This afternoon I bumped into a geisha as I walked into a store selling Japanese-made trinkets at Metro Plaza.
With a trace of what appeared to be a faint smile on her red lips accentuated by the white makeup and porcelain-like smooth skin of her melon-shape face, holding a shopping bag at the same time expertly balancing an umbrella on her delicate hands, standing with a respectful curtsy as if to greet the visitor and the most exquisite kimono dress she was indeed a stunning beauty to behold. But alas she was not a flesh and blood woman, a human, but just a mannequin, a life-size dummy doll dressed up as a geisha at the shop-front to draw potential shoppers to enter the shop
Turning my head around and cranking my neck to the back and the side I was slightly disappointed that none of the shoppers appear to notice the presence of this lonely beauty standing by the shopfront begging for attention. Well I was not a shopper going into the store to buy stuffs but her exquisite beauty stopped me in my track and enticed me to capture the image on digital photograph. "I'm going to google the internet on the world of the geisha," I made a promise to myself after returning her smile with one of my own as I headed for lift that would take me to the roof-top car park in the shopping mall.
A geisha is a Japanese female entertainer who is skill in the traditional Japanese performing arts such as classical music and dance. Although geishas are sometimes regarded as a prostitutes by non-Japanese unfamiliar with Japanese traditions and culture, legitimate geisha do not engage in paid sex with clients. Their purpose is to entertain their customer, be it by dancing, reciting verse, playing musical instruments, or engaging in light conversation. Geisha engagements may include flirting with men and playful innuendos; however, clients know that nothing more can be expected.
The traditional makeup of an geisha features a thick white base made from rice powder with red lipstick and red and black accents around the eyes and eyebrows. The white makeup covers the face, neck, and chest, with two or three unwhitened areas (forming a W or V shape, usually a traditional W shape) left on the nape, to accentuate this traditionally erotic area, and a line of bare skin around the hairline, which creates the illusion of a mask. The lip colour comes in a small stick, which is melted in water. Crystallized sugar is then added to give the lips lustre. The lower lip is colored in partially and the upper lip left white for the apprentice geisha in her first year, after which the upper lip is also coloured. Newly full-fledged geisha will colour in only the top lip fully.
Geisha always wear kimono. Apprentice geisha wear highly colorful kimono with extravagant obi. Always, the obi is brighter than the kimono she is wearing to give a certain exotic balance. Older geisha wear more subdued patterns and styles (most notably the obi tied in a simpler knot utilized by married women known as the "taiko musubi" drum knot").
The shimada or hairstyles of the geisha are varied. There are 4 major styles of shimada: taka shimada a high chignon usually worn by young, single women; the tsubushi shimada, a more flattened chignon generally worn by older women;the uiwata, a chignon that is usually bound up with a piece of colored cotton crepe; and a style that resembles a divided peach, which is worn only by maiko. These hairstyles are decorated with elaborate hair-combs and hairpins.
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