Interviews with a geisha teahouse owner & a Buddhist sculptor

Maiko in the Gion geisha district and photographer.

This post consists of two interviews. The first is a June-2000 conversation with the "mama-san" or manager of a geisha tea house in the Miyagawa geisha district. The second, from February 2002, is an interview at the home and studio of a renowned Kyoto-based Buddhist sculptor.

The geisha of Gion (Kyoto has 5 historical maiko | geiko districts) have been chased and confronted by determined papparazi for years now. And this year a few tourists went way too far! As a result the Gion geisha district is cordoned off in the evenings to prevent "idiots" from going where they shouldn't go. If you do wish to catch a maiko or apprentice geisha en route to her work engagements be sure to be on Hanamikoji Street between 16:30 and 17:30. You will see them, all dressed up with wig and all, walking north on Hanamikoji or slipping discreetly into a waiting taxi. So do respect the rules when in Gion in the evening hours, OK? Thank you from everyone concerned! And note that these "acts of rudeness" have also occurred at the sumo practice sessions in Tokyo's Ryogoku sumo district and other popular experience locations. Don't be rude! Don't be pushy! And don't think you understand Japanese etiquette. Try to do as the Japanese do and you will be fine, OK?

Miyagawa-cho geiko house mama-san
A chat with Kokei Eri, master Buddhist sculptor

Content by Ian Martin Ropke, owner of Your Japan Private Tours (est. 1990). I have been planning, designing, and making custom Japan private tours on all five Japanese islands since the early 1990s. I work closely with Japan private tour clients and have worked for all kinds of families, companies, and individuals since 1990. Clients find me mostly via organic search, and I advertise my custom Japan private tours & travel services on www.japan-guide.com, which has the best all-Japan English content & maps in Japan! If you are going to Japan and you understand the advantages of private travel, consider my services for your next trip. And thank you for reading my content. I, Ian Martin Ropke (unique on Google Search), am also a serious nonfiction and fiction writer, a startup founder (NexussPlus.com), and a spiritual wood sculptor. Learn more!

Miyagawa-cho geiko house mama-san

A quiet part of town, though just a stone’s throw from the heart of downtown Kyoto, the Miyagawa-cho area began to develop around 1666. During the colorful and prosperous Genroku period (1688-1704), when a succession of playhouses, chaya (tea rooms) and theater people set up their businesses there, the neighborhood grew dramatically. The area became the early center of the kabuki world, when the dancer Okuni (from Izumo, in Shimane Prefecture) did her first kabuki-like dances along the Kamogawa River banks. Kyoto’s Minamiza, the only theater remaining from that time, was perhaps Japan’s first kabuki theater. The area became increasingly popular in 1751, when the Tokugawa shogunate allowed the first tea houses (home to the legendary geiko and maiko) to be built on the south end of the Miyagawa-cho district, on land that belonged to nearby Kennin-ji Temple, a quiet, exquisitely preserved Zen temple complex.

The geisha, or geiko as she is often called in Kyoto, is a traditional female entertainer who is versed in a number of classical Japanese arts, especially singing, dancing, and the playing of musical instruments such as the shamisen (Japanese lute). Geisha in training are known as maiko. The geisha is also trained to entertain her guests with interesting conversation, games, and pleasant companionship. It is generally a lifelong profession, with an emphasis on artistic and conversational skills, as opposed to youth or good looks. Professional geisha organizations developed in the mid-Edo period (1603-1867) and were initially associated with government-licensed pleasure quarters (see Shimabara), and then later with teahouses. From the Meiji period (1868) onwards, geisha were often closely connected with politics, as many informal political meetings were held in teahouses. There are very few practicing geisha left in Japan, due to the modern preference for Western-style bars and clubs. Kyoto is the center of the geisha world, and it is here that they receive their training. There is also a very small geisha | maiko world in Kanazawa or the "Little Kyoto." There are five main geisha quarters left in Kyoto: Gion Kobu and Gion Higashi, Ponto-cho, Miyagawa-cho, and Kamishichiken (next to Kitano Tenmangu Shrine, west of the Old Kyoto Imperial Palace).

The name Miyagawa, which means purifying river, comes from the fact that the hand-carried mikoshi used to transport the Yasaka Shrine dieties during the Gion Festival were washed (or purified) with water from the Kamogawa River south of the Shijo bridge.

Today, roughly 44 tea houses, home to 40 geiko and 20 maiko, are still active in Miyagawa-cho, making it the second largest hanamachi* (flower town) in Kyoto. This article features a conversation with Fumie Komai, the 5th generation mama-san of the Komaya tea house, the oldest in the Miyagawa district. Over its long and colorful history, the Komaya has been home to nearly 100 geikos and maikos.

YJPT: What is it like to be a mama-san and what are the most important things in your business?

Komai-san: To begin with, I feel that I am very lucky to be a mother of a tea house. I think that I am truly fortunate to be able to live in this unique, traditional entertainment world. I take a great deal of pride in what I do, which is essential for preserving the old ways of our culture. Because of the way Japan has changed, I have to try very hard to keep this tea house and the girls (geiko and maiko) that I, in a way, inherited from my ancestors, alive and happy. This has never been an easy business and as a newcomer I will have to work just as hard as the generations of my family before me to keep this unusual business alive.

I always tell my girls that heartful, essentially sincere communication is the most important thing in our business. Our type of service is much more complicated and difficult than any service industry you could imagine. But, like any service industry, the most important thing is to keep the customer happy and coming back again and again.

A good geiko or maiko has to be gentle and disciplined. And they have to dance and sing well. However, being a good entertainer is not just about excellent traditional dancing and singing skills. It is more about understanding what the customer wants the instant he walks in the door. Our clients are men and this make our business special. Women in this business have to become experts in sensing a man’s mood or personality when he walks through the door. Some clients, especially if they come in a group, want us to be quiet and stay in the background. Other customers want us to create a lively, bright mood to entertain them or their guests. To get the atmosphere right from the beginning is not something that can be learned easily. It takes years and years of training.

YJPT: Are today’s geiko and maiko different from a generation or two ago?

Komai-san: Absolutely. Today’s young people, and women in particular, have a totally different attitude to older people. And most of our clients are older. When I was young, our teachers, both at school and in training for the traditional arts, commanded absolute respect. And many of them were very powerful and dignified. Today, that absolute respect seems to be missing. Younger people seem to be less warm hearted and less willing to work really hard with and for a teacher or a client.

In tea houses, the older women traditionally made suggestions and gave advice to younger women about everything: their work, their attitude and even their personal life. This was the way to maintain discipline and firmly establish our unwritten, but clear rules of conduct. It is our role to tell our girls, ‘In this world you can not do that or think like that’. Nowadays, it is becoming harder to communicate like that. Young people still listen, but they seem to be listening in a manner that is less sincere and heartful. They especially do not want to listen openly to what older people tell or say to them. And because of this it is becoming harder and harder to pass valuable experience and wisdom from the old to the young. I feel this could have very disturbing consequences in the future, but I also think that we can adjust to the times. We really don’t have any choice.

Tea houses are organized in a way that is very much an imitation of a family. I am the mama-san or oka-san (mother) and the senior girls are referred to as older sisters (oney-san). The youngest, those in training, are the younger sisters (imoto-san). And we all live together under one roof. So getting along like any family makes perfect sense. In our world, we can never say to a customer, ‘I am sorry, but that is not our fault.’ Everything is our responsibility when it comes to conducting our business properly. And if a younger girl makes a serious mistake, then both she and her older sister will go to the customer and apoligize. It’s not like the PTA, where parents can say that their children’s bad conduct is not their fault. Here everything reflects on the house we live in and do business from. We are a team and the team is responsible for everything, no matter what.

YJPT: What is the schedule like in your “family”?

Komai-san: Our young girls train in the traditional arts for five or six hours every day, usually from around ten in the morning to sometime in the afternoon. At around three, everyone begins to put on their makeup and get their hair ready, which usually takes about ninety minutes. Then they put on their kimono, often with the help of a professional. Guests start arriving from about five in the evening to around midnight. After work they go to the bathhouse and then they are on their own until morning. The girls usually have two days off a month.

YJPT: What do you think about the idea of foreigners going to tea houses and experiencing the traditional entertainment of Japan’s geiko and maiko?

Komai-san: I once took two of my maiko girls to England, as part of a cultural exchange mission. I was astounded how little foreigners knew about Kyoto and Japanese culture in general. The maiko is a symbol of Japan, and I would be very happy to introduce people to this world. But this is a very private world. All tea houses still enforce the ichigen-san policy, which means a new customer can only be welcomed if he has a proper introduction. Nowadays, we accept requests from certain hotels or ryokan who wish to entertain their clients with our maiko or geiko. But even in those cases, we have already established a relationship with the management of those establishments. Any one who goes to a traditional teahouse knows enough to know that proper behaviour is expected. So we don’t ever really have any problems. Every one is happy here, and that is the way we like it.

A chat with Kokei Eri, master Buddhist sculptor

Born in Kyoto in 1943, Kokei Eri studied under three busshi masters, one of whom was his father. He is one of Japan's most respected and well-known practioners of this sacred craft. He was given the prestigious title of master busshi by Sanzen-in Temple (in Ohara) in 1989. In 1990, he took the name Kokei, after one of the greatest master carvers of the Kamakura period.

YJPT: How did you become a sculptor?

KE: My father was a busshi, a master carver of Buddhist images. And I am the eldest son, so, in a way, it was only natural that I follow in my father’s footsteps. But, as a boy growing up after the war, I and most of the people around me didn’t seem to be very interested in Buddhism. And watching my father struggle to make a living as a busshi, also wasn’t very encouraging. I decided instead that I would become a modern, Western sculptor. But life is never predictable.

One day, when I was about 19, a friend of my father’s asked me to help on a major, one-year carving project in Osaka. And so I became an apprentice. In that one year, we put together two, giant niomon guardian statues, which are normally placed on either side of the entrance gate to temple grounds. This kind of job only comes along once every couple of hundred years. As an aspiring sculptor, I was lucky to be involved. At that time, I was in school, majoring in modern sculpture. I took the niomon guaridan statue apprenticeship because I thought carving Buddhist images would help me in my future career as a Western sculptor. However, while working at the temple in Osaka, I had an immense opportunity to learn about Buddhism, and I became naturally curious to learn more. One thing that I learned was that Buddhist carving reached its peak in the Kamakura period [1185-1333], and then started to decline steadily. Somehow, it became my dream to try to succeed in making Buddha statues the way they were made in the Kamakura era. After the Osaka project, I studied for three more years and then started to work exclusively at my father’s side. So in the end, I became what I was supposed to become in the beginning.

YJPT: What are the steps involved in making sacred images?

KE: I am not a sculptor in the artistic sense. Instead I perform a special and highly unique function for temples and Buddhist families. When I get an order, the first thing I do is attend a special ceremony, along with all the people involved with the statue to be carved. This includes the people who economically support the temple, the priests, and all those who will be involved in the creation process. In this ceremony, we basically listen to a sutra prayer incantation said by a priest, dedicated to the life and spirit of the new statue. The wood that will be used for the statue is also present at the ceremony. After the ceremony, the wood is transported to my studio, where I and my apprentices will work on it for several months or even a whole year. Then a completion ceremony is held, attended by the same people as the first ceremony. After the completion ceremony, the statue becomes a sacred object and I am no longer allowed to touch it. From this point onwards, the statue takes on a life, a sacred life, of its own.

YJPT: What is the busshi craft?

KE: Until the middle of the Heian period [969-1085], Japanese Buddhist statue carving was basically an extension of Chinese methods. In the Asuka [593-710] and Nara [710-1185] periods, Buddhist statues were made from solid tree trunks, and over time, as the wood dried out, the statue’s surfaces began to crack badly. In order to prevent cracks, new methods were developed. In the Nara and early Heian periods, the solid tree sections were hollowed out from below. But, since one could only hollow the statue out to a certain point, small cracks still developed. The next development involved cutting finished statues in half from top to bottom, and completely hollowing out both halves and putting them back together. Though successful, this method was considered disrespectful to the statue itself, and thus discontinued. The next method, involved cutting the original wood into two pieces (front and back), carving them to completion and joining them back together. Finally, in the middle of the Heian period, Jocho, one of Japan's most famous sculptors, developed a new method that has been used for all large wooden sculpture ever since. Jocho developed this method to build the giant wooden Amidha in Uji's Byodo-in Phoenix Hall. [This hall is depicted on the face of Japan's ten yen coins.] Jocho's solution was brilliant: he built his statue out of hundreds of hollowed-out parts, like a three-dimensional jigsaw puzzle. When everything is put together such statues look entirely whole. It is a very complex process, but over the centuries it has continued. I use this method in nearly everything I do. Jojo and the other great busshi of the 13th and early 14th century are still considered the best. Unfortunately, mainly because of fire, very few of their works have survived.

YJPT: What kinds of materials do busshi prefer?

KE: Ninety percent of all Japanese Buddhist statues that are designated as cultural assets are wooden statues. The other ten percent are either made of bronze or stone. The most popular woods for carving in Japan, in order of popularity, are hinoki [Japanese cypress], kusunoki [camphor tree], sakura [cherry], katsura, and matsu [pine]. For really big statues, large trees, naturally, are preferred. But these days it is almost impossible to get hinoki logs that are over one meter in diameter. It takes a hinoki tree about 400 years to grow to a diameter of 80-90 centimeters. For the construction industry, fifty-year-old trees can be used. But for the busshi carver, the tree must be over 100 years old.

YJPT: There are many Buddhist sects in Japan. Do you work for one sect only?

KE: For me, all the sects teach the wisdom of the Buddha. Each sect has different beliefs and sutras, but the final goal is all same for all of them. Some busshi work for a single sect. But I feel that this limits our creative energy, so I work for whoever selects me. As you can imagine, the hiring process is severe. After closely studying the iconography of the sect I am hired by, I begin the carving process.

YJPT: How would you characterize your work? What do you strive for?

KE: Until the Kamakura period [1185-1333], busshi generally only carved large statues for temples. But in the 13th century, the religion increasingly became accessible to the common people. As a result, increasingly smaller statues became popular, and the busshi became quite rich. Though they became rich they did not, generally, get better. By the Edo period, Buddhist statues had become a form of decoration and little else.

I am very much dedicated to carving statues that will make people spiritually aware of themselves. This was, after all, the original purpose of such statues. Essentially, I am interested in a return to the fundamental values of Buddhism. Religion is not about decoration. It is about the personal state of our soul. It is about spiritual awareness and humility. These are the kinds of messages that I think a busshi should try to convey in their work.

YJPT: What are the best places in Kyoto to see your work and the work of other great busshi?

KE: More than 1200 years have passed since the capital was moved to Kyoto from Nara. Unfortunately, due to the many, many fires, no original Heian-period architecture survives in Kyoto. The oldest buildings in the city, and there are few, are from the Kamakura period. Japanese buildings and Buddhist statues are almost only made of wood, and wood burns. All Japanese people learn about their early history in school, and yet most of what we learn about no longer survives. After travelling in Europe, it becomes only to easy to make the wrong comparison: that Europe is older. This is unfortunate and untrue. European building and statues are made of stone, and stone does not burn.

What I feel most strongly, is that the Japanese were the greatest carvers of images ever. And yet there is so little left of the great Buddhas carved nearly one thousand years ago. Many of the smaller statues were saved from fire again and again. But almost all of the truly big ones, the truly awe-inspiring ones are gone. This is what I think about during my work.

The best places to see my work in the Kansai area are at Nanzen-ji Temple (seated figure of the Kannon Bodhisattva), Lion Mask (at Todai-ji Temple), Amida Standing Figure (Higashiyama Joen), Golden Fudo Myoo Standing Figure (Sanzen-in Temple). As for the great masters, I suggest visitors to Kyoto try and see work by Kamakura masters Unkei and Kaikei. Their work can be found at Sanjusangen-do, Rokuharamitsu-ji, and Daihouon-ji.

Miyagawa-cho geiko house mama-san
A chat with Kokei Eri, master Buddhist sculptor