Respect the Geisha!
Posted: December 27, 2010 | Author: Doug 陀愚 | Filed under: Japan, Travel | 4 Comments »Geisha are a subject I usually don’t take much interest in, but I recently read this article by the University of Kyoto which reminds people to respect Geisha and the apprentices (Maiko). It’s a known problem in Japan that foreigners flock to Kyoto and Tokyo to see the Geisha and sometimes harass them for photos. I’ve actually seen this first-hand when I visited Sensoji Temple in Tokyo a couple years ago. It was just after New Year’s and the place was very crowded with people paying respects for the new year. As my wife and I started to leave, we stumbled across a group of 3 or 4 geisha approaching. I was really embarrassed for some reason standing next to my wife,1 so I didn’t get a good look, but as they passed us by, all these guys were running after them with
cameras, both Japanese and Foreigners. I mean really running hard. It was weird and kind of creepy. It seems like a lot of guys out there are fascinated by geisha.
Me? I never quite understood the allure myself. I’ll admit it: I do have a case of “yellow fever“, though thankfully I do not entirely qualify as a “Wapanese” (no swords, not a martial arts fan, hate anime). Of course one might wonder why I even made a blog devoted entirely to the subject though. 
Anyway, I like Asian women quite a bit, but not in the traditional “stereotypes” people usually think of. I just think on a day-to-day level they’re cute and have great sense of style,2 plus they’re more compatible for me due to my interests in things like Asian food and Buddhism. While living in the EU, I saw lots of gorgeous Irish, Russian, Polish, Spanish and Italian women too, so I am not so blind to women from other parts of the world. 
In any case, all’s well that ends well: I love my wife a lot, and she knows I am pretty devoted to her, so we’re a happy couple after nearly 7 years of marriage and much longer knowing one another. So I guess I did something right.
But I digress. Despite my lack of interest in geisha, I did enjoy reading in the past about the positive and negative side of the geisha lifestyle. Japan, like France, has a particular talent with aesthetics, and geisha do embody femininity-as-art probably better than anyone else out there I can think of, but to me they’re still just women with really nice makeup. It would be nice to attend a party with one, ask a few questions about what it’s like, but I can’t understand why some people chase and harass them.
So, if you’re a traveler in Japan show some respect, yo!
- Don’t chase ater them. That’s just weird.
- Don’t photograph them without permission. That’s common courtesy, you know!
- Don’t touch them either. How would you like it if someone did that to you?
- When meeting geisha, like any other women, just be a gentleman. No one earns any self-respect in life by being the opposite.3
As for me, the only geisha I know well is the one at Kyoto Station. She pretty cool about photographs too.
P.S. Speaking of travel, I am flying to Japan first thing tomorrow morning. I am eager to be reunited with the ladies in my life (wife + daughter).
1 Chalk it up to good ol’ American Puritanism I guess, or maybe I just didn’t want
to disrespect my wife by staring too much.
2 Actually if you go to Japan, you’ll see that Japanese women really aren’t any better looking than women in general. I suspect that their cultural talent for aesthetics just makes them seem more “put together” than other women in ads, TV shows, Internet, etc. You’ll never notice it though unless you actually go over there. Korean women, I have to admit, are genuinely very attractive but I had some bad experiences in college that made me give up on dating any girls from Korea. My wife also argues that Korean female pop groups are better singers than who Japanese ones who rely upon their ultra-girlish cute looks.
3 I like to believe that the reason why my wife and I have had a successful international marriage is that I try hard to appreciate her culture and her way of thinking, and come to a kind of consensus. I respect her opinion a lot, and she’s a good listener to me too. I guess this applies to all marriages, but is even more critical for international ones. I’ve see plenty of them fail in divorce because one side usually takes the other for granted and makes no effort to learn the other’s culture/language. The ones I’ve seen succeed don’t have this problem, though they may have the typical man/woman challenges instead. Nothing new there.
Hello, this blog is about my life as a father, Buddhist and Japanophile. Any useful information I can pass along will hopefully make the 
I find “yellow fever” and “wapanese” to be somewhat hate filled terms.
So what if some prefer a particular race. Men are often taken by the physical. There’s rarely comment about liking redheads or blondes or whatever.
The people in International marriages / relationships I’ve met are perfectly nice and normal people. And it cuts both ways. Women aren’t stupid.
Nerds are mostly harmless. So what if they have an obsession in anime and Japan. I could think of worse ways to spend your energy. I find it strange, especially cosplay fans, but whatever makes them happy is fine by me.
I find it difficult to take photos of people in the street, even with a long lens! So I wouldn’t chase after Geisha, Miko etc.
Gion at night does feel like a theme park and the tourists paparazzi like outside the restaurants are strange. While wandering the backstreets however I saw Geisha hurrying about their business undisturbed. I’ve also seen the fake Geisha, Japanese tourists dressed up for the day.
I wonder if tourists would chase after Yakuza? I’ve seen them too in an old sentou. Scary looking guys, you probably wouldn’t want to chase after them.
Hi Robert,
Yeah, that part about the “yellow fever” was intended to be self-deprecating in a humorous way, but maybe that didn’t come out right…
I remember growing up with a certain Asian-American friend who use to tease me about it too. We were good friends and still are , so I never really took offense to it. I think being an Asian male in the West is hard too, so maybe he was just venting to a friendly ear.
Speaking from experience, there’s a fine line between loving a culture and being obsessed with it. In my younger days I fit the latter category a little too well, but like most people I got out of the awkward phase and figured it out. On the subject of international marriages, you know I am married that way too.
My point was that they’re somewhat more difficult to make successful due to the additional overhead of cultural differences, but people who make them work are those who learn to respect each other’s culture and make an effort, etc.
By the way, very good point about chasing or not chasing Yakuza.
Doug wrote: ‘I just didn’t want to disrespect my wife by
staring too much.’ One thing to consider: keeping a pleasant smile
on your face makes it possible to stare without creating such a
negative impression!