Japanese Notion of Beauty: Geisha

Japanese Notion of Beauty: Geisha Lifestyle

The cultural practice of geisha has declined in the twenty-first century, going from over 80,000 geisha in the 1920s to now an estimated 1,000 to 2,000 geisha in Japan. Geisha are a form of traditional Japanese female beauty, desirable entertainers of Japan. As entertainers that entrance their male customers with their traditional skills of music and dance, geisha are not submissive and subservient for they are some of the most financially and emotionally successful and strong women in Japan by tradition. Leaving the modern world behind, geisha devotes her life to the lifestyle of traditional beauty, where femininity is the tool and their natural Japanese beauty is the gift that is crafted into performances as entertainers.

Japan is considered to be a very male dominated society, and the geisha lifestyle is strictly matriarchal where some of the women in the geisha society are some of the most successful businesswomen in Japan. For the geisha system was founded to promote the independence and economic self sufficiency of women. Japanese geisha embody a type of feminism, as women find their own way without family responsibilities, through art, and not engaging in paid sex with clients. Geisha uphold traditional beauty with regards to the female self by not selling it short for the highest bidder, which is a big misconception by many non-Japanese and non-geisha.

The lifestyle of Japanese geisha is a notion of beauty that takes on a traditional non western practice of female beauty. Geisha uphold the values of a self sufficient beautiful and feminine woman who entertains showcasing her artistry, for her clients. The decline in amount of practicing geisha, one can assert is due to the western shift in beauty that Japan has encounters over the decades, but the geisha lifestyle is still alive and kicking.

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