The powerful image of the geisha – scarlet lips across an alabaster-white painted face, a glossy black wig and ornate kimono – has been associated with Japanese culture since the 17th century.
Yet, even in the age of social media, the true lives of these traditional female hostesses, the most successful of whom can charge 500,000 yen a night – around £2,500 – for two hours of their time, remains shrouded in mystery.
The country’s biggest geisha community remains centred around the historic streets of Gion in Kyoto, Japan‘s former capital, where they reside in highly private houses, protected from the prying eyes of camera-wielding tourists by bamboo curtains and dark, latticed wooden windows.
Geishas rarely use their real names, and glide around the city between evening appointments with their heads down, awaiting an opening sliding door at the teahouses (ochaya) or traditional houses (okiya) where they perform in private.
When a wealthy tourist or businessman or woman taps on the door, typically between 6pm and 10pm, the exclusive entertainment that awaits them is a much more salubrious affair today than it once was.
Until the Second World War, geishas in training – known as ‘maikos’ – would only be considered to have full geisha status after their virginity was taken by a client.
The practice of mizuage – deflowering a geisha – has long since been outlawed, but the idea that these enigmatic women – more commonly known in Japan as geikos – sell sexual services has been harder to shake.
Post-war, when Japan was occupied by Allied soldiers, the image of ‘getting a geisha girl’, prostitutes who would dress in traditional Japanese clothing for sexual liaisons with soldiers, carved out a stereotype that modern geishas, highly skilled conversationalists, musicians and dancers, have fought against ever since.
With their distinctive white painted faces, red lip and traditional kimonos, Japan’s female geishas have been part of the country’s culture for centuries – but have faced assumptions over the services they provide
Kyoto’s Gion district remains the heart of the geisha community, with maikos – geishas in training – residing in traditional houses in the former Japanese capital
Arthur Golden’s book Memoirs of Geisha, published in 1997 and made into a film by Steven Spielberg in 2005, in which he wove real-life anecdotes from geishas into a fictional story, did little to quell the seedier side of geisha life.
The book portrays a world where sexual boundaries are pushed by rich men and degradation is commonplace, with geishas tied to a code of silence about what happens in the time spent with clients.
One of the geishas Golden spoke to, Mineko Iwasaki, later sued him for defamation – after he named her in the credits of the book, settling out of court with the author.
So revered as a geisha during her working life, she was dubbed ‘one in a hundred years’ – and told a Manhattan court in 2001 that Golden had betrayed her trust and painted geishas as merely playthings for wealthy men.
Seeking a percentage of the $10 million in sales generated by the book, she said at the time: ‘I told him many things about the geisha world. I did everything I could for him.
‘But the condition was that he would not use my name or my family’s name in the book – it was based on this that I agreed to talk with him. In the end, all those promises were broken.’
A Netflix series in 2023 served up a more wholesome depiction of modern geisha life – focusing on the strong bonds formed between young maikos.
The Makanai: Cooking for the Maiko House focused on the food geishas in training are served in the houses they share with other maikos and the mother figure assigned to them, known as an okami-san.
However, it’s clear that choosing a life that honours old Japan is much less enticing than it once was – the numbers of geishas working dwindles year-on-year.
A traditional okiya house on Hanamikoji Dori street in Kyoto – around five trainee geishas will share accommodation for up to five years while they train to become a full-fledged entertainer, with a mother-figure okami-san assigned to take care of them
Timetable: Maikos attend geisha school between the age of 15 and 20, and must give up their phones, with contact with their families limited to letter writing and visits twice a year
The geisha school in Kyoto; students learn their craft, including music, dance and hospitality
A geisha dinner sees the professional entertainers showcase Japanese music and dancing, as well as playing games and engaging in conversation with clients who’ve paid for their time
Teenage girls who do make the decision, usually when they finish Junior High at around 15, to become a maiko must leave their families behind, seeing them just twice a year, with no access to a mobile phone.
In Kyoto, many maikos spend their days at the surprisingly large geisha school on Hanamikoji Dori, practising the dances, hospitality and musical recitals they will perform for paying clients in the years to come.
While some geishas work on an invitation-only basis, tourists can pay – via an agency – for a two-hour experience, with dinner, performances, games and conversation, typically costing around 50,000 yen (£250) for each geisha in attendance, plus up to around 30,000 yen for each meal taken (£150).
Those who want to enjoy the experience on a more regular basis can sign up for an subscription account, charged monthly to cover all of the costs associated with a geisha dinner, from the taxi ride to get there to the private hire of the ochaya.
Exclusivity and trust is everything, with new accounts only given to those who can provide a guarantor.
The traditional dress maikos wear differs from those of geishas; their own hair is exposed, only their lower lip is red, and they are seen wearing a long and flowing back sash with high wooden sandals.
Upon achieving geisha status, both lips are coloured red, sandals are lower and the back sash is shorter.
Training to become a geisha takes five years, with maikos becoming geikos at the age of 20, when they must leave their house-share and find their own accommodation, where they live alone.
When US author Arthur Golden published Memoirs of a Geisha in 1995, his novel based on real-life conversations with geishas saw him court controversy – after he named the geishas he spoke to. Right: Geisha Mineko Iwasaki filed a lawsuit against the author in New York in 2001 seeking a percentage of the $10 million in sales generated by the book
In 2023, a Netflix series The Makanai: Cooking for the Maiko House focused on the friendships and bonds between trainee geishas
A local Kyoto guide explains that many maikos don’t make it though.
‘They’re away from their families, they can’t use a phone – they must communicate by letter – and it’s very hard for them.’
And even when full geisha status is achieved, those who work in the industry must often find their own clients.
The worst thing that can happen to a geisha? Cupid strikes.
Says our guide in Kyoto: ‘There are some geishas who are working until they are 70 but those who want to marry and have children must leave the profession.’
Recent years have seen a new battle emerge in Kyoto too, with geishas faced with tourists desperate to catch a glimpse of them as they walk to and from work in the four main geiko districts.
Signs warning of fines of up to 10,000 yen (around £50) for non-consensual photographs, introduced in 2019, had previously failed to prevent people approaching geishas and in 2024, residents of Gion urged the city council to take action against tourists harassing geishas.
Over-tourism: Geishas have become targets for tourists determined to capture the hostesses as they move around Gion
On TikTik, one clip shows a geisha trying to swerve an irrepressible tourist armed with a smartphone as she makes her way down Hanamikoji street, with onlookers pleading with the sightseer to stop.
A woman in one clip, shared by @gogotrain51718293628190, can be heard telling the holidaymaker: ‘You can’t do that, it’s so rude’.
Locals say the popularity of the districts had seen them overrun with sightseers, many of whom who will stop at nothing to get the perfect photo – one local described Gion’s streets as being treated like a ‘theme park’.
Several streets are now off limits for the ‘geisha paparazzi’, with only those who’ve paid for a geisha experience, and local residents, allowed to enter.
What’s clear is that this enduring celebration of Japanese culture, while diminishing with each year that passes, remains just as fascinating now as it was hundreds of years ago.
