Inhabiting a world defined by silence and mystery, geisha are notoriously difficult to meet and even to find. Their accomplishments might include singing, dancing or playing a musical instrument but, above all, they are masters of the art of conversation, soothing the worries of the highly paid businessmen who can afford their attentions with extreme skill and patience. Contrary to popular opinion, geisha are not prostitutes but literally ‘arts people’. Their painted faces transmuted them into shamanesses who could transport men into another world – a world of dreams ….Įver since westerners arrived in Japan, they have been intrigued by Japanese womanhood and, above all, by geisha. She was a vision made for darkness, for an era when geisha used to flit through the gloom of unlit teahouses, glimpsed only by flickering candlelight. She came flitting towards me with a faint tinkling of bells, an extraordinary vision like an apparition from another age. On a Kyoto backstreet one sultry May evening, I caught my first glimpse of a geisha.
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