My Fair Geisha
By: sakuraflowergal
Chapter 3: First Banquet
"Please pardon my intrusion," Oka-san Kikuko said when she slid the paper door of the banquet room open. "May I introduce the ochaya's new minarai, Kohoshi-san."
She gently pushed Kohoshi into the room and whispered the word 'bow'.
Kohoshi did as she was told, "Okini, my name is Kohoshi. Dozo yoroshiku (means please offer me your teachings, used only on first meetings)."
Oka-san Kikuko then left the room, leaving Kohoshi to sit by herself in a quiet corner of the room. There were 6 customers in the room, all men and above 40. 3 geishas were already in the room when Kohoshi arrived: 2 geikos and 1 maiko. The geikos were mostly chatting with the customers and drank some sake once in a while and the maiko made sure that the cups were always filled with sake. Everyone was very relaxed and at home in the cosy room where candles provided the only source of light. The addition of a doll aroused the curiosity of all the men.
"Did you say your name is Kohoshi? That's a very unusual name." One of the men asked.
"Hei. I had always felt connected with the stars, and so the choice of name." Kohoshi replied as politely as she could.
"You chose the name? How strange. Have the traditions changed, Aki-chan?"
One of the geikos replied, "Not that I heard of." She turned to Kohoshi, "Who is your Onee-san? I don't seem to know that there is anyone with the name of 'Ko'."
"I don't have an Onee-san." She replied which caused the geishas to gasp loudly. Although Kohoshi was slow, she knew that she should have given an indirect answer.
Thankfully, before the geishas and the customers could say anything else, the paper door slid open and a geiko with exquisite ruby red eyes entered the room.
"Okini!" She sang and fluttered into the room like a butterfly. Pouring sake for the guests, she made short chats and sang two koutas for the men. Before Kohoshi could make out who this charming lady was, she was out of the room. The entire performance did not last more than 10 minutes.
Without her, the room seemed duller, but the party continued and more sake was consumed. Soon, the men became so drunk that some even lied on the tatami floor and slept then and there! The party was officially over and the geishas helped the men with their coats and shoes and sent them home on their huge private cars.
Kohoshi then left the room when the maids came in to clean up the mess of the party. As instructed, she went to the waiting room and found Syaoran sitting in there, playing a soft tune on his shamisen. She may not be an expert in music, but the sadness that each note presents was so clear that Kohoshi could feel the tears welling in her eyes involuntarily.
It was only after Syaoran finished playing when he realized that Kohoshi was standing at the door all this while.
"How was the banquet?" He asked, putting his instrument down.
"There were lots of drinking and talking and there was a geiko with the most charming ruby red eyes…"
"You've met here already?"
Kohoshi nodded, already knowing that she must be a really skilful geiko to light up the room the moment she stepped in.
"That's Meiling, the top geiko in the hanamachi a.k.a. the greatest rival you will ever have. We'll talk more about her later back in the okiya. For now, I should get you to the next banquet." Syaoran then dragged her to the room where she was supposed to make an appearance.
Just as how Oka-san Kikuko had done, Syaoran slid open the door and greeted the people in the room. "Please pardon my intrusion, May I introduce the new minarai from my house, Kohoshi-san."
Kohoshi entered the room and bowed. At the same time, she noticed that the lovely red butterfly was also in the room.
"From your house, you say?" Meiling asked.
"Yes, Meiling-san. Please offer her your teachings." And with a bow, Syaoran left the room.
Kohoshi went to a quiet corner and sat there to observe the banquet. In this room, there were only four guests and yet have 6 geikos and 2 maikos entertaining the party. From the food, the decoration of the room and the ratio of guests to geishas, Kohoshi concluded that these guests must be very important or/and very rich.
"Who was that, Meiling-chan? I've never seen a man appearing in a party like that before." The host of the party asked curiously.
"That was Otou-san Li. He inherited Oka-san Yelen's okiya when she passed away few years ago but there were no geishas attached to the okiya and so we were all surprised that he presented Kohoshi-san." Meiling replied, looking at the quiet doll when the name was mentioned.
The guests all nodded in understanding. The guest-of-honour was particularly interested in the new minarai and motioned her to sit beside him. Kohoshi obeyed although her knowledge told her that as a minarai, she should never participate in the banquet.
"Your eyes are the loveliest shade of green!" He exclaimed when he saw the close up of the young minarai. The other guests, upon hearing his comment, flocked to the girl to see her marvellous jewels.
"It's incredible! I've never seen green eyes before, not even the foreigners have green eyes! Mei-chan, your ruby eyes have lost to these precious emeralds." One guest commented.
Slightly soured by that comment, Meiling poured sake for that customer and said, "Geishas are not just about their eyes, Yoshiro-kun. She must have talents as well. Why don't we get Kohoshi-san to play the shamisen for us?"
Both the guests and the other geishas cheered in reply and Meiling went to fetch the shamisen that was displayed at the far end of the room.
"I really can't play…" Kohoshi's voice trembled slightly.
"Now, now, Otou-san Li was a great shamisen teacher; surely he would have taught you how to play the shamisen." Meiling pushed on.
Kohoshi shook her head slightly, tears threatening to fall, when the door slid open and saved her.
The maid at the door announced, "It is time for Meiling-san to leave for her next appointment. Also, Otou-san Li needs Kohoshi-san to leave. He apologises for any disruptions caused."
The two geishas and the maid bowed and left the banquet.
"Okini, Otou-san Li! It's been a long time since we had tea together. Perhaps I could drop by tomorrow and we can chat like old times?" Meiling suggested when she saw Syaoran in the waiting room.
"It would be great, but my new minarai has took up all my time." Syaoran replied.
Meiling glared briefly at Kohoshi, "What a pity…I have to go. Goodbye." She bowed and left the ochaya.
Syaoran and Kohoshi also went back to the okiya. Back in the comforts of home, Naoko dressed Kohoshi out of her work clothes while Rika served the two of them supper and tea. Over supper, Kohoshi told Syaoran of her encounters in the banquets in great details.
"You did well, considering it's only your first day at work. I just didn't expect that you will meet Meiling so soon. Thank goodness the maid told me that you are to perform, or else I would not have been able to save you in time."
"Do you know her well? That Meiling-san." Kohoshi asked.
"She was my student when I was still a shamisen teacher. We grew close for a while when I took her as my most talented student. That was until I inherited this okiya and the hanamachi isolated me."
Kohoshi kept quiet. The subject of Syaoran being an unwanted man in the hanamachi had created an awkward atmosphere. The two just finished their food and tea in silence and went to bed.
The next morning, the sound of sliding doors and a panicky voice woke Kohoshi up from her dreams.
"Wake up, hoshi-san! Wake-up! It's already 6.30! You're late for the morning prayers! Wake up!"
Kohoshi stood up immediately and rushed to the prayer hall where Syaoran had already finished his prayers.
"Kneel here and pray for forgiveness for 1 hour. No breakfast for you today."
She groaned and knelt in front of the altar, feeling the hunger strongly, especially when the smell of food floated into the room. 1 hour later, Kohoshi dragged her tired and hungry body back to her room to change into her training kimono. Naoko came in to help with the dressing and secretly smuggled in rice balls.
"Arigatou! Naoko-san and Rika-san, I don't know how I would do without you!" Kohoshi exploded with delight before stuffing herself with the delicious rice balls Rika had made.
After taking an unusually long time to change, Kohoshi went to the training room to report for lessons.
"I'm sure that, after yesterday's trauma, you would want to start arts training. During these two months, I will teach you koutas and dance and, if there is time to spare, shamisen. For dance, you will first learn the different forms for 2 weeks, then, before you go for mass rehearsals in the dance hall, we will link the forms together to form the dances."
Syaoran then took out a fan and handed it to Kohoshi.
"Fans are very important as a prop in dance. It can represent a bowl of rice, an umbrella, a sword, and anything else. The trick of displaying so many different objects with just one is how the dancer holds it. For example, when you hold an open fan horizontal to the ground, it is a box of makeup. If you close the fan and wave it around in swift, crisp movements, it is a sword. If you hold a closed fan to your month, it is a flute. Get it?"
Kohoshi nodded, showing that she understood his words. And for the rest of the morning, Kohoshi had learned most of the moves which represents objects. It was to be the easiest part of learning dance. After lunch, Syaoran continued on the second part of fans. By now, Kohoshi was so tired that the crisp movements had been reduced to fluid-like swirls.
"Hold your hand up, raise the fan to your shoulder-level then twirl around from your right."
Kohoshi imitated Syaoran's movements but she didn't have enough strength to hold the fan high up. By the end of the twirl, the hand holding the fan had dropped to waist-level. He made her repeat the action several times, but the results got worse each time.
"Stop that! Stop what you are doing! What's wrong? You were doing just fine in the morning. Why all the problems now?" Syaoran yelled in frustration.
"I'm too tired to raise my hand. Can we do something else? You said something about singing, can we do that instead?" Kohoshi pleaded while massaging her sore arms.
"No. Once you start rehearing with the other geishas, the practices could take one entire day with hardly any breaks. You must train yourself to last that long." Syaoran explained the reasons for having long training hours.
"But this is only my first day into dance! Please, just this once. You can lengthen the hours bit by bit as the time goes by, but for now, I simply can't move my arm anymore!" She exclaimed pitifully.
"Fine! Just this once. But if I find that you are not working hard on koutas, then we will go back to learning dance." Syaoran said, feeling like he was making a deal with a 10-year-old.
They put their fans away and Syaoran started his opening speech. "Ko-utas, as its name implies, are short songs accompanied by the shamisen. They are the most common type of songs to be sung in banquets since most of our customers know how to sing them. Although you are to be an odoriko (a geisha who specialises in dance), you are also expected to be able to sing and play on shamisen, the widely known koutas."
Syaoran then took out his shamisen and sang a popular kouta. The high screeching took some time to get used to, but even Kohoshi could tell that Syaoran was a very good singer.
"Now," Syaoran gave her a book of kouta lyrics, "you try. Just sing along with me." And Syaoran sang the same song over and over again for Kohoshi to imitate. Normally, geishas don't learn kouta in classrooms. Because this type of songs is so common, geishas are expected to pick it up in banquets. However, Kohoshi doesn't have the luxury of time, nor does she have the foundation of singing, so Syaoran had to use this method of teaching.
Kohoshi tried her very best to sing along, but no matter what she do, she just couldn't get her voice to resemble the traditional singing voice. (Traditional Japanese songs are different from modern singing. One characteristic which I found interesting after listening to several koutas, is how the geisha pushes her voice to be low, yet be able to create the 'screeching' and also reach the higher notes.)
After just one hour of lesson, considerably shorter than the dancing hours, Syaoran announced the end of lesson.
"Singing lessons are kept short to protect your voice. For homework, you will memorise today's song lyrics by heart by tomorrow. For dance, do the same with the fan actions. We'll touch on them again tomorrow."
"There's homework? I hardly have time to rest!" Kohoshi complained, still feeling the soreness of her arms.
"Don't complain!" Syaoran snapped. "Geishas are very self-disciplined. They never complain. Moreover, it's only 3, plenty of time before work."
Having received such warning, Kohoshi took note never to complain to him, ever!
The poor girl practiced in her room as hard as she could until Tomoyo came to dress her at 5pm.
"Time to change, Kohoshi-san." Tomoyo said when she and Chihara enter the room with the full minarai gear.
"Hei."
Tomoyo noticed the sad tone, "What's wrong? You don't look so genki (energised) today."
Kohoshi told her about her failed attempt to sing kouta.
"Why don't you roll your tongue and sing in a low voice? Many people thought that they have to 'scream' the screeching parts, but they were wrong. Just keep your tongue rolled up and your voice really low at all times and you will get the right effect."
Kohoshi tried and, thanks to Tomoyo, she succeeded!
"I don't understand, why didn't Otou-san tell me this method? Did he just want to watch me suffer?" Kohoshi asked about Syaoran's strange behaviour.
"I'm sure that wasn't the reason. I think that many teachers like him grew up hearing these koutas and just picked them up. He knows that it can be done, but didn't know how to break the method up into simple steps. It would be the same if I ask you how to talk. It would be very difficult for you to break it into small simple steps too, right?"
"You're right! I must have thought too much. By the way, do you know the geiko, Meiling-san?" Kohoshi asked, listing the other person who seems to be mean to her.
"You know her?" Tomoyo asked in surprise.
"Yeah. I met her last night. I almost got into trouble because she made me play the shamisen."
"That means that she knows you are under Otou-san Li. One advice: stay away from her as much as possible."
Kohoshi wasn't surprised by the advice, but wanted to know more about this character. "Why? She is so nice to the other geishas."
"Your Otou-san didn't tell you? Meiling-san loves him, but he doesn't return her feelings. Years ago, when he had just taken over the okiya, there were 6 geikos and 3 maikos attached to this house. But the jealous Meiling-san used her position as the top geisha to force all of them to leave the okiya. She wanted to make him give up the business and return to her, but he had other ways of making a living and could support himself and the okiya without problems. Over the years, there were one or two girls who wanted to get attached to the house, but Meiling-san spread rumours around the hanamachi. In the end, those girls left before they even became maiko."
Kohoshi gasped at the ugly truth behind that pretty face and charming conversation. That mask had fooled all the guests! If only they know how horrible the wolf under the sheepskin is!
To be continued
AN: Another chapter! After watching the movie, I thought 'Memoirs of a Geisha' was an excellent protrayer of the secret flower and willow world. But please note that it was afterall a hollywood movie. To them, profit is more important than accurate infomation, and so, one must always keep in mind that not everything in the movie is true to life. If you are really interested in geisha, I recommand the book : 'Mineko Iwasaki'. It is a wonderful book which contains all the facts one would like to know, all presented in an autobiography form. And if that is not enough to interest you, well, Mineko Iwasaki is a real geisha who provided the infomation of geisha to Authur Golden for his bestseller. Interested yet?
Please do review! My goal is for this story to have 10 reviews per chapter. Help me achieve this goal. REVIEW!