Tag: kimono

A Geisha biting a Tenugui 1920shttps://embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js

A Geisha biting a Tenugui, 1920′s
“[She] rises to one knee and puts one end of her [tenugui] hand towel in her teeth, pulling on it with her right hand. This is a typical Kabuki gesture for a female character in the throes of a deep emotion.” According to “The Art of Kabuki” edited by Samuel L. Leiter, first published in 1979, page 114. / src: Blue Ruin

(Source: https://www.flickr.com/)

Geiko Yachiyo with a Heian Period Hat 1910shttps://embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js

Geiko Yachiyo with a Heian Period Hat, 1910′s
Yachiyo dressed for the Ashibe odori (Ashibe public dance), holding a travelling hat from the Heian Period.

Yachiyo (1887-1924) was a famous geiko (geisha) from Osaka, known for her elegance and her lovely personality. People were said to weep with joy at the sight of her dancing. She became a maiko (apprentice geisha) at the age of thirteen and left the profession to marry the artist Suga Tatehiko at the age of twenty-nine. / src: Blue Ruin

(Source: https://www.flickr.com/)

Kichiya-musubi 1905https://embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js

Kichiya-musubi, 1905
A Geisha dressed in the Genroku style, fashionable among Tokyo Geisha around 1905-1908. She is showing her obi, tied in the Kichiya-musubi style, a knot named after Kamimura Kichiya (or Uemura Kichiya I) who was a popular Kabuki Actor during the Genroku period (1680′s).

The Kichiya-musubi was in fact a particularly famous and popular knot, mentioned specifically in a number of poems. The knot is a relatively simple one, but with small lead weights hidden in the obi, weighing down the ends of the bow, so they drooped “like the ears of a … Chinese lion-dog.” / src: Blue Ruin

(Source: https://www.flickr.com/)

Osaka Maiko Yachiyo II - 1915https://embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js

Osaka Maiko Yachiyo II, 1915
Myōseki (inherited names) are often used when naming a new Maiko (Apprentice Geisha) as a mark of respect for a former Geiko (Geisha) and as a means of carrying the cachet of celebrity down through generations.

The geimei (professional name) of a meigi (famous geisha) who has retired from the profession is given to a promising young maiko, but with the suffix ‘the second’ added to it. This can carry on ad infinitum i.e. ‘the third, the fourth, etc.’ with successive generations. This hereditary naming system applies to almost all artisan professions in Japan, including Tayuu (Courtesans) and Kabuki Artists. source: Blue Ruin

(Source: https://www.flickr.com/)