ok this has been getting on my last nerves, their are four and i do mean 1, 2, 3, 4 stages to becoming a full fledged geiko(geisha) but these first few dont count
1) 15 yr old or so, girl and mother call okiya-get interview with the okaasan, she accepts girl, girl meets her new "sisters".
2) girl gets introduced to all the geiko houses in her district, one of the five she will live in, Miyagawa-cho, Gion-Higashi, Pontocho, Kamishichiken, Gion-Kobu, she will live in one of these five districts or flower towns.
3) (THE FIRST STAGE) the shikomi stage-she officially starts training along with other girls her age, tough tough teaching, but by the best, she will observe how her maiko sister prepares herself for the evening, watching-how she does her makeup, dressing, etc. along with assisting her while she gets ready, then after that is done she stays at the okiya and does laundry cleans up prepares dinner while her older sisters go out for the evening.
4) she does not get to call home for a total of 6 months no outside contact with the world basically, in this stage she will grow her hair to about the middle of her back or longer than her shoulders, her training will intensify.
5) after a while she gets to go to the parties with her older maiko sister, getting introduced to the men, basically. she is almost ready to have a professional name.
6) when she passes her maiko exam she gets to show what all her training has done for her(very hard exam, only about 2 out of every 10 girls actually pass it) after exam she gets her first phonecall home in 6 months, great news!
7) (SECOND STAGE) minarai- girl gets to wear maiko kimono, okobo(shoes) and hair, the wareshinobu hairstyle, but her darari style obi is only half length and its called handari obi, her sleeves only come to just below her thighs, and her hair ornaments are very, very colorful and ornate, her bottom lip is painted only, with lots of pink blush down the sides of her nose.
cool (THIRD STAGE) the maiko years-mishidashi is now near, girl gets her professional name, this is done by going to a shrine and seeing what the lucky strokes are by hitting a bell, for that year along with the available names (this year alone 102 maiko have debuted, alone this is the most in over 40 years) the new maiko still wears the wareshinobu hairstyle but wuth turtle shell combs and kanzashi and 4 shilver blade like things in the bottom of her ware bun, she has 2 bira bira(dangly silver thingies) on each side of her head, she wears the most formal black kimono and paints her bottom lip only. she is now a full fledged maiko. her collar is fully red with little flowers
9) when she hits 18, or after being a maiko for 3 years she changes her hairstyle to the ofuku(split peach) her collar isnt as red as it used to be( the whiter it gets the older she is along with her rank it rises as well.
a regualr maiko has a series of harstyles, 1-wareshinobu 2- ofuku, 3-katsuyama(july hairstyle only) 3-yakko shimada, 4- the final hairstyle the sakkou. for a pontocho maiko they have quite a few extra hairstyles that are confined only to pontocho maiko.
10) (FOURTH STAGE) the geiko years-after five long years, the girl changes her collar to a fully white collar or her Eri-kei she is now a full geiko, for about a month she still wears her real hair, but soon after cuts it off to about a bob cut, and gets her own katsura or wig, with the shimada mage hairstyle, or on special occasions the subushi shimada, and her life goes from there, And if she is succesful enough will run her own okiya in the future after her retirement 3nodding
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