KYOTO, Japan — Wearing a pearl gray kimono, Reiko Tomimori, 62, bows deeply while greeting guests to Ochaya Tomikiku, her teahouse in the Gion district. Then she escorts them to a room on the second floor where geishas or soon-to-be geishas, who are called maikos, entertain them.
Ms. Tomimori looks conventional, but much at her teahouse is evolving, beginning with the growing number of foreign customers who visit. They may be guests of one of the more than 30 international companies here that use geishas to entertain clients.
Ms. Tomimori is fluent in English, as is the younger of her two trainees, the maiko Tomitsuyu.
“Most of the customers, it is their first time to see maiko-san or geiko-san and they always look very interested in this kind of culture,” Tomitsuyu, 18, said, using the regional term geiko for geisha. (Maikos in Kyoto use a single name that they are given when they join a teahouse.)
Her language skills, acquired as an exchange student in New Zealand, enable her to converse with English-speaking guests, answering questions about her life, family and training. “The female customers ask me questions about kimono and makeup,” she said.
Typically, geishas act as hostesses, engaging in witty conversation and encouraging guests to mingle. They prepare and serve food, tea and other beverages and perform traditional dances and songs. Some play the shamisen, a stringed instrument. An hourlong tea ceremony for six guests with one maiko costs about $250.
The geisha’s appearance is based on tradition. Dress and makeup evolve along a geisha’s career. The maikos, because they are young, often wear bright colors. Older geishas tone down the color palette of their kimono. While geishas are often thought of as sexual companions of sponsors, and in earlier times might have offered sexual experiences for a price, it is generally agreed that this practice has been abandoned. Tomitsuyu said that the suggestion of prostitution was inaccurate and troubling.
Discussing how she and other trainees are paid, Tomitsuyu said that the teahouse owner was a kind of agent. Ms. Tomimori takes care of expenses like kimonos, makeup fees, lessons and hairdressers. Everything Tomitsuyu earns for five years as a maiko goes to Ms. Tomimori. Tomitsuyu receives a small allowance.
Most other teahouse owners are resisting following Ms. Tomimori in welcoming foreigners without an escort and allowing geishas to speak English.
Fumie Komai, the mama-san of the 100-year-old Komayah teahouse, said she had no interest in unaccompanied foreigners. Though many regular customers entertain non-Japanese business associates, she leaves it to them to translate the conversation between the guests and the geishas.
“It doesn’t make sense if maiko-san is speaking English or Spanish or French,” she said. “It doesn’t look nice, it doesn’t look like tradition.”
Four maikos, three apprentices training to be maikos and two geishas live on the other side of an unmarked door of Ms. Komai’s teahouse, also in the Gion district. The public area offers floor seating around low tables and a wooden cocktail bar tended by the apprentices. Recorded piano music plays American easy-listening standards in the background.
Ms. Komai’s comments were translated by a customer, Ken Yokoyama, general manager of the Hyatt Regency hotel here, who is among those calling for more access to ochayas for outsiders.
Like many Japanese men, Mr. Yokoyama had never seen a geisha performance until he moved to the city nine years ago and was invited to Komayah. He understood the teahouse was a secret society; only later did he discover how it could help him with his business.
After Mr. Yokoyama’s visit, Ms. Komai told him he was welcome to bring guests and he started to do so. Business associates at the hotel understood the unusual nature of the experience he was providing, and he said it helped him close deals.
“You have no chance to access the ochaya-san, and you never ever speak to the maiko and exchange business cards, talking to them,” he said. “So this is amazing, unique and people appreciate it.”
In her second-floor tearoom, Ms. Tomimori said that for the foreign guest, the experience was not just about watching the dance, or even speaking to the geishas. The women create an atmosphere where guests are made to feel special and the host magnanimous.
“We don’t interfere, and we don’t talk about that meeting any other place,” Ms. Tomimori said, explaining why her clients brought their customers to Ochaya Tomikiku. “They trust us, and that kind of atmosphere affects the meeting.”
Only about 250 geishas and maikos remain in this city. But even as their numbers dwindle, the geishas remain an enduring and widely recognized symbol of Japan. For several centuries they have embodied the nation’s art, music, culture and hospitality. Now it appears they are part of international commerce, as well.
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