Geisha: A Life by Mineko Iwasaki & Rande Brown

Author:Mineko Iwasaki & Rande Brown
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Non-Fiction, Biography, History
ISBN: 9780743444293
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Published: 2002-10-01T04:00:00+00:00

19

MAMA MASAKO REALLY CAME into her own when she started managing the okiya. Handling the everyday details of the business gave her great satisfaction: keeping the ledgers, arranging the schedules, counting the money. She was amazingly well organized and ran the okiya like an efficient machine.

Mama Masako was also a frugal banker who oversaw how every yen of income was spent. Her one indulgence was home appliances. We always had the newest vacuum cleaner, the roomiest refrigerator, the biggest color TV. We were the first people in Gion Kobu to install an air conditioner.

Unfortunately, her clearheaded common sense evaporated around men. Not only did she pick ugly ones, she was always falling in love with inappropriate men who didn’t love her back.

Mama Masako wore her heart on her sleeve. When she was in love she glowed. When the relationship went sour she didn’t bother to fix her hair and cried a lot. I’d pat her shoulder: “I’m sure you are going to meet Mr. Right any day now.” She never stopped hoping. She never found him.

One of Mama Masako’s first tasks as proprietress of the okiya was to prepare for my coming out.

Misedashi, the term used for a maiko’s debut, means “open for business” and indicates that the maiko is prepared to begin working as a professional. I had my misedashi on March 26,1965. There were sixty-three other maiko working at the time. I was number sixty-four.

I woke up at six o’clock in the morning, took a bath, and went to the hairdressers to have my hair done in the wareshinobu style. When I returned we had a special breakfast of red bean rice and sea bream. I drank as little tea and water as possible, because it is very difficult to go to the toilet once one is dressed.

Mother Sakaguchi arrived at nine o’clock to put on my makeup. Custom dictates that one’s Onesan performs this task but, true to her word, Mother Sakaguchi refused to allow Yaeko near me. She did it herself. First, she prepared my throat, neck, upper back, and face by painting them with binsuke oil paste, a kind of pomade that acts as a foundation. Then she covered the area with white makeup, leaving three vertical strips on the back of my neck unpainted to accentuate its length and fragility. Maiko and geiko are given two lines on the neck when wearing “ordinary” costumes and three lines when wearing formal kimono.

Mother Sakaguchi continued by painting my chin, the bridge of my nose, and my upper chest. She took peachy pink polishing powder and applied it to my cheeks and around my eyes, then reapplied the white powder over everything. She redid my eyebrows in red, then penciled them in with black. She put a spot of pink lipstick on my lower lip.

Then she put in my hair ornaments. I had a red silk band called an arimachikanoko in my chignon, and at the crown, a kanokodome band and pins made from coral, jade, and

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