Memoirs of a Geisha

You just have to love those pair of icy-grey eyes, the white painted face and the bright red lips.... make them so mystery behind that painted face....

In fact, I was always curious about Japan culture - so discipline, so refine, so elegant. Geisha is one of them. Geisha, or otherwise mean "artisan" or "artist" who must master the arts of music, dance, clever conversation, crafty battle with rival beauties, and cunning seduction of wealthy patrons.

However, they are not "prostitute" as many people ignorantly assume. The way to know the difference is the way their obi is tied: because a prostitute can't be bothered with calling a dresser to retie their obi every time they have a customer; they wear theirs tied up front.

Living a life of a geisha is not easy... in the olden days they are sold to an Okiya which are usually run by an elderly woman or mother (okasan) of the house, often a retired Geisha herself. The Okiya invested alot of money to train these girls to learn various "gei"- musical instruments (particularly the shamisen), traditional forms of singing, traditional dance, tea ceremony, flower arranging (Ikebana), poetry and literature. Apart from training, they also have to performed various chores as a maid in the house, etc washing, cleaning; as assistants to the house's senior geisha as part of their training and to contribute to the costs of their upkeep and education.

The girls become Maikos when they are 16, which they will accopanies a geisha who is expected to play "older sister" (onesan) to teach them and get them accustomed to the job. When a maiko is going to become a geisha, a initiation ceremony called "erigae" or "changes of collars" when the collar of a maiko changed from red to white. Also, this was also when a girl underwent mizu-age, a ceremony that revolved around the girls losing her virginity to the "highest" bidder.

Love the dance... I love anything to do with dancer with snow....

What a nice picture! Look ghostly...

The orange red....

The only disappointment of the show is their hair which most of the time are not dress up....


A maiko hair is dress up like the picture on the left. Observe the collar of a maiko is red.

A geisha hair is dress up like the picture above. Observe the colour of the geisha which is white.

Wax is combed through the hair to keep it stiff and help hold its shape. The hair style is semi-permanent, the geisha can't wash they're hair frequently. The only time they can led their hair down is in the hair salon. In addition, they have to sleep on a curved, hard block placed called "omaku" under the neck and they sleep on they're backs so as not to smuch the wax do. *talking about waking up on the wrong side of the bed*

In the show:

They all look like reborn hair!~~!~~! Ah!~!~!~!

Apart from that, the movie stick close to the story...bringing tears when the chairman express his love for sayuri.... however, I felt that the story will have more impact if they end the scene whereby sayuri is old and narrating, a pan from a picture of the chairman at the alter and to her looking out into the window from her house in United state....outside snowing... won't it be more romantic and touching....? *weep weep*