Ghosts haunt floating world of the geisha 

By Ryann Connell
Staff Writer 
Mainichi Daily News
Feb. 1, 2002
 
Geisha, for better or worse, are the face of Japan. But the past decade of
business doom and gloom is fast driving the geisha out of business and the
quintessential image of the Land of the Rising Sun faces being replaced by
common hookers or pachinko parlor touts, according to Shukan Jitsuwa (2/14). 

Geisha districts are fast becoming extinct. During the late '60s, Japan 
boasted 35 hanamachi, or flower districts, the names given to the areas 
where geisha worked and played. Now, there are a mere six areas left. 

Ryotei, the expensive Japanese-style inns frequented by powerful movers and
shakers and places where the geisha plied their trade, are also on the 
decline, falling to one-tenth of the 524 operating just 30-odd years ago. 

With nowhere to work, geisha are left with little option but to hang up their
kimono, pack away the fans and shamisen and find a real job. Nowhere is the 
crisis being felt more than in Tokyo and the ancient capital of Kyoto, the 
last bastions of the geisha. 

"The heart has gone out of (Tokyo's) Akasaka. Just when it looked like ryotei
were shutting down to be replaced by pachinko parlors, the parlors are in turn
being taken over by sex shops. You can get plenty of sex outlets into a single
building. The dirty old men prefer them. Akasaka has declined," a former 
Akasaka geisha tells Shukan Jitsuwa. 

Fate has dealt a heavy hand to many of the former exclusive ryotei in the 
Akasaka district where wheeler-dealers once decided Japan's most pressing 
matters. Some have become apartments, while the Kinryu, one of the few 
remaining Japanese-style establishments, survives only with 100 yen-an-hour
parking lots set up on either side of it. 

"Since Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi came to power, we've seen fewer people
than ever before," a local says. "We've got about 20 geisha left and only two
or three apprentices. The town has lost its luster." 

It's a similar story in Tokyo's other geisha districts. At first glance, 
Shinbashi, the playground of the wealthy, appears more than capable of keeping
its traditional performers in pay. But sex shops are popping up and some ryotei
owners are giving their establishments a modern flavor, shunning the past so 
vital for the geisha. 

Asakusa, once home to over 1,000 geisha, now has less than 50. 

Kagurazaka is plagued by narrow streets and a lack of parking space, and the
remaining geisha are growing older by the day. Mukojima alone appears to be 
thriving. 

"We've got at least 200 geisha. It's 'cause most of 'em are young. Everything
that goes on remains a secret, so we get politicians from both sides of the 
spectrum," a local cafe owner tells Shukan Jitsuwa. "We're also a fair way 
from central Tokyo, making it less likely to run into somebody you know." 

Kyoto is struggling just as much as the capital. Its teahouses, the equivalent
of Tokyo's ryotei, have also dwindled from their peak in the '50s to '60s. 
Going down the tube is now almost part and parcel of business. Teahouse madams
are getting old and nobody wants to take over from them. 

"Teahouses are being ripped down and being replaced by love hotels and parking
lots. Build a love hotel and you're going to ruin the atmosphere of the old 
geisha districts," a former teahouse owner tells Shukan Jitsuwa. 

Just as teahouses and okiya, the other traditional stage for geisha, are 
disappearing, it has become a struggle to find women willing to become geiko,
the Kyoto name for geisha, or maiko, the apprentice geisha of the ancient 
capital. A union of teahouses recently joined forces to try and recruit new
girls from the general public, but the result was less than satisfying. 

"Working as a geiko is tough," a teahouse source tells Shukan Jitsuwa. 
"There're no two days off a week in this job. And you've got to go through
rigorous training to learn how to dance. It's probably a lifestyle the young
women of today couldn't put up with." 

http://mdn.mainichi.co.jp/waiwai/0202/020201geisha.html