Oh, what's this called?

There's a certain word for this, but I can't think of what it is. It's driving me nuts.

- Part of Japanese culture
- Happens on a theater stage
- All women
- They wear kimonos and carry a hand fan
- They wear ridiculous amounts of face paint with varying colors
- They never speak on stage - instead they act or dance to a certain piece of music

Kabuki?

Yes! That was close enough. I was looking for the word 芸者 (Gee-sha?) but looking up Kabuki took me directly to it. Thanks.

DAMMIT! I knew this one! Why must i be late?!

isnt kabuki all men?

isnt kabuki all men?

No idea, to be honest. I don't know jack pomegranate about Japanese stuff, really. lolol

”Kabuki" came to my mind, since he was asking for what a certain thing is called, rather than what the dancers are called. "Geisha" is the name given to the dancing girls, isn't it? The act itself is something else.

so is it GAIH-sha, GHEE-sha?

isnt kabuki all men?

thats what i thought.

According to WP, it started with women.

I believe it's pronounced "Gay - sha"

so is it GAIH-sha, GHEE-sha?

gay-sha


From Wikipedia :

Origins

In the early stages of Japanese history there were female entertainers: saburuko (serving girls) were mostly wandering girls whose families were displaced from struggles in the late 600s.[5] Some of these saburuko girls sold sexual services, while others with a better education made a living by entertaining at high-class social gatherings. After the imperial court moved the capital to Heian-kyō (Kyoto) in 794 the conditions that would form Japanese Geisha culture began to emerge, as it became the home of a beauty-obsessed elite.[5] Skilled female performers, such as Shirabyōshi dancers, thrived.

Traditional Japan embraced sexual delights (it is not a Shinto taboo) and men were not constrained to be faithful to their wives. The ideal wife was a modest mother and manager of the home, by Confucian custom love had secondary importance. For sexual enjoyment and romantic attachment, men did not go to their wives, but to courtesans. Walled-in pleasure quarters were built in the 16th century,[6] and in 1617 the shogunate designated "pleasure quarters", outside of which prostitution would be illegal,[7] and within which "yūjo" ("play women") would be classified and licensed. The highest yūjo class was the Geisha's predecessor, called "Oiran", a combination of actress and prostitute, originally playing on stages set in the dry Kamo riverbed in Kyoto. They performed erotic dances and skits, and this new art was dubbed kabuku, meaning "to be wild and outrageous". The dances were called "kabuki," and this was the beginning of kabuki theater.[7]

Apparently there are only 1000 real Geisha left in Japan.

I saw 3 when I visited :3

Geisha, it is :o
Pronnounced as "Gay-sha" as Darkmaniac stated above.

Geisha, it is :o
Pronnounced as "Gay-sha" as Darkmaniac stated above.

Read Memoirs of a Geisha recently?

I'm really, really sorry SimplyAll, but I saw this pic:

http://www.southperry.net/showthread.php...post627017

LOL! The lighting does look like she has that makeup on, doesn't it?

Apparently there are only 1000 real Geisha left in Japan.

At the rate their population is going, that's like what... 1/3rd of their women? Sounds right.