Entering the Geisha World
Today’s geisha don’t start their training until they are in their mid-teens. But for early geisha, their lifelong career started when they were young children. Parents would sell their daughters at around age six to an okiya, who would support her as she trained in the geisha arts. Once set up in the okiya, she became part of that family. Okiya were female households operated by an okāsan, a ‘mother,’ who may have once been a geisha herself. Other women in the household may be aunties (non-geisha but in a prominent role in the household) and staff that helped keep the okiya running. Working geisha and apprentice geisha became ‘sisters’ to the new girl. Becoming a geisha is voluntary today, but this sale of daughters to an okiya for geisha training shows demonstrates brutal economic conditions in Japan’s history.