Gion Night walk

Begeleide toer deur ouer gedeelte van Kyoto. Die toerleier het verduidelik hoe die Geisha strukture werk.
Klink vir my of dit veral 'n opsie is vir mense wat nie kan bekostig dat hulle kinders studeer nie. Net ongeveer 30% voltooi die 6 jaar opleiding wat op die ouderdom van 15 jaar begin. Blykbaar is daar geen konneksie met prostitusie nie. Dit is 'n totaal aparte industrie.

A young woman's first step toward becoming a geisha is to apply and be accepted into an okiya, a geisha house owned by the woman who will pay for her training. This woman is the okami or okasan. Okasan is Japanese for "mother."
Training to be a geisha takes about as long as it takes to train to be a doctor. Typically, a young woman spends about six years studying the arts of music, dance, tea ceremony, language and hostessing. During this time, and sometimes throughout her career as a geisha, she lives in the okiya, which is something like a boarding house for geisha and geisha-trainees. The okiya is a big part of a geisha's life -- the women in the okiya are her geisha family, and the okasan manages her career. A geisha pays a percentage of her earnings to maintain the house and support the people living there who are not working geisha, including apprentice geisha, retired geisha and house maids.Read more