Geisha

Geisha are not courtesans, nor we can become wives. We sell our skills; we create another secret world - a place of bewitchment. The word ‘geisha’ means artist and we are judged as moving work of art.

This axiom reverberated in Yume’s mind as she waited, anxiously, behind the curtains of the stage for her debut act. Her heartbeats thumped, draining out her voices in the head, now was the moment that she could win the hearts of stoic men and spiteful women.

Dressed in a complete regalia of an apprentice geisha, her body draped in a Prussian blue silk kimono with the exotic prints of Kanagawa wave on the hem in shades of scarlet and yellow, lined with gold! Her drum knot at the back took the shape of a tidy, miniature box and dissolved into the bows of her dramatic kimono. She thought it maybe wasn’t the most beautiful kimono to be designed but it was her duty to enchant the audience with her costume and skills. Yume almost couldn’t feel her stomach gnawing inside, as the thick band of heavy silk brocade was wrapped around her torso like python clenching its prey!

Curtains opened in a flash, it took her a moment to register, however the blazing spotlight on her, brought her back to senses. She dragged her dangling obi that hung on her like her debt. Taking small steps to the center of the stage she kept the bottom of her kimono fluttering-it giving the impression of ripples smoothly traversing a koi pond.

Before she could even look for a familiar face smiling back at her in the audience, the orchestra began to play the tsutsumi and the slow, intense beats made the spectators silent and all the focus turned to Yume. The radiant white face, waxy texture reflecting the spotlight, intense black brows artistically shaped at an angle that uplifted her face along with the crimson matte lips were reminiscent of an angel.

Her acute hand movements, in unison with the folk music never allowed anyone to take eyes off her. As the pace of the drums increased so did her footwork in those high heels that lay hidden under kimono, and now she zestfully opened her wooden fans that bore intricate patterns and cutwork that allowed beams of lights in background cast kaleidoscopic designs on the stage.

So suddenly she tossed her sacred props into the air, they swiveled in the air as if having their own acrobatic show that caught everyone by surprise. Her teacher in the front row looked back at the days when Yume practiced for hours with paper fans and how often she fumbled and now without even shifting her eye balls she caught them mid air and instantly used them to hide her face, only allowing a slight peak of her rubicund cheeks and hooded eyes wherein a gray orb sparkled!

The azure lights cast a heavenly halo around her as she flung out her gold bun stick and released her glossy black, needle hair that swung in the direction of the wind produced by the fans, creating an effect of a storm. Hours of hot water scrubbing and combing her hair with wax had paid off to give off the mystical sheen to her tresses!

As everyone captured this majestic frame in time in their heads, flakes of dust poured from above and she took a sharp turn, the expansive kimono took its time to follow her and she began strutting away! Yume gave a surreptitious look back to the stunned audience, a final memory of her sublime beauty and glided back, twisting her lacquered umbrella on her shoulder, letting the curtains slide in behind her.

For geisha, their whole life is a performance; but for maybe a couple of moments only they do create a realm of magnetic influence that lay entwined in dreams of men and women!

*1. tsutsumi - japanese drums for geisha*

*2. obi - long bow at the back of kimono*