Little women in Geisha costumes are beautiful entertainers, trained for years to walk, speak, dress, and play in specific traditional ways. If a woman wishes to be a geisha and she is over the age of twenty-one she can not participate in the Maiko stage where she would apprentice to an older geisha, follow her around, and learn from her example. She must be invited to the geisha community and go through a training stage.

geisha

Once a woman becomes a geisha, whether she began as a Maiko or not, she will have the same duties and way of dressing. Geisha in current times are more scarce then they were before the 1930’s. A loss of interest in traditional things, and the price for the services of a geisha in a different economy have caused the number of working geisha to dwindle from 80,000+ to an estimated one or two thousand. Many women finish school on some level (middle/jr high/high or even college) before they begin their career as a geisha, whereas in the past this was not the case. Currently the majority of geisha reside in specific districts in Kyoto and are known as Geiko.

All geisha are single women, and should they choose to marry they must retire immediately from the profession. As flirting with the people they are entertaining is sometimes part of the job (though prostitution is not) it would be unwise for a married woman to continue her career as a geisha.

These women are easy to spot, dressed in elaborate and beautiful layers of silk kimono, with perfect traditional hairstyles and carefully done makeup. The entire face and neck is painted white, while a “w” shaped patch of skin is left unpainted at the nape of the neck for sex appeal, mainly. The lips are painted red, as well as some of the area around the eye. Some Maiko even paint their teeth black so that the white of the makeup will not in contrast make their teeth look yellow and unpleasant. Instead the black is supposed to make the teeth seem invisible and blend into the dark of the inside of their mouths.

Their elaborate clothing must be worn just-so, and there are specific rules on how to stand, sit, move and act while dressed that way. Imagine if your salary depended entirely on your ability to portray yourself as the perfect woman. They are not just entertainers in Japan, they are artists.

May we reconvene under the blood red moon,
-Black Widow

Geisha are entertainers, they are paid to attend parties and have casual conversation with the party goers. They dance, play shamisen, and have learned the arts of traditional dress and beautiful flawless makeup. They are considered to be the most elegant and beautiful women of Japan, and though they are not something all young girls aspire to be, there’s definitely a few that do.

Geisha

Imagine what it would be like to be one of these women, graceful and pristine. Well, you can be, just for a night this Halloween. Think of it like being Cinderella, you can have your night at the ball, but when the clock strikes midnight (or in this case, when Halloween is over) you have to go back to being yourself. But wouldn’t that one night be fantastic to have?

Purchasing a real kimono and learning the proper way to wear it, to tie the obi, and to move in it would be ideal; but kimonos can be very expensive and very complicated to put on/maneuver in. This is one of the reason why geisha are considered artists, it’s difficult to get the hang of it and do it perfectly. Fortunately for you, there are a lot of kimono/geisha inspired costumes available as well as wigs to imitate the intricate hair-dos that they wear around town. They are much easier to wear and a lot more simple to put on, often they feature shorter skirts and cute designs. But putting on the costume doesn’t mean your finished with the costume, there’s still the makeup to be concerned about. If you can/want to, the best thing to do in my opinion would be to attempt something similar to real geisha make up.

For this you would need to start with a white base that covered not only your face but neck as well, leaving blank space on the back of your neck in a ‘w’ shape just below the nape. Your lips should be ruby red, but the lipstick should not cover the entire lip, because with an all white face it would give the illusion that your lips were much too big. Some red should be added around the eye as well as heavy eyeliner to make your baby blues/browns/greens really pop. Look up photos on the internet to be sure if you want to get it just right, but if you don’t really care much about accuracy, just put on some red lipstick and powder and dash off to the party for a night of fun.