Word: geishas
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
JAPAN To Please a Guest Like Connecticut schoolgirls on Commencement Day, the geishas of Japan gather together on the Day of the Seven Herbs at the end of Japan's New Year feasting to receive their awards for a year well spent. Last week, as the fragile and mannered geishas of Gion, one of Kyoto's most famed geisha districts, trooped into the auditorium of their two-story training academy for the annual ceremony of a new geisha year, the balconies were ringed with the faces of teachers, music masters and teahouse madams smiling as benignly at their...
...Unfortunately," the 70-year-old academy president cried in his high voice at the commencement address, "the general public has the mistaken notion that we of the geisha world are one of the main targets of the current antiprostitution law, and it is up to you. the true geishas, to dispel this conception. The true geisha's life is her art. Study hard and always strive for its perfection." Soon afterward, the school star pupil, vivacious, 19-year-old Mariko, was awarded top prize for the year for having earned some $5,300 in declared income and an estimated...
...Though G.I.s may at times have been confused (or misled), to old-school Japanese, even the thought of comparing a.geisha to a prostitute is abhorrent. With the collapse of old traditions and the adoption of new standards in democratic Japan, the tightly cocooned and tradition-encrusted world of the geisha (whose name means literally "person of art") has undergone some drastic changes and constantly faces the threat of more. A good geisha today must be able to play not only the ancient mandolin-like samisen and the plaintive flute but an adequate 18 holes of golf as well, in case...
...manners have changed to some extent, the geisha's true function has not. In essence, it is to be all that a wife should be if she didn't have to wash the dishes, bear the babies, clean the house and grow old and tiresome. To casual guests at a party or to the patron she hopes will one day claim her permanently, the geisha must be tireless and fascinating, solicitous and flattering, soothing and delightful, ready to make conversation, play a game or listen to pompous discourse at the whim of her customer. "A good geisha," said...
...farm family, in desperate need, has returned to the old but recently outlawed custom of selling off a daughter to some enterprising brothel keeper in exchange for ready cash. So far this year, the Hokkaido prefectural police headquarters reported, 1,454 girls have been sold to restaurants, brothels and geisha houses, and 1,040 persons had been charged with brokerage in girls. Some teenagers have been sold for $15; in rare instances, more attractive girls have gone for as high...