightening of the kimono [Music] after the tea has been made the bowl is then served to the guests of honor boughs are exchanged and the guest rotates the bowl to avoid drinking from its front takes a sip murmurs the prescribed phrase and then takes two or three more sips before wiping the rim rotating the bowl to its original position and passing it to the next guest with a bow the procedure is repeated until all guests have taken tea from the same ball and the bowl is returned to the Geisha afterwards the Geisha will clean all the utensils and they will be examined and admired by the guests before being put away [Music] now if all this wasn't enough for the Geisha to contend with to be truly considered a proficient tea practitioner she must also be skilled in the art of calligraphy and flower arranging [Music] to the Western I Japanese characters maybe indecipherable but one thing's absolutely for certain they are still incredibly beautiful during her education a Geisha will learn calligraphy but for the tea ceremony she will select Scrolls often written by famous calligraphers to hang in the scroll archive of the tea room the selection will be appropriate for the season or the time of day the ceremony is being performed such characters as peace harmony respect and purity are always popular as they really sum up the key principles of tea ceremony [Music] the flowers used to decorate the tea room may seem hardly arranged at all to Westerners as typically only one or two blooms are ever used however the placement of the flowers is of vital importance and invariably the blooms will lean towards or face the guests this is all clever stuff but you only have to look at these wonderful images of geishas to realize that much of these ladies day is spent getting ready to meet their guests it begins with the application of the white makeup a powder that is mixed with water and turned into a paste and ends with the Geisha donning the kimono [Music] first to help the makeup to stick the skin is rubbed with oil and wax and then the white paste is brushed on leaving a gap only around the hairline and at the back of the neck a thin layer of powder is dusted on carefully the Geisha began using white makeup way back in the 16th century made from rice powder eyeliner is then applied and a tiny amount of red to the corner of the eyes the eyebrows are brushed on softly and on occasion highlighted with red as well a Geisha will sometimes leave out the red on her eyes and eyebrows completely [Music] last but not least the lips they are outlined first and then filled with color sugar is applied for shine geisha wear bright red lipstick and it is worn only in the center of the lips to emphasize delicacy femininity and the desired miniature effect [Music] until the Meiji period when the rebellious warlords and Samurai overthrew the weak Shogun and formed the Imperial Army around the emperor meiji geisha and other performers were known to permanently stain their teeth black as well so nothing more than the red of the lips could be seen it's important to note the significance of the color red in Japanese society because red is denoted as a color of beauty and happiness as well as being considered the color of erotica geishas traditionally wear a crimson lining under their kimonos depending on the season and of course display bright red flashes of lipstick made from safflower extract plus a hint of red Rouge made from the petals of crimson flowers on their cheeks another feature of the Geisha is the distinctive robe type dress that they wear which is called a kimono a kimono is a very difficult thing to put on that is why the geisha preferred to have a dresser come and do it for them during the winter they would wear heavy silk kimonos that would weigh up to 8 pounds during the summer they would wear lighter cotton ones called a yukata they also wore tabi socks which are plain white socks with an indent after the big toe for them to be able to wear zari which are flip-flop type sandals the trade of the Geisha dresser is passed down through generations of families and takes a lot of practice and hard work it is very much like a puzzle that only an expert can put together piece by piece they pull tuck tie and fastened until every bit of the Geisha is covered in beautiful fabric the apprentice stage of becoming a Geisha when they are referred to as Maiko lasts approximately 5 years before they go through a ceremony that in translation simply means the turning of the collar a mykos collar on her kimono is read whereas a fully fledged geishas collar is white [Music] even after becoming a Geisha the training continues throughout their career as they learn through experience the geishas goal is to realize perfection through art and it's a long journey to embark upon that may be outdated in the 21st century even in the most traditional enclaves of Japanese society [Music] after the golden period of the Geisha which started in the 1800s there was much made of the modernizing of Japan due to the influx and influence of the Western nations that opened trade routes were this once secluded country in an effort to stay original and uphold ancient traditions the geishas didn't attempt to modernize themselves but their profession was in danger of being misrepresented the major reason for this misrepresentation came with the outbreak of world war two in 1939 although initially the main theater of war was in the West as Adolf Hitler and his Nazi invaders storm-troop their way through Europe when the Japanese air force bombed the American fleet at Pearl Harbor on the 7th of December 1941 all eyes turned to the east [Music] there had been conflict between America and Japan since the outbreak of the sino-japanese war in 1937 quite independent of Hitler's actions however the bombing of Pearl Harbor resulted in America immediately entering the war on the side of the Allies against the axis alliance of Germany Italy and Japan there were now two theatres of war the Atlantic and the Pacific and for the people of Japan World War two would have catastrophic implications [Music] by May 1945 the Allied victory over Hitler meant that there was peace in Europe but for Japan it was a different story with an intrinsic determination never to surrender the Japanese military would fight to the last man and the Americans knew this consequently President Truman took the decision to use nuclear weapons dropping bombs first on Hiroshima and then on Nagasaki [Music] this resulted in the eventual surrender by the Japanese to the Americans in September 1945 finally bringing the war in the Pacific to a close American servicemen were therefore commonplace in Japan and naturally so far away from home were fascinated by the exotic notion of the Geisha unfortunately due to the economic hardship caused by the war the genuine geisha worked in the factories just like the women on the homefront in America and Britain the geisha districts were left empty but a new type of geisha appeared on the scene much to the horror of the real practitioners of the geishas art many of the country's prostitutes copied the costumes and called themselves geisha girls as they entertained the American visitors yet again the distinction between geisha practice and prostitution became confused particularly from a Western viewpoint [Music] as Japan battled to adjust to the horrors of nuclear devastation and rebuilding the structure of society the geisha returned to their districts but in dramatically decreasing numbers the Geisha had already forfeited their place as the queens of the fashionable world due to intense competition with the influence of Western culture on the Japanese Way of life and instead retreated to the world of traditional arts and entertainments because of the private nature of the Geisha seemingly an exclusive commodity for only the more privileged the Western view was that these Japanese women were very much the private entertainers with all the extra naughtiness that goes with the implications of that description [Music] indeed it may have been the popularity of Arthur Golden's fictional account of the Geisha way of life in his best-selling novel memoirs of acacia that cemented this view in the eyes of the world even the geisha who provided golden with his research material complained that the novel was incorrectly preoccupied with sex and the idea of women selling their bodies [Music] however if we take a closer look at Golden's book there are some familiar storytelling themes that any society the world over will be able to recognize there is a real fairy tale quality to the story that has all the resonance of the Brothers Grimm and their rags to riches heroine Cinderella Golden's heroine begins life in a poor fisherman's family until just like Cinderella she loses her mother to illness the father who is weak he is unable to care for his two daughters and sells them to a broker although the older daughter is sent to a brothel our heroine goes to train as a Geisha which launches her into the world as a refined educated and beautiful woman [Music] there are plenty of parallel characters to identify a wicked stepmother at the head of the Geisha House who needs to be overcome along with an older geisha who has all the scheming and plotting skills of Cinderella's often caricatured ugly sisters and of course no story worth the printing could possibly conclude without a dashing Prince to save the day and fall in love with the heroine now if you want to know more you'll have to find out for yourself whether or not memoirs of acacia has a happy ending just like the millions of readers who have already discovered this enthralling tale about one of the most secretive aspects of Japanese life the image of the Geisha is well known with her snow-white face ruby red lips dark eyes and elaborately coiffured hair it is an image that has been presented with some skill by the Japanese themselves to market their cultural heritage to the outside world this in itself is ironic considering that Japan has always been wary of the Geisha and has many times in its long history tried to quash their very existence Japanese society has something of an ambivalent view towards the Geisha even moving between different regions of Japan the perceptions of what a Geisha is and what a Geisha does or doesn't do will vary but regardless of this the image of the Geisha does sell products and has been used on many items including books travel guides rice porcelain and virtually every other Japanese commodity you can think of the geishas symbolic value appears to be equal to if not greater than their artistic merits as far as Western society is concerned as our time exploring the secret and utterly fascinating world of the Geisha draws to a close it's difficult to predict what the future might hold for these remarkable women by the middle of the 20th century there were still around 20,000 cases in existence unfortunately in the 21st century there are fewer than 1000 [Music] maybe the art of the Geisha is simply dying away but the impact of Arthur Golden's Memoirs of a Geisha does suggest otherwise like so many cultures east and west just like North and South have become much closer in global terms the fact that a novel about geisha could take the late 20th and early 21st century by storm is testament to this greater openness and understanding between cultures Travel does after all broaden the mind with the experience of far-off places and people and if this is achieved through the pages of a novel then the Geisha has at least been preserved for future generations [Music] the Geisha with her mask like makeup sumptuous kimono and range of skills will remain as elusive as a butterfly and that is probably a very good thing hopefully this film will have given you something of an insight into the life of the Japanese geisha and also in turn given these remarkable women the respect they deserve ironically the verbose dr. Johnson way back in eighteenth-century England said Nature has given woman's so much power that the law has wisely given them little perhaps this was the principle applied by the Japanese to their geisha when they rose to popularity just as the good doctor was speaking across the other side of the world suggesting that some issues are common to every culture and every age this being the case it will surprise no one that the people of the 21st century the whole world over find the history and art of the Geisha so enduringly engaging [Music] [Music] you [Music]

Channel: FREE MOVIES

Views: 409,942

Keywords: Movie, Doc, japan, japanese, Art, Geisha, video, japanese culture, full documentary, full movie, full film, full stream, free documentary, free movie, free film, free stream, 1091, on demand

Id: Qwr7RW5kVSY

Length: 86min 53sec (5213 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 14 2018