In case you haven’t noticed from the lack of posts, I was on vacation in the beginning of May, where the most rigorous task I accomplished was surf from one channel to another. That’s how I ended up on the Oprah Winfrey show, where she was doing a feature on Japan’s first non-Japanese Geisha. I loved the entire segment and have enjoyed reading other articles online about this historic event, and I thought I’d share what I found with you.

Geisha and their younger sisters the maiko are living works of art in Japan — entertainers who are tasked with preserving the exquisite performing arts of Old Japan for the past 400 years. They are not prostitutes — as many popular novels and movies might lead you to believe, and for the Japanese treating these lovely and accomplished women as sex objects is almost unthinkable.

For the very first time in history, a non-Japanese woman has been inducted into their ranks and makes a living as a Geisha in the old Asakusa District of Tokyo. Australian-born Fiona Graham — who holds a Psychology degree from Keio University, and both a Masters and a PhD in Anthropology from Oxford University, is now known by her Geisha name Sayuki.

Sayuki’s life now revolves around the tea houses dotting the Asakusa District. She practices on several musical instruments that Geisha are expected to know how to play at banquets, as well as goes over the many dance steps that she and her fellow Geisha perform on a regular basis. It takes hours for her to get dressed in uber-expensive silk kimono, with the help of an old man who has been dressing Geisha for over fifty years. Once she is in her kimono, wig, and black contact lenses, she is virtually indistinguishable from her Japanese sisters.

Sayuki decided to become a Geisha as part of her studies in Anthropology. She was also spurred on by the annoyance she felt when novelists and film-makers — mostly western, got the entire Geisha culture wrong, painting them as passive-aggressive, overly ambitious harlots. By becoming Sayuki, Graham hopes to dispel the misconception as well as provide a window for outsiders to look into the intimate world of this uniquely Japanese art form.

While the thought of interacting with them is lovely (plus, I have a huge crush on Saotome Taichi — but that’s fodder for another post), I’ll probably never be able to afford to attend a banquet being served by genuine Geisha. These set meals cost about USD 400 per course per head, which is way beyond my Japan backpacker means. Still, it’s great that now there’s a chance for non-Japanese women can fulfill their dreams of becoming Geisha, as long as they work hard enough for it.

Sayuki’s photo was borrowed from Marie Claire; you can read the full article at the Marie Claire website. You can also watch clips of Sayuki at the Oprah website (requires a broadband connection).