Net revives geisha culture
Richard Lloyd Parry in Tokyo
AUGUST 25, 2006 

THEY seemed to be an endangered species, relics of an era of delicacy and
refinement doomed to extinction in the modern world. But now the geisha,
the traditional female entertainers of Japan, have been given a new lease
on life through the internet.

Geisha houses in the ancient capital Kyoto are flourishing once more after
going online to recruit a new generation of apprentices. Geisha numbers
have been in decline since before World War II, and recently it has become
more difficult to recruit the maiko, or apprentice geisha, who spend at
least five years studying the arts of music, dance and witty conversation. 

In the mid-19th century, the "flower and willow world" of Kyoto's riverside
teahouses was home to about 1000 maiko and geiko, as fully qualified geisha
are known in the local dialect. A hundred years later, the number had 
decreased to 500, including 200 maiko. Two years ago there were only 58
apprentices left. In desperation, geisha houses established websites in an
attempt to recruit newcomers. 

Now there are 80 maiko in training and teahouses are turning applicants away. 

The life of a trainee geisha, however, is far from glamorous. Recruited at
the age of 15, they must live in the okiya, or geisha house, sharing rooms
with fellow maiko and sleeping on futon mattresses and tatami mats -- a
hardship to modern teenagers used to Western-style beds in their own rooms. 
	
They rise early and spend the morning mastering the traditional 
accomplishments of the geisha -- dance, singing, the playing of the stringed
shamisen and the bamboo shakuhachi flute, and the art of make-up and the
kimono. Basic English conversation is also required. 

"It's cool to be Japanese again, and this is part of that trend," said Peter
Mackintosh, a Canadian who organises geisha evenings for foreign visitors
to Kyoto. 

The Times